Lots to be said about the recent legal problems for some Aggie basketball players.
Some don't think that the incidents involving Chris Cole and Jahmar Young are very big deals. Bench warrants. Whatever.
Truthfully, if these were isolated incidents, then fine. But the team has had some problems with off-court issues this year. If these things were taken care of, then they aren't big deals. But when it gets out, it needs to be reported.
Things like this happen at programs throughout the country. But a tighly ran program irons these things out and they don't become public knowledge. They nip it in the bud and bury it quickly. Obvioously it's the student's responsibility to take care of these things. But coaches are more than just basketball men. They are guiders as well and must help the troubled on their roster. You can't hold their hand. But you have to be aware of what these kids are doing. If not, things like this happen.
42 comments:
The mens hoops coach should be graded an F thus far both on and off the court.
First of all, it should be "tightly run" program, not tightly ran.
But anyway--I find all of this really horrifying. The basketball players are clearly out of control, Martin Menzies is being paid the big bucks for doing nothing to keep his stable of athletes in line, Dr. Boston is nowhere to be found . . . and where is the President of the university? Looking for another job?
Ultimately, student-athletes are responsible for their own behaviors and actions, yet, if you think about it, would Reggie Theus have allowed all of this to occur? I hate to bring him up, as he is in the past, but my point is that behaviors from athletes must be dealt with by the head coach, in this case it is Menzies. He has shown that he has no control whatsoever amongst his players. For example, why was Herb Pope still in Pennsylvania in the first place? All of the other players had been back in LC since the Dec.26th, except for one because he was becoming a father. The other athletes who have found themselves in trouble must be held accountable for their actions, yet if Menzies does not have control of his players off-court, then why should we believe that they will listen to him on-court, too? Again, all of these off-court antics point to one person, the head coach. I am supporting him less and less, and I feel that the community will do the same.
"Things like this happen around the country"...is not way to look at this! My God. Then you go on to make excuses and describe more assine thoughts on these offenses. What a crappy attitude. Nice enabling way to look at it. I hope you aren't raising children.
A guy exposes his genitals to a woman and asks for oral sex...that is sick. That is not normal behavior. Happens everywhere, you say? Brush it under the carpet? He needs to be severely punished by the athletic department.
Then Pope is found drunk and asleep at the wheel of a running car after a spring in which he was shot numerous times. Happens to many programs around the country?
Take both of these and Cole being unlawfully irresponsible and there is a pattern of incredibly poor decision-making. AND PLEASE don't call these mistakes. These guys made conscious decisions. you don't accidentily pull your johnson out and and show it to a woman and ask for oral sex. And these are the things that have been made public. You should hear what else has been brushed under the carpet.
You know how this started and who recruited these guys and you know who allows it. It's now catching up with the decision to recruit questionable athletes. A win at all costs mentality.
The inmates are now running the asylum. Who will be held ultimately responsible?
Anyone else have thoughts on this?
...since it happens all over the country. Wow!
Anon, 4:24
You're right....These acts are over the top - and that's an understatement.
The main point of my post was that while the players are responsible, the coaches are just as much. You are a mentor to young men, many who are from less than desirable backgrounds who need guidance. You can't just give them the keys to the car. You have to moniter what they are doing and make sure that they are handling there business away from the floor.
The current staff could be doing this for all we know. But situations like this make some wonder. I am not defending their actions at all.
We need more information. Menzies was hired at the end of June. Young's incident happened in July. When in July? Teddy or JG have you requested to see the police report, or any other court documents? Until greater details are disclosed I'll keep my mouth shut.
Yes, yes and yes. The athletes are men and should be held accountable. The coach is not at fault but it is his program' his players' his responsibiltiy. Let us not forget the Tyrone Nelson fiasco last year. The University convened some sort of "disciplinary review committee" that exonerated Nelson. Now lets be real it was done to get Nelson on the court for the rest of the season. The Judicial system found different. Come on, Theus was part of the problem. Theus did not walk on water, this problem started brewing with him. One last parting shot..Dr. Boston..University of Minnesota scandal..who was at the helm? Although Dr. Boston was not implicated in the scandal it was his athletic department, his responsibility.
Plenty of blame to go around, but I rank the blame in the following order:
(1) The individual players committing the acts
(2) Reggie Theus, who recruited Pope, Young, Cole, and Passos, ie, players in trouble.
