Administration,
coaches give players short end of stick
By Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
What
has the sports world come to? The recent
investigations into college basketball have
unearthed scandals that are shaking up the
world of college sports.
But why is it that the players have to suffer?
Especially the ones that had nothing to
do with it when it is obvious that the coaches,
staff and university athletic departments
are the ones who should be paying for their
mistakes.
Just last week Georgia University fired
then assistant coach Jim Harrick Jr. for
giving several players an ‘A’ in a physical
education class the players claim they never
took. The school then suspended Head Coach
Jim Harrick Sr. with pay and cancelled the
remainder of its season, pulling the team
out of this week’s Southeastern Conference
tournament and forgoing a NCAA tournament
bid.
The school looked into the matter after
a former player for the Bulldogs came out
last year after being kicked off the team
and said Harrick Jr had paid his telephone
bills and hotels lodgings.
This isn’t the first time the Harricks have
been in this kind of trouble. Harrick was
fired from UCLA a year after winning the
school’s last NCAA championship title for
falsifying expense reports on a dinner he
had with recruits.
I understand Georgia’s position on this
and agree with college basketball sports
broadcaster Dick Vitale who said, “I think
the NCAA should take away scholarships in
cases like this and bar coaches from recruiting
on the road. But I don’t think they should
take away the eligibility of current players
who were not involved in the illegalities.”
Exactly! Players who were not involved should
not be punished. At Fresno State, the president
of the university decided to be righteous
and barred the team from playing in the
NCAA tournament after they had finished
first in the Western Athletic Conference.
NCAA violations that had occurred when Jerry
Tarkanian was coach of the team before any
of the current players or coaches came to
the school was the justifying reason.
Why didn’t he decide to be self-righteous
when he hired Tarkanian? Fresno State banned
its men’s basketball team from NCAA tournament
this season after school officials confirmed
allegations of academic fraud under Tarkanian.
A former team statistician said he had written
papers for players on the team in exchange
for money during the 1999-2000 season. In
other words, the players on the team now,
who had nothing to do with the incident,
are being punished for something that happened
three years ago.
Why didn’t the university president resign
like the Saint Bonaventure one did? Because
he wasn’t forced to and President Robert
Wickenheiser of St. Bonaventure University
was. The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball
team had to forfeit six games in the Atlantic
10 conference and was barred from the conference
because one of their transfer players never
earned his junior college degree. He only
had a welding certificate.
The team players responded by quitting and
refusing to play the teams final two games.
I say AMEN. It’s about time students’ stand
up for themselves and their rights. These
schools make money off them from TV appearances
and conference play.
If the conference wanted to make an example
out of them and punish them for something
as ridiculous as not earning a junior college
degree, then they should quit and keep their
dignity. How silly is that? Since when do
you need a junior college degree to go to
a university?
I never earned my junior college degree
before I transferred to Cal State Long Beach.
Is the journalism department going to kick
me out and not run my columns in the On-line
Forty-Niner because of that? I know a certain
number of people, feminists mostly, that
would be happy if that happened.
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