BALTIMORE — Ron “Fang” Mitchell dealt in pressure, not affection.
Mitchell injected adversity — 5:30 a.m. practices, sideline rebukes delivered with a spray of the peppermints he chewed — into the lives of his Coppin State basketball players. He brooked no excuses when they failed to meet his exacting standards. If they could survive him, he believed, adulthood would not seem so daunting.
Near the end of a new ESPN documentary “On & Coppin,” Mitchell, retired since 2014, says: “Through all this, you guys really didn’t know how much I loved you.”
