Just avoid prosecution, baby!
Dan Wolken
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The best player on the top-seeded team in the NCAA Tournament took his seat at the podium Wednesday, ready for whatever questions might come.
To his right, monitoring the makeshift interview room inside Legacy Arena was a man in dark slacks and red polo shirt that said “Alabama Basketball” above his chest. On his belt line, a badge and a handgun were visible for all to see.
It’s unclear whether Brandon Miller is the first college basketball player who was escorted by security at every step on what is generally a light, easy day before the first round of March Madness. But it was certainly a striking way to illustrate the heaviness and unease around a player whose proximity to a murder of a 23-year-old woman in January — and his role in transporting the weapon used to kill her — has made him and the University of Alabama the subject of significant controversy.
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On Tuesday afternoon in Oxford, Mississippi, a chronically mediocre basketball program introduced Chris Beard as its new coach and attempted to explain it with the same “we did our due diligence” nonsense that we’ve heard hundreds of times when universities or professional sports organizations make problematic hires.
Of course, there’s little chance Ole Miss knows much more than the rest of us who read the police report in December when Beard, then the coach at Texas, was alleged by his fiancée to have choked her and caused other bruises and scrapes as well as a bite mark that were visible to police.
Beard was arrested, charged with felony domestic violence and fired by Texas, a decision the university made even though the team was highly ranked and, like Alabama, had a legitimate chance to win the national title.
Though the charges were dropped, largely because Beard’s fiancée, Randi Trew, did not want him prosecuted and changed her story from what she told police on the night of the incident, the notion that he could be hired to another power conference coaching job three months later was almost unfathomable across the industry.
Of course, it only takes one school with no shame or scruples to conclude that it can live with whatever happened as long as there were no charges. We should not be surprised that Mississippi, which has never won anything of significance in men's basketball, just happened to be that school.
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“What I can tell you is, much of what was reported was not accurate,” Beard said, “and that’s been proven with the case not only being dismissed, charges dropped, but also, Randi’s statement on Dec. 23.”
You wonder how much cringing there was in the SEC office when that statement was made, and yet how quickly they got over it with visions of having another NCAA Tournament-quality program in the league almost instantly.
In the end, we now have a very clear picture of where the SEC is and what it stands for. Just avoid prosecution, baby.
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NBR: bammer basketball murder
