College Basketball Has Good Character
By now, we all know about what Don Imus said about members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team and the end result. I was hoping CBS would fire him as soon as I heard about what he said on the air, and his insincere “apologies” just added to that. As someone who covers college basketball and gets to know players along the way, I was probably even more disgusted by what he said than if I didn’t do this. His comments are bad enough on their own, but when I know better first-hand, it just adds to the feeling I had about what he said.
While some have said that the Rutgers team was “overreacting” when they spoke of the effect this has had on them, let’s look at this more closely. Imus’ comments came after they lost a national championship game – and anyone who has lost a championship game in a sport, as I have before, knows that for a little while right afterwards, it really stings – and it’s not that the comments themselves have been the only part of this. Since this happened, they have been besieged by media requests to talk about this, with news crews and cameras on campus constantly. It even got to the point that athletic director Robert Mulcahy III, in a statement about the comments made by Imus, made a request to stop contacting the players without going through the media relations office. They haven’t been able to live a normal life because of this, and that’s without even mentioning that although they have received supportive e-mails, they have also received a handful of death threats.
Predictably, there have been defenders of Imus all along, and as far as I’m concerned they all miss the boat. The point of this column is not to get into that on a deep level, for the simple fact that the focus is college basketball, even though social commentary is a natural extension of it. Many fine writers in the national media have already shown the shortcomings of the excuses put forth. As such, I will briefly address just one of them.
There are many who want to defend Imus by trying to make this discussion about the frequent use of one of Imus’ words by rappers – a rather interesting connection since hip-hop has become quite connected with sports in recent years, most notably basketball. Quite simply, they need to realize that two wrongs don’t make a right. If anyone really wants to see rappers held accountable for their words like Imus has been for his, there is one sure way to do it: get people to stop buying their CDs, selling out their concerts and buying their memorabilia. I even have a helpful hint for anyone who is interested in starting such a movement: don’t focus solely on African-Americans, because they don’t purchase the majority of rap records. In fact, why not get them to spend their hard-earned money on college basketball tickets and/or memorabilia instead? That would be an excellent choice in my book.
While Imus targeted a women’s basketball team with his remarks, he could just as easily have said a similar thing about a men’s basketball team. It’s not hard to imagine him saying something similar about Ohio State a day earlier after they had lost to Florida the night before. Let’s be frank: many people already have their own ideas about basketball players, especially considering that more than half of Division I players are of African descent (whether from the U.S. or not). What Imus said about the Rutgers women are thoughts many privately have and may even voice among friends, but they don’t have a chance to voice on a show that airs nationally on the radio.
Had Imus made a similar comment about a group of men’s players, it would be the same thing. There are plenty of people who see basketball players today as thugs, oversexed, selfish, uneducated and caring nothing about school, and having false dreams of making it in the NBA. It doesn’t help that reports of young men who don’t care about school and either flunk out or barely stay eligible make the news a lot more than those who take care of business in the classroom and put themselves in a position to lead a good life when they are finished playing basketball. Additionally, at the high school level, the grassroots basketball scene has been much-maligned in recent years, and unfairly so in a number of cases. The recent stories of diploma mills don’t help matters, although those cases are a small minority. The college game is hurt because today’s high school stars are tomorrow’s college stars, and they come into college with a strike against them in the minds of some.
Let’s also be honest: racism hasn’t died in America, and the fact that the majority of Division I players are African-American is one more reason behind some people holding these ideas. Basketball is even perceived by some to be a “black” sport. (I still remember being quite taken aback the first time I heard that during my senior year of college, as a fellow student said that basketball is a “black” sport quite matter-of-factly.) For a good example of the subtle influence of race in perceptions of the sport, consider that there is far more fighting in hockey, a sport where some fans even think fighting is part of the game, yet fans and members of the media aren’t lining up to talk about how “thuggery” is rampant and problematic in hockey like they are in basketball every time there is a brawl. Indeed, Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer certainly knew of what she spoke when she said that Imus’ remarks were “indicative of a greater ill in our culture”.
