The last two weeks the University of Missouri's mens basketball team has come under fire due to events that transpired on the morning of January 29 at the Athena Night Club in downtown Columbia.
Stefhon Hannah, Jason Horton, Darryl Butterfield, Leo Lyons and Marshall Brown have become public enemy nos. 1-5 for Tiger fans thanks to their presence at the club past the team's curfew. The facts about what exactly happened are still unclear but it ended with Stefhon Hannah suffering a broken jaw that will likely end his college career and eventually resulted in Jason Horton being arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault after he allegedly punched a kitchen worker several times.
MU head basketball coach Mike Anderson immediately suspended the "Athena 5" indefinitely. Brown and Lyons were back in action last Saturday as the Tigers upset K-State and Horton and Butterfield returned for the game against Kansas last Monday.
In the aftermath of "Athenagate" many fans and members of the media have been quick to brand the 5 players involved as thugs and have called for their dismissal from the team. Unfortunately that is the same undeniably racist attitude that led to the disaster surrounding the Duke Lacrosse team.
I suppose there is a possibility that all 5 players do deserve to be let go, but the bottom line is we don't know because we don't have the FACTS. Here is what we know:
- All 5 players broke curfew by going to the night club.
- A fight broke out while the players were there and some of them were involved (whether by choice or by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time is still unknown).
- Jason Horton has been accused of assaulting a man.
Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident as has been well documented and the Columbia Daily Tribune recently reported that this is not even the first time that players have broken curfew and been at the "wrong place at the wrong time" since the start of the season.
The Tribune reported that Hannah and Horton were interviewed regarding a shooting that took place outside a local gas station in December. Neither player was considered a suspect but they were breaking curfew. Athletic department spokesperson Dave Reiter said that the matter was handled internally.
I find it interesting that the Tribune waited until now to publish this story when the information being reported is almost all at least two months old. I'm not saying that it's not a story because players repeatedly breaking curfew and going directly against Anderson's "zero-tolerance policy" is a major problem that needs to be addressed. But all the information in the story could have been reported a long time ago well before the "Athena 5" partied their way into our lives.
Are there problems within the MU basketball program? Without a doubt. But other than Butterfield (who is a repeat offender and quite honestly probably needs to be let go) should anyone be kicked off the team? I think it's too early to tell. Do we have enough evidence to label them thugs? No.
Is it fair to label Marshall Brown, a guy who wants to become a schoolteacher and spends time reading to kids at local elementary schools, a "gangsta"? You tell me.
It's obvious they're hanging out with the wrong types of people at the wrong types of places and that coach Anderson's rules don't mean a lot to them, but he has punished them and is now giving them a shot at redemption.
Due to the suspensions that Anderson gave these players (most of them seniors) their legacy is most likely going to be that they didn't give a damn about Mizzou basketball. So would it benefit the program to cut ties with these athletes who have proven that they consider basketball to be a luxury? Maybe. But I'll let coach Anderson tell you why that's not something you do:
"I think the most important thing is that kids need to learn from it. The ignorant thing to do, is to throw someone under the bus, and you'll ruin that kid's life."
You'll RUIN that KID'S life.
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