College Basketball Stories: Alabama & New Mexico State Men’s Programs
In the weeks leading up to the NCAA tournament and conference tournaments, there have been several stories in college basketball not necessarily associated with on-court activity. These stories include Texas Tech men’s head coach being suspended for racially insensitive comments made towards a player, Minnesota women’s head coach Lindsay Whalen (a former WNBA star herself) abruptly announcing her resignation after 5 underwhelming seasons, Iowa State announcing that senior guard Caleb Grill was booted from the men’s team prior to the Big 12 tournament, Illinois men’s player Matthew Mayer missing some time due to over-caffeination, a Quinnipiac University athletics Twitter account tweeting an offensive image prior to a men’s basketball game, and Rutgers-Northwestern men’s game being briefly delayed due to a speaker catching fire above the scoreboard. That said, there are two stories that I would like to focus on in this post: situations surrounding Alabama and New Mexico State men’s basketball programs.
Alabama Men’s Basketball:
A Murder and the Brandon Miller Situation
On January 15th, Michael Davis and former Alabama
men’s reserve guard Darius Miles was arrested for murder stemming from the
shooting and death of 23-year-old Jamea Hill, where Miles provided his gun to
Davis; Miles was removed from the team as a result. On February 21st, it was revealed
through testimony that Alabama men’s star freshman and one of the expected top picks
in the 2023 NBA Draft Brandon Miller had brought Miles’ gun to the club where
the shooting occurred. While the chief
deputy stated Miller would not be charged and had done nothing that would be
charged, several questions emerged regarding his role in the shooting. In particular, questions have risen about
whether he knew about the event, especially after allegations that his car was
blocking an exit for the victim to escape (it should be noted his attorneys
have stated that he had no knowledge of the shooting at that time). Additionally, criticism has been levied about
Alabama’s reaction to the situation, as there have been points that include
outright denial of responsibility (with Nate Oates implying he wasn’t
responsible for the team’s actions off the court), ignorance (with the players
doing a pregame routine that looked like it could have involved pretending to
use guns, something the team and Oates has denied), and a reluctant decision to
change (with Oates initially defending the players for the pregame ritual
before backtracking and saying it won’t happen anymore). Since the public announcement of Miller’s
involvement, he has faced no suspension or publicly known punishment, which
brings up the question of what should happen in this situation.
Even before discussing what should happen to Miller, I think
it is worth offering condolences to the victim and their family. It is a tragedy that someone so young had to
lose their life so young, and it is something that appears to be lost in the
questions about how this impacts Miller and the team. Beyond that, I would like to clarify that I
do not know what the right thing to do in this situation. If Miller is punished, a counterargument is
that he wasn’t (and likely won’t be) charged with anything, so there’s a case
to be made that he didn’t break any laws and potentially didn’t violate team
rules either. If he is not punished,
there is the backlash that has occurred:
there is the viewpoint that the team and university view actions that
resulted in a murder as acceptable, as well as questions about the sort of
culture that the team has if these sorts of situations won’t be punished for a
star player. On top of that, I don’t
know all the details of this situation, so I don’t feel comfortable necessarily
saying one is definitely the right approach when there is information for a situation
that I consider sensitive that I just don’t know. Ultimately, in the event that he broke no
laws, had no knowledge of the shooting, and did not actively impact the
shooting in any way, I would lean on suggesting at least a short suspension with
the mindset that this is in violation of team policies. If he did have a more active role, then the
punishment would have to be more severe.
That said, I think the university has shown its cards with how they
handle different players.
I believe that the main reason Brandon Miller was not
suspended is because the team is good this year. Alabama’s men’s team has been consistently one
of the top-4 teams in the nation and could end up with a 1 seed in the NCAA
tournament. Miller has been a major part
in this, as he is likely their best player.
While we can never know this, I truly believe that if Miles had been the
player in the situation that Miller was that he would have faced a lengthy
suspension, if not removed from the team.
I believe this situation shows what college men’s athletics when a major
team is successful at a popular sport.
The two things that mean the most are money and winning (two factors
that often intersect). Not suspending
Miller shows a couple things. First, other
potential top recruits might be more inclined to attend if they have some
off-court issues since they see that another star player faced no repercussions
from the university. Second, it shows
that Alabama men’s basketball, athletics, and the university itself are no different
than other schools that have dealt with controversy if it meant that they could
win.
New Mexico State Men’s Basketball: A Rocky Year Ending with Suspending the
Season
Coming off a season where New Mexico State men’s team upset
UConn in the first round of the tournament, this season was marred by two off-court
situations. The first involved a shooting
that involved former player Mike Peake that resulted in a murder. He reportedly was cornered by 3 individuals
and then shot at, in which he shot back and one of the shooters was
killed. The other two shooters have been
arrested and Peake has not faced any charges, though he is being
investigated. There were also some
reports that some of Peake’s teammates removed evidence from the scene. The university also launched an investigation
regarding this. The second involved
hazing allegations that resulted in the season being suspended.
On February 10th, New Mexico State University
announced that the men’s basketball team would be suspended and that the
coaching staff would be placed on administrative leave. It was later reported that there were multiple
instances of hazing involving multiple members on the team, which was the cause
of the suspension. On February 13th,
the university announced the remaining men’s games would be cancelled, and head
coach Greg Heiar was fired the following day.
The university has announced another investigation regarding this
situation and that there is no time frame regarding either investigation.
I personally would like to focus on the hazing controversy
which resulted in the season being suspended.
While hazing has historically been viewed as standard and commonplace at
universities in particular, there has been a trend in recent years to cut down on
it, which I think is amazing and the right ideal. I have two examples in mind to set baselines
regarding this based on my time at my alma mater, Quinnipiac University in
Hamden, Connecticut. The first is
realistically looking at any fraternity that was suspended for hazing, though
the one that comes to mind is Quinnipiac’s Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE), which was shut
down after extensive allegations of hazing.
In particular, it wasn’t much of a surprise since there were several rumors
among the student body that made it the worst kept open secret (I have heard of
a few from a friend that I consider reputable in the situation, but I will not share
these here). The second example is one
related to Quinnipiac men’s lacrosse team.
In 2018 (a year after I graduated), their head coach was fired due to hazing
allegations involving members of the team.
While I’m not sure if the team was suspended (the coach was fired out of
season and all of this happened after I was no longer at the university), it
shows precedent for what can happen with the coaching staff. While I expect some would argue that it is
unfair for the coach to be treated as a fall guy, ultimately one responsibility
of a coach is to create the proper environment.
An environment that involves significant hazing is violating this.
While I’m never sure what exactly the right solution is with
these types of situations, I believe New Mexico State made the right decision in
suspending the season and firing the coach.
I do believe that a coach who is either ignoring hazing allegations or
creating an environment where individuals do not feel comfortable reporting allegations
should not have a place at the institution.
I also think suspending the season was the right decision while the investigation
is still going on. If the season were to
continue, I fear that hazing could continue under a new coach that doesn’t have
a grasp on everything going on. I also think
it is possible that those who were hazing would view the individuals they hazed
as the reason the allegations came public, which could cause a horrible result. Ultimately, while I think suspending the team
was the right decision, I think it’s awful that individuals who were just
attending the school and playing basketball have to deal with something like that,
though I’m never shocked to hear this happen at any university even to this
day.
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