5 Things

1. Baylor University has no code, no honor and has now officially exposed how they operate in the realm of college athletics. Winning matters more than anything else. Their handling of Brittney Griner’s criminal act in Lubbock has cost them any credibility they have moving forward. To say the things Kim Mulkey said Wednesday night about taking it seriously and then giving Griner only one game is a joke and should be viewed that way by fans and media alike. Anything they say and do will ring hollow with me from now on.

2. The Big 12 Conference and commissioner Dan Beebe also have no honor or code today. To blithely go along with the one-game suspension and even praise it is the utmost in abdication of responsibility. This of course is nothing new for the Big 12 “leadership”.  The next time there is an instance of violence on the court in the Big 12 you can lay the accountability right at the feet of Beebe and his office. They seem to care more that the 6’8″ super-freshman makes headlines in the NCAA Tournament and generate money and exposure for the league than they do about fair-play. The Big 12 can now quit running those TV PSA’s about sportsmanship during the games by the way. They are meaningless.

3.  I have many folks that I consider to be good people and good friends that surround the Baylor women’s basketball program. I hate for them that they get lumped in with this sad chapter. They are better people than those making the decisions.

4.  It is a shame Kim Mulkey didn’t learn much from Marsha Sharp’s suspension of Lady Raider Plenette Pierson for a full year in 2001-2002 for doing much less than punching another player. Mulkey says that you shouldn’t define Griner by one act, but it is Griner that is defining who she is right now by her actions and Mulkey, Baylor and the Big 12 are affirming to Griner that it really isn’t a big deal. Sharp on the other hand sent a message to Pierson that Pierson accepted and grew from. Pierson would not have had a WNBA career or a trip the next year to the Elite Eight if Sharp had blindly allowed her to continue to self-destruct and destroy a team.

Mulkey on the other hand will enable Griner to continue down a path that won’t serve her or Baylor women’s basketball well in the near future. I am beginning to think that Griner will be the first two-and-done player in the Big 12 and will seek her employment in the WNBA after another tumultuous season next year. Heck even Kristy Curry, a coach with a job on the line, sat down sophomore Kierra Mallard for five games for having a bad attitude in a year where Curry really needed her. Curry wasn’t willing to compromise her values though to win. . .

5.  Since Baylor and the Big 12 have abdicated their responsibility to police the game it is now up to others to do it. I call upon Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell to bring misdemeanor assault charges against Baylor’s Brittney Griner. Powell is charged with doing the right thing for the right reasons and this is a clear-cut case of a criminal act taking place in front of thousands of witnesses with video evidence, and resulting bodily harm.  If the league can’t take care of this it is the moral responsibility of the District Attorney to do. After that Griner can face a jury of her peers and perhaps learn from that that her actions weren’t just wrong but criminal as well.

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“There’s no place for that in sports,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. “I will deal with Brittney Griner and it won’t be discussed in the media. Not me or [Tech coach] Kristy [Curry] or any player will be proud of what took place on the court tonight.”

-Baylor Coach Kim Mulkey

Mulkey is right.

There is no place in basketball or in life for sucker-punching another person. If you weren’t at the Texas Tech Lady Raider game last night against Baylor or you haven’t seen the video of Baylor’s Brittney Griner punching Tech’s Jordan Barncastle in the face then do so. Here’s some light reading for you.
Avalanche-Journal
A-J’s Column
ESPN

I’ve got to be consistent here and demand that the Lubbock County District Attorney’s office look into filing assault charges on Griner. I’ve said for years that athletes should face the same consequences as the guy at the bar if they cross the line of “acceptable risk” in a sporting event. For far too long we’ve excused criminal behavior in the name of sports. Why?

If you can’t do it to another person over a highly competitive game of shuffleboard at The Fox and Hound, why can Griner do it in front of police and others at The United Spirit Arena? It makes no sense and it is time this stupidity in our culture came to an end.

Just like Oregon’s LaGarrette Blount after the Boise State game in football received an initial season long suspension Baylor should do the right thing and sit down Griner for the rest of her freshman year. If they don’t I think we’ll continue to see this be a problem for her and the Bears both on and off the court for years to come.

If Griner can’t learn to handle her emotions now she’ll never serve Baylor or herself well in the future. I have a lot of respect for Kim Mulkey as a coach and I’m quit sure she’ll do the right thing. I wonder if the Big 12 Conference would have the guts to do anything beyond a one game suspension though. . . They hit OU’s Longar Longar a few years back with a two-gamer for a flagrant foul. What does a sucker-punch get you now in this league? We’ll find out.

Coming up later today on The Williams and Hyatt Show we’ll visit with legal experts about the chances of charges being filed against Griner and why or why not athletes get special protection. We may or may not visit with a representative of Lubbock’s D. A. office. That’s developing. See you at 3 on The Fan.

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