NYET GAMES

After Russia wasted a game point and lost the pivotal third game to Brazil in the bronze-medal women’s volleyball match, Coach Nikolai Karpol fiercely berated his players on the sideline, looking like a candidate for a massive coronary.

With his shock of gray hair, Karpol looks a bit like a certain Big Ten basketball coach. And the Russian women, their eyes averted or downcast, looked as if they wouldn’t need to speak a common language to understand what it feels like to be a Hoosier.

One footnote: In contrast to Bob Knight’s record, Karpol’s results did nothing to recommend his method. Brazil won the bronze, and Russia missed out on a medal. Except for the 1984 Games, which the Soviet Union boycotted, Soviet/Russian teams had won medals in every Olympics in which volleyball was played.