I'm trying to understand how apologizing could be a bad thing.

It’s easy to manufacture words.

 

It’s not easy to manufacture emotions.

 

Which is why what Yancy Gates did on Monday is so much more meaningful than what he said. The Cincinnati senior wept openly, holding his head in his hands, as he tried to apologize for his actions during the Bearcats’ brawl against Xavier on Saturday.

 

It does not erase the other image, the searing image of Gates punching Kenny Frease and then desperately trying to find someone, anyone else, to unload on.

 

“People have been saying I’m a thug or a gangster,’’ Gates said before trailing off and wiping his eyes.

 

And in a 48-hour span when so few have done anything right, give credit to university officials for this: They did not allow their athletes to hide behind statements. They made them apologize on camera and then face the hard music, fielding questions from the assembled media.

 

We have been given enough paper apologies in the last few months to fell a forest. From Penn State to Syracuse, from politicians to university presidents, this has been a good season for statement writers.

 

They are easy to write and easier still to hide behind, paper apologies that are clearly contrived, rarely contrite and typically followed by the "We won’t talk about that," evasion when the culpable is again put in front of the media.

 

At least Mick Cronin, who insisted on Saturday that this was more than basketball and his job is about more than winning games, has something to back up his words. He reasserted that the final length of the suspensions will be up to him, saying, "In my locker room, nobody will take the floor again if they don’t understand it’s a privilege."

 

More, the man who said it was his job to turn his players into men actually made his players act like men.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/41840/give-uc-credit-for-forcing-players-to-man-up

 

Curious if they could have been tears of joy; reflecting the fact he wasn't thrown off the team for his senior season, or sitting in Cincinnati jail awaiting a hearing on assault charges??

Not a whole lot of precedent out there to go by. They found what they felt was the precedent along with opinions from others and went over it...

 

So they went to the commissioner for help. Seems smart.

 

Tell me again why X got blasted for going to the commish for guidance?

So they went to the commissioner for help. Seems smart.

 

Tell me again why X got blasted for going to the commish for guidance?

 

They went to people across the country for opinions. I'm told the Britney Griner incident was one they looked at where she fractured an opponents orbital bone unprovoked with a punch. The punishment? 2 games.

 

X strongly implied they were going to leave the punishment up to the A10. What did the conference hand down when Freese headbutted Gates on camera their freshman year? Or when Holloway swung on Thomas last year? Both were caught on camera. Both are still awaiting their suspensions as far as I can tell...

I think the players are sorry. But there comes a time in Life that apologies can't fix things. This is one time that guys from both schools can't apologize enough to fix Saturday. I have spent the last 3-4 days really thinking about this. IMO only two kids deserve a full season. The young man that did the stomping of the player and the Kid from UX than ran off at the mouth after the game in the press conference.

 

UX I can't believe they even allowed their kids to attend the press conference after the game.

 

Just so I understand the stomp deserves a full season and some trash talking? But not a sucker punch that injured someone? Please explain? IMO its not my call to determine how long but of the offenses listed the punch was the worst of the 3.

Any comment regarding the officials from the game from whatever league they were from? The players are ultimately responsible for their actions but as Cronin has pointed out if Ts had been given out to both teams earlier it might not have happened.

Any comment regarding the officials from the game from whatever league they were from? The players are ultimately responsible for their actions but as Cronin has pointed out if Ts had been given out to both teams earlier it might not have happened.

 

One is a 14 year Big East vet but had never worked the Shootout before. The other two primarily work the Patriot League and MEAC respectively. Mick said it was the first time he could ever remember having a crew that did not have any experience working the game between them. They played a huge role in letting things escalate to what eventually happened by allowing the trash talk to go unchecked. That takes nothing away from the responsibility on both sides for what happened, but they are there to keep order and they did a poor job IMO...

One is a 14 year Big East vet but had never worked the Shootout before. The other two primarily work the Patriot League and MEAC respectively. Mick said it was the first time he could ever remember having a crew that did not have any experience working the game between them. They played a huge role in letting things escalate to what eventually happened by allowing the trash talk to go unchecked. That takes nothing away from the responsibility on both sides for what happened, but they are there to keep order and they did a poor job IMO...

 

Definately agree with this. The game was a blowout. It would not have affected the game at all to have thrown out a couple of Ts to stop the talking. It probably would have prompted both coaches to empty their benches earlier for fear of one of their starters picking up a 2nd T. They should all be suspended at least a game or two as well.

Definately agree with this. The game was a blowout. It would not have affected the game at all to have thrown out a couple of Ts to stop the talking. It probably would have prompted both coaches to empty their benches earlier for fear of one of their starters picking up a 2nd T. They should all be suspended at least a game or two as well.

 

A10 assigned them and said no discipline would be handed down after reviewing the tape...

GT - refresh my memory on why Yancy got in trouble last season. I thought it was effort but someone today told me he got into an altercation with a coach.

GT - refresh my memory on why Yancy got in trouble last season. I thought it was effort but someone today told me he got into an altercation with a coach.

 

He got in to an argument with big man coach George Jackson in practice the day before the game he was suspended. Mick kicked him out of practice for raising his voice at a coach and he was not allowed to travel with them team to Pitt...

A10 assigned them and said no discipline would be handed down after reviewing the tape...

 

A 10 may not discipline them but see if the NCAA comes calling in March for them, doubt it. They failed to do their job, period.

While I do agree with Cronin's sentiment that the refs let the game get out of control, I do want to poise a question.

 

If Cronin knew the game was out of control, and the refs were not doing anything to control it, why were his top players still in the game in the final minutes? In a blowout, I've always been taught that the winning team keeps there starting players in the game until the losing team removes theirs. Shouldn't Cronin have removed players like Gates and others when his team was down 20+ with under two minutes to go? Just me, but it is easy to say the refs didn't take control, but Mick could have as well.

 

With that being said, I also don't buy the excuse that the game got out of control because the refs didn't have experience with the shootout. In my opinion that shouldn't matter one bit. You could probably feel the tension throughout the game, and especially after the jawing at halftime. Shouldn't matter whether they've reffed it before or not.

Here's the only thing that doesn't look good.

 

At the press conference after the game he says he's going to decide who will continue to wear a UC uniform and they don't hand out a suspension of more than 6 games. It makes it seem like he didn't mean what he said.

 

Not saying I think anyone should be done for the year but you can't go to one extreme then come up that short.

 

He didn't say he was going to kick anyone off the team. He simply implied that that was an option or a possibility. He also said nobody was going to suit up again unless they understood that it was a privelege to play for Cincinnati. To me, that implied some interaction with the players in determining their attitude and mindset in light of what happened as part of the process of determining the punishments. I don't know what the discussions were like between Cronin and his players.

 

I believe Doug Gottlieb, in his infinite wisdom, created some of this when he immediately said Gates would be suspended a minimum of 10 games. So, from the word go, everyone was using that as the minimum suspension because Gottlieb said it. Where did he come up with that number? What was the basis for it?

 

Six games is over a quarter of the remaining schedule for Cincy and roughly 20% of the entire season. I don't see that as being unreasonable. I don't have a problem with it, nor do I have a problem with anything Cronin has said or done during this fiasco. I feel like he's handled it well.

Deters says there will not be charges. Says Gates apologized to Frease.