(3) Menso Menzies, the HC who should be positively influencing his players. Obviously, they don't respect him enough to stay out of trouble.
(4) Dr. Boston, who hired Theus and Menzies.
On the positive side (and to my surprise), we are 2-0 in WAC play. But look what's getting attention? A very sad episode for NMSU, specifically our mens hoops program.
-Aggie Glare
Boy did Marvin rip you a new one in the press conference!!!!
Menzies really laid into you Teddy. Do you have a response? I agree the reporting on this current situation has been sub-par.
The traffic citations to Chris Cole were issued: 3/16/07.
The charges against Young were filed 7/31/07 which means that the alleged incident occured no earlier than this date.
The JY incident took place while coach Menzo was already at the school. All of the b-ball staff was aware and successfully kept it on the down low until this occurrence. Nice job, wants done in the dark comes out in the light.
The comment that Menzo had JY turn his self in is BS. He just happened to have him turn his self in the same day Cole was arrested, yeah right. I highly doubt it. He's just trying to make it sound like he was aware of the situation and on top of it.
The coaches are not on top of their jobs. The players are just on there on. I still don't understand how your players are ineligible and you not know until the day grades come out. What happened to coaches doing biweekly checks on their students attendance/grades to make sure your boys stay eligible. If that took place you would be on top of the situation early enough to do something about it.
Teddy, it is NOT your responsibility to allow Coach Menzies to examine your article in advance and print it his own way, with NMSU's spin on it. Please report the news objectively; don't sweep these things under the rug.
Menzies came off during the news conference as a COMPLETE jerk, who was more concerned about HIDING the information than apologizing for his team's bad behavior.
Yea, Menzies was animated during the press conference..BUT a wise man once told me, "you don't get into a pissing match, with someone who has barrels of ink".
Young's walking around campus with a woody and asking the ladies for "favors." He's lucky her family didn't find him and shoot him!
What a head case!
Cole? Hey, people get stopped for broken headlights and once in while, people forget there license. No big deal.
Forgeting to pay your fines is flat out irresponsible and stupid!
This season is becoming a nightmare. Is it Football season yet?
Vic
Got to love it. MM ripping into Teddy publicly instead of ripping into his own players. Maybe he should do his job better before ripping into others about how well they are performing their jobs?
Yes,they do happen at other schools-but what's missing here is some college "sugar daddy" or influential alum "taking care of the situation" via some type of collegiate "godfather"-or a coach with a lot of clout-all of these seem to be lacking at good ol' State these days.
It's good journalism and common practice to contact those involved in a story for comment before publishing. I believe Coach Menzies is just upset that this common courtesy did not happen. He didn't have a chance to tell his side of the story and maybe add a few facts, not known previously, mitigating the situation.
I have heard a bunch of stupid comments about this whole situation, Teddy is doing a TERRIBLE job for the las cruces sun-news. He has unreliable sources and is always late to report on it. I cannot stand the albuquerque journal but they are reporting on every situation we have had this year a lot better than the sun-news. As fans I would love to know what is going on but you will not get the information from the sun-news that's forsure. Good Job guys
Here is a question for all you Knuckle heads. Why did it take the girl over a month to report the incident? I think there is a lot more to this story, and I think Menzies is doing the right thing. Also remember, Jahmar was charged with it, because he didn't go to court. I think we should wait and see what happens, before we start to judge anyone.
players showing their junk to girls in public, dudes getting drunk at the wheel, grades are sorry, the sun news guys are terrible...
blah blah blah.
JUST WIN BABY. All of this goes away if we had beat Texas given Duke a run, and were ranked right now. Just ask Mr. Tarkanian.
just win.
MAN I THOUGHT MUMMIES FOOTBALL TEAM HAD PROBLEMS! WHEN DOES FOOTBALL START?!!! BY THE WAY, DID THEY FIRE GERELA YET?
Here you go Teddy. Write something postive on our new basketball commitment Faisal Aden 6'4 PG/SG.
Is the news conference on the web anywhere? I don't live in NM so I don't know what everyone's talking about, but would love to see it. But after listening to Menzies a few times on Aggie Vision, and reading his quotes in the LCSN, it's clear he uses poor judgment when he speaks. Like I said before, Menso desperately needs a media consultant.
-Aggie Glare
Aggie Glare-
How about some examples of what you consider poor judgment? I think he has done a fine job talking to the media.
