BleedGopher
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per Depue:
There’s no way to sugarcoat it. This week has been a horrendous one for the Gophers men’s basketball program. On Friday, starting center Reggie Lynch was suspended indefinitely from playing in games—he’s still allowed to practice–after a university investigation found him ‘responsible’ in a sexual misconduct incident. On Saturday, prior to the Gophers’ loss to Indiana, the team announced star guard Amir Coffey suffered a shoulder injury against Illinois, and there’s no timetable for his return.
The Lynch news is particularly troublesome, and obviously goes beyond basketball. The loss of Lynch on the court is large, but to breakdown the impact there seems premature and insensitive, so I’m not going to do that. The allegations leveled against him are serious, and I’d be surprised if he takes the floor again in a Gophers uniform.
I’ve been a big fan of the job Richard Pitino’s done in his five years at the U. After stripping down the program to get his own guys in, he coached the team to a top 4 Big Ten finish and NCAA tournament berth last year, winning Big Ten Coach of the Year in the process. It’s also true, though, that there’s been a lot of turmoil during his tenure. Before we dive further into that, let’s look at what we know:
1) Daquein McNeil was arrested for domestic assault and kicked off the team in 2014.
2) Transfer Zach Lofton, who never played a game for the Gophers, was dismissed for “failing to meet expectations and obligations of the team.”
3) Guard Carlos Morris was dismissed for “conduct detrimental to the team” near the end of the 2015-16 season, after reportedly getting into a verbal altercation with Pitino.
4) Guards Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer, and former guard Kevin Dorsey, were suspended for the remainder of the 2015-16 season after a sex video was posted to Dorsey’s Twitter account in February 2016.
5) Reggie Lynch’s suspension.
You can look at this in two ways, I suppose. The first is that Pitino has been proactive in disciplining players who get into trouble. You could make an argument that those who haven’t lived up to stated expectations have been dealt with swiftly by Pitino and the athletic department, although in the case of Lynch that’s pretty debatable. The second is that Pitino has brought in a number of players who have gotten into trouble, and as the head coach he shoulders responsibility for a program that hasn’t been able to steer clear of controversy. It’s complicated and difficult, and up to each person who follows the program to reach his or her own conclusions.
My only other thought, as it pertains to the current situation, is that Athletic Director Mark Coyle’s press conference on Friday left a lot to be desired. Coyle is bound by student privacy laws that prevented him from addressing the Lynch situation directly, so he can’t be faulted for that. What he easily could have done, though, is make an opening statement that the U takes allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment seriously and has zero tolerance for such behavior. One would think, given the sheer number of such incidents that have occurred at all levels of the athletic department over the past few years, such a statement would have been a given. Instead, Coyle gave no statement, and waited until pressed by reporters to even announce Lynch’s status. In my view, Coyle seemed unprepared and overwhelmed, which is odd given that Lynch had been under investigation since October, and thus the possibility of a suspension was there for months.
http://www.1500espn.com/gophers-2/2018/01/gophers-notebook-disastrous-week-minnesota/
Go Gophers!!
There’s no way to sugarcoat it. This week has been a horrendous one for the Gophers men’s basketball program. On Friday, starting center Reggie Lynch was suspended indefinitely from playing in games—he’s still allowed to practice–after a university investigation found him ‘responsible’ in a sexual misconduct incident. On Saturday, prior to the Gophers’ loss to Indiana, the team announced star guard Amir Coffey suffered a shoulder injury against Illinois, and there’s no timetable for his return.
The Lynch news is particularly troublesome, and obviously goes beyond basketball. The loss of Lynch on the court is large, but to breakdown the impact there seems premature and insensitive, so I’m not going to do that. The allegations leveled against him are serious, and I’d be surprised if he takes the floor again in a Gophers uniform.
I’ve been a big fan of the job Richard Pitino’s done in his five years at the U. After stripping down the program to get his own guys in, he coached the team to a top 4 Big Ten finish and NCAA tournament berth last year, winning Big Ten Coach of the Year in the process. It’s also true, though, that there’s been a lot of turmoil during his tenure. Before we dive further into that, let’s look at what we know:
1) Daquein McNeil was arrested for domestic assault and kicked off the team in 2014.
2) Transfer Zach Lofton, who never played a game for the Gophers, was dismissed for “failing to meet expectations and obligations of the team.”
3) Guard Carlos Morris was dismissed for “conduct detrimental to the team” near the end of the 2015-16 season, after reportedly getting into a verbal altercation with Pitino.
4) Guards Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer, and former guard Kevin Dorsey, were suspended for the remainder of the 2015-16 season after a sex video was posted to Dorsey’s Twitter account in February 2016.
5) Reggie Lynch’s suspension.
You can look at this in two ways, I suppose. The first is that Pitino has been proactive in disciplining players who get into trouble. You could make an argument that those who haven’t lived up to stated expectations have been dealt with swiftly by Pitino and the athletic department, although in the case of Lynch that’s pretty debatable. The second is that Pitino has brought in a number of players who have gotten into trouble, and as the head coach he shoulders responsibility for a program that hasn’t been able to steer clear of controversy. It’s complicated and difficult, and up to each person who follows the program to reach his or her own conclusions.
My only other thought, as it pertains to the current situation, is that Athletic Director Mark Coyle’s press conference on Friday left a lot to be desired. Coyle is bound by student privacy laws that prevented him from addressing the Lynch situation directly, so he can’t be faulted for that. What he easily could have done, though, is make an opening statement that the U takes allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment seriously and has zero tolerance for such behavior. One would think, given the sheer number of such incidents that have occurred at all levels of the athletic department over the past few years, such a statement would have been a given. Instead, Coyle gave no statement, and waited until pressed by reporters to even announce Lynch’s status. In my view, Coyle seemed unprepared and overwhelmed, which is odd given that Lynch had been under investigation since October, and thus the possibility of a suspension was there for months.
http://www.1500espn.com/gophers-2/2018/01/gophers-notebook-disastrous-week-minnesota/
Go Gophers!!