The reality is that college basketball is full of good young men. A couple of years ago, I remember having a conversation with retired Vermont coach Tom Brennan and asking him about his sense of the college game as he was about to exit. One of the first things he said in his response stands out, when he noted that there are many players who emerged out of obscurity to become stars or just good players. Related to that, there are many who have made it through some very trying times in life to succeed, even if that success is just getting a college degree. And even some of the best players that didn’t have that adversity or were never really in obscurity are stories in themselves.
Basketball is a big business, and unfortunately many people outside the sport only get to see the sport and the business. With the college game, they see players on the court that they know will be there for four years at most. They don’t see what else is going on in the player’s life, even though it influences what is happening on the court and is sometimes very noteworthy. Nothing in life happens in a vacuum, so it’s only natural that a player’s performance may be influenced by things like a family situation or struggles off the court in some area of life. Do you perform flawlessly at your job when something isn’t quite right away from it? Do you have an extra spring in your step at the office when things are going especially well away from the job? Well, athletes are human beings, too, and they’re affected by things in their lives off the playing field. Sometimes we get so caught up in looking at the competitive aspects of the games and trying to dissect why a team won or lost on a given night that we forget this.
That’s why it’s such a pleasure to tell the stories of many of these young men and their teams. A little sampling of ones we have learned about just from this past season:
- Holy Cross head coach Ralph Willard can’t stop raving about seniors Keith Simmons and Torey Thomas, the latter of whom started a non-profit organization during his college career and has a mile-long list of co-curricular activities he was involved in besides basketball.
- Basically no one knew about Jared Dudley until he was a star at Boston College. Several people in the BC program have experienced fascinating conversations with Dudley about more topics than just basketball and describe him as a unique young man.
- Northeastern senior Bennet Davis seemed an unlikely candidate to be a vocal leader for his team, as he’s a nice but quiet young man. But Davis, who also has some baseball in his past, teamed with classmates Bobby Kelly and Adrian Martinez to be important players and leaders as Northeastern surprised everyone with a fifth place finish in the CAA.
- Southern Illinois senior Jamaal Tatum was not only the Missouri Valley Player of the Year but also an Academic All-American. That shouldn’t surprise anyone since both of his parents work in the field of education.
- Creighton senior Anthony Tolliver is a story for more than his exploits on the court. Another excellent student who has flourished in two demanding majors, he’s charismatic and thoughtful and has the makings of a leader.
- Oral Roberts seniors Caleb Green and Ken Tutt had tremendous success on the court, but also developed a great friendship right away nearly four years ago.
And that’s only a small sample, just from this season. Go back a season or two and there are plenty of other examples. Among those covered here, they range from Troy Bell and Jave Meade to Ryan Gomes and Dawan Robinson. There are many more that have had their stories told in various outlets all across the country.
One thing that has really stood out in doing stories on winning teams, as happens often in the month of March, is that the teams that win have good young men. It makes sense: if you have a team of bad kids, the chemistry will be problematic, the dissension will eat away at the players and staff, and the toxic environment won’t be conducive to winning. The players won’t have much energy in practice or games because they won’t feel like being there. There would be a lack of fan support because no one would want to get behind a team like that.
Now we try to move on from the sad saga of Don Imus’ comments and hope that the response to it is a catalyst for positive change. In the context of what we do at Hoopville, my hope is that readers, fans and casual observers all come to see that college basketball has plenty of fine young men and women that don’t deserve to be maligned and certainly not on the basis of race. Getting to know these young men (as our women’s coverage is very limited) and their stories is one of the real privileges of the job.
While negative stories make the news a good deal – and there are certainly negative elements in and around the game – there are plenty of positive ones that unfortunately don’t make the news. In every facet of life, we have to take the good with the bad, and college basketball is no different. Fortunately, the good outweighs the bad when it comes to the character of the young men who play this game. Even Don Imus can’t change that.