MarvinMenso talks good to the media?
The guy compliments our rivals after a loss, says he feels bad for LC after we lost to Utep, didn't grow up w/ the rivalry so, he has little experience, etc!
Reggie would never compliment our rivals! Heck, he would call them "fair weathered fans" and point at the score board after a win!
This coach doesn't have a competitive edge and this team needs to feed of.
Hey idiots Menzies is doing fine for his first year, it seems as though the only freshman recruit that is really contributing to the team is McKines. Who recruited him? Oh yeah menzies, also he is doing a better job as a coach for his first year than Reggie Theus did. People from Las Cruces need to grow up and think outside the box, I cannot stand reading all of these ignorant comments, our problem is not Menzies. Our problem is our AD and President.
I don't blame Menzies for ripping Teddy. This reporting of his has been amateur and speculative at best. This isn't Roswell, and throwing half-facts out there isn't going to win you any fans, especially as it realtes to NMSU basketball. Of course, we're used to not having great sports people over at the LC Sun, but this is proof that we may be looking at a laughing stock. Way to go Menzies.
Anon 10:25 -
You had me until you started blaming the AD and President. Both of these men holding the position are two of the best we EVER had, and actually care about NMSU athletics. IMO
Menzies is doing a better job than Reggie?! The guy can't even get the 4,000 fans to chant his name.
REGGIE, REGGIE, REGGIE, remember?
Anon. 10:25 Must be a Lobo or Utep fan.
If getting out coached and being a sub .500 team is kick a ass job. Then this is the last time I re-new my season tickets.
Aggie Brew
Boston and Menzies press conference on KVIA TV.
http://www.kvia.com/Global/category.asp?C=28317&nav=menu193_4
I don't deny that what Young and Cole did was wrong. I also want to know from an earlier post mentions why did Young's incident get reported 1 month after the fact? Very fishy to me. Coach Menzie cannot babysit all his players. At some point in life take responsbility for your own actions and grow up.
Anon at 7:47pm,
If you really think Menso has used good judgment talking to the media, then nothing I say will change your mind. But if you are objective about it, see "Anon at 5:16am"s post and read through all the previous posts on NMSU hoops, especially those in December. There will be plenty of examples there. But I will add one more - Menso took at jab at Gordo's D play, then complimented it all in the same response to the Aggie Vision courtside reporter after the Fresno State game.
But you do have me wondering - are you really someone on Menso's staff, or Menso Menzies himself incognito??
-Aggie Glare
You people ripping Menzies need to know the facts.
First of all those of you who say he is a bad in game coach. He gets an F for his on the court performance, etc.
3-0 in WAC play with 2 of those on the road. Choke on that.
As for the Chris Cole case you really need to know the situation. He is a walk on with little money. Apparently a court clerical error led to his bench arrest and Chris cleared it up as soon as he could.
JY's incident is a little more serious and I agree he needs to be suspended. I don't like how the university is handling discipline especially after the Nelson fiasco and that is the main fault of the AD Boston in my opinion.
Menzies is a good coach and he just beat a team that beat a ranked BYU team on that same court. Yeah chew on that a little while Menzies haters. You haters better hope they don't win at Utah State as well otherwise you better go crawl under a rock the rest of the season.
Teddy has a man crush on Theus.
Surely you know Reggie recruited these guys quit blaming starvin' Marvin.
Glare-
You asked me to read comments from a guy who was slurping Theus. Big deal. Menzies isn't Theus. That comment means less than nothing to me.
Also I don't read or hear everything Menzies says. Furthermore, I asked for examples from you. What have YOU heard/seen that gives credence to your claims? Don't expect me to verify your arguments for you.
as i said... all you have to do is win and no one cares about the rest..
just win baby. I rest my case.
People ragging on Menzies obviosuly have no clue about basketball. He is a very good coach - certainly not perfect, but improving, and this is his first head coaching job. He also has demonstrated he can relate well to today's basketball players. Give him a break!
Reggie was great, but really, he was only a mediocre coach. He had great personality, style, energy and recruited very well, but I think Menzies is already a better "X and O" coach.
As for all the trouble with the law - very dissapointing, but I will wait for all the facts to come out before passing judgement. Anyone remember the Duke Lacrosse team?
To lazy anon:
And don't expect me to do your research. There are plenty of examples on this blog, posted by numerous people not just me. And I gave you one example already. If you disagree, so be