- Unless you live under a rock, you've heard of the dismissal of Brandon Davies from BYU.We don't in any way think that BYU should be mocked for its belief system or honor code, nor do we think they should be praised as some sort of paragon of virtue.
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| Yep, that's a billiken |
- A bit more reaction to winning the A10 title. In this article there is a bit of postgame but also some thoughts from Coach Mack on maintaining focus.
- St. Louis is planning a "Billiken Blizzard" for Saturday's game. What exactly a Billiken is or what they have to do with blizzards is not fully explained in the link.
- Stacy Decker has a nice writeup on the seniors and what they have meant to this team. Dante finished 32-0 at home in conference play. That's incredible.
- Some news of note from ESPN. Memphis is all but out of the tournament. Long regarded as the premier "mid-major" in the nation, the Tigers are in a complete free fall. I guess it gets harder when you follow the rules.
- In some more ESPN-gleaned news, the Duquesne Dukes are one of ESPN's choices to potentially steal a bid. Anyone who has been watching the A10 recently knows how absurd that claim is. Watch Wichita State and VCU for teams that could win their tournaments and shrink the bubble.
- Bracketology, as of today. Xavier is a six seed and looking at St. Mary's in the first round. A great deal will change in the next 13 days though.
- Some other projected seeds for the Musketeers include an eight seed from Bracketography, a six seed from Fox Sports, a five from Yahoo, a five from Sports Illustrated, a seven from the Sporting News, and a five from SBN to round things out.
To the Distinguished Author,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts and comments regarding the topics of the day. While your passion for Xavier basketball might be contagious to some, I only have the capacity to cheer for one Cincinnati sports team that never wins it all. Although, we do make post-season history, albeit for all the wrong reasons.
That being said, if you have the time, I would appreciate you expanding on your paragraph regarding BYU's dismissal of Davies. Specifically, two comments that you made.
1)"This is nothing more than a publicity stunt masquerading as morals."
2) "It's not about values, it's about money."
I have some questions and thoughts that I believe might go in direct contradiction to yours, but would like to hear a few more of your thoughts before I form conclusions.
Joel H.
Sure, I can expound.
ReplyDelete1. According to the latest research, about 72% of people are sexually active by the time they are 17. While that statistic may not apply to Christian or Mormon culture, Davies claimed to be neither of those. BYU's dismissal of players seems to coincide with national attention (ie. the running back from last year) and not with when the action actually occurs. That's a bit suspicious to me. If this were really a rule to enforced at all times, wouldn't the dismissals take place right away? This is just me personally, but I find it extremely hard to believe that there is only one person on campus who is breaking the honor code.
2. BYU is an LDS school and gets most of its money from LDS donors, what better way to show a commitment to the honor code (which in and of itself is fine) than by making national headlines with it? Donors won't see you suspend the RA who had a cup of coffee to stay up late on duty, they'll see this.
Like I said, I don't see anything wrong with the code. I wonder, though, if it is being applied across the board. That's what I struggle to believe. I am being cynical here, and I could be wrong.
I should add the caveat that it's certainly likely I've overreacted to this. In my personal opinion, it smacks of a pompous act. I don't have any proof of that, nor do I claim to. I'm reacting based solely on personal experience with college life/athletes. Maybe BYU really is different. If so, I commend them for that. If they aren't though, if this is just a convenient time for them to cash in on national attention, then what they did is reprehensible.
ReplyDelete