Paywall. Cliffs Notes is that the decision on sitting or playing Brandon Miller shouldn’t be left to (or blamed on) Nate Oats, but it’s entirely fair to rip the Bama prez, the university counsel and the AD for not doing the right thing. And the school (and the players with that stupid frisking routine) keep pouring gasoline on the fire.
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I didn’t open, but agree with your summary.
I can’t give Oats a pass. It’s his team, on and off the court, and if he had removed Miller from team activities indefinitely at any point, the AD and the university president would not have said “boo”. His actions suggest he is willing to ignore the very real potential for long-term damage to the Bama program and keep his best player on the floor until Bama’s season ends one way or another.
After the season is over Mitchell will go to pro ball and Oats will either start an apology tour or move on to another job. The apology tour will likely work well enough to keep Oats at Bama for another year or two, but he better keep winning big.
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To be fair, Bama didn’t know about the texts to bring the gun until last week when it came out in court. And it was not their place to do an investigation that overlapped with the police investigation of the Harris slaying. But once they found out about that…
ut athletic dept conducted their own investigation of the Beard incident & made their independent decision as Austin PD & Travis County DA were performing their own investigations.
No reason for Bama AD to not investigate a player related incident, especially when it involves a homicide - unless for the sake of convenience they chose to be ignorant of the truth & facts.
I disagree. Staying out of the police’s way is more important for a homicide than for a domestic violence incident. In Beard’s case, there were only three sources of info: Beard himself, the fiancee and the police report. The homicide has all kinds of witnesses, the text messages which have turned out to be rather important, etc.
I know I am in the minority to object to what I see as dangerous trend which has been evident in the professional sports arena that is becoming more visible in the college ranks. Growing up, the sports heroes were encouraged to promote outward images that young people would see as a role model. Yes, we know for many it was maintained or protected by public relations staffs or traveling secretaries, but it generally was not out front to tarnish an image, whether reality supported the image or not.
Not sure if it is societal change or the result of too much money, often too soon. Obviously there are other likely influences and more than likely combinations of factors and there is no one size fits all explanation. Regardless, the new look sports world may be a reflection of what the sports fan finds interesting, exciting or acceptable, but I hope not. From Ray Lewis to the image Ja Morant and others are seemingly trying to promote, it becomes scary to witness the role models too many kids are seeing. I did not find it great when these role models behavior was what I would classify as attacks on humility and sportsmanship, but apparently these minor issues are not the worst of it.
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Obviously, I like the following take by Jay Bilas on ESPN.
https://twitter.com/jimdunaway/status/1629502632380252161?s=61&t=sEaHi7LgMizh8HH1pdGWyQ
They probably did not want to do an investigation. Probably would not like what they found. Plus, it might have revealed multiple different stories that were problematic to their star.
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Agree. I believe they did their own investigative analysis and didn’t like the implications and that was the end to it. The fearful, political PA gave them a better road to take.
Touchdown!
Totally agree with Clay. Aligns with my previous question about the lack of involvement by the Bama AD. He and Bama don’t want to go “there” and incidentally discover numerous other infractions or dirt.
UA…Campus of Champions
From Oates to the President they made mistakes and judgements that they will have to live with! When they lay their head on a pillow at night to try to sleep I hope it haunts them. They will get their judgement just like each and every one of us! We need to make sure our salt shows in our walk in this life! God bless you all!
It is apparent when any college seeks legal counsel to see if a player should play it don’t pass the smell test! Especially for anything this serious.
Here is a question…Say as soon as the murder was reported and Bama knew that Miller and the point guard were at the scene. If they had suspended them for “Behavior that was a detrimental to the team”…what would that length been? 3 games? 4 games? 8 games?
I ask not because I disagree that they should have been suspended, because I do think they should have sat, but rather what length would have been “Acceptable” to the masses?
Also would that have changed once the new information came out?
How is this affecting the Tide fanbase?
I have to believe there are lots of good Bama people that are totally opposed to the shenanigans.
Haven’t seen this posted here.
Joseph Goodman: At Alabama, the calculus of shame continues to grow
Also very telling that Brandon Miller did not receive “Freshman of the Week” from the SEC after a 41 and 24 point efforts last week.
He would have won “Bad Look of the Week” if they had one…
Bama is probably one of the few places in the world that would be playing him or Bradley.
I know he wouldn’t be playing in Europe. The lack
Of leadership
And accountability at Bama is shameful at best!
At the end of the day, doubt that Oates, Alabama AD, or university president truly care much about the consequences or ethical concerns related to their decisions & lapses in judgment. It’s all about winning & $ - whether that be sports, business, or politics.
Aloha,
Thank-you for sharing. He has a good pulse of the nation on this matter. Bama values winning at all costs. Including murder.
UA…Campus of Champions
PJ, you never ever surprise me. A Bilas fan. Surprise surprise!