I'm heading out to the golf course shortly, but I wanted to get a quick news post up. I'll be back later tonight with a "Kicking the Tires" to get us ready for Mizzou this weekend.
By now we've probably all heard that associate head coach Dalonte Hill was arrested Wednesday night/Thursday morning on suspicion of driving under the influence. It's disappointing that Hill didn't make better decisions that night, not to mention that something like this had to put a damper on the victory a few hours earlier. But if legal education has taught me anything, it's that you need to be patient with DUI cases. As the story notes, the prosecutor in Pott County hasn't even decided whether to file charges or not. An earlier story indicated some question as to whether Hill was given a breathalyzer or not. Let's wait and see what happens with the legal process. Meanwhile, Hill has been suspended for this weekend's game against Missouri.
Interesting piece this morning from the Star's Jason Whitlock. I say interesting because I consider myself a pretty good reader, and for the life of me I can't figure out what his point was. His first point is that it's too soon to judge Frank Martin's success. I certainly felt the earth rumble under my feet as he broke that news to me.
After that he moves on to try and make some point about how the NCAA is bad for student athletes because...well, because adults don't look out for the kids' best interests. On one point, I agree with him. Student-athletes are given the opportunity via full scholarship to get an education they may not have been able to afford otherwise, but then are often steered into the easiest classes so as not to interfere with their eligibility. I'm not saying that happens across the board, but it's far from rare.
But I'm not picking up on his assertion that President Jon Wefald and Athletic Director Tim Weiser are somehow projecting a holier-than-thou attitude in this situation. Whitlock appears to be extremely upset that we didn't go the "traditional" route in choosing a coach, becuase we picked an assistant with no prior head coaching experience in order to keep a few really, really good recruits. I guess I fail to see what's so awful about taking that chance.
Finally, I am going to be very interested to hear where Whitlock heard that Michael Beasley is "tooling around campus in a Hummer." Not only did he hear that, he apparently heard it enough to mention it twice in this article, implying there's something disingenuous about the Star's story earlier this week about Beasley's mom, Fatima Smith, and her financial struggles. I also find it interesting that a major media outlet, Sports Illustrated, reported that last fall Beasley was driving a black 2003 Chevy Tahoe. If any of you who live in Manhattan have seen Beasley driving around in a Hummer, or on the other hand if you have seen him driving his Tahoe, please email me at bringonthecats@gmail.com to either confirm or deny Whitlock's report.
I wish I had a unifying point to make about Whitlock's article, but it's hard to do that when you're analyzing a bunch of spaghetti thrown against the wall.
I've really done a terrible job keeping up with the women's basketball team this year, but they just ran their Big 12 record to 7-0 with a win at Nebraska. That sets up a big Saturday showdown with Baylor, who is also 7-0 in the league. Get out to Bramlage this Saturday and give the women the same home-court advantage the men had on Wednesday.
That's all I have for now. Have a great day and check back later for Kicking the Tires.