re: No phones for baseball players

My read on it is that Johnson is pissed about the losing and he's even more pissed the players don't seem as upset about it as he thinks they should be. I don't think it is a "punishment" akin to taking the phone away from a petulant teenager. It's more in the form of "you guys don't have a cell phone to distract you from focusing 100% on doing what is necessary to get better. So there is no reason you aren't out there putting in the work to do so".

No cell phones also forces the players to interact with one another, which obviously can lead to becoming a closer and more accountable team. At the risk of starting an exhausting and fruitlessly unnecessary argument, during the McNeese v. Gonzaga basketball game the announcers, when discussing McNeese's remarkable turnaround, told the story about how Wade takes away the players' cell phones during team meals and extracurricular events. Thus, forcing the players interact with and get to better know their teammates. That was particularly important when many of the players were new to the school/team as transfers.

I think what you might have with this baseball team is veteran players who already have a championship ring so the drive for another may not be as strong. You have young players who are inexperienced and immature. You then have several transfers who are "outsiders" and don't quite feel 100% comfortable with their new school/teammates. Juxtapose that with last year's team with most of the key players being guys who had been together for 3, 4, 5 years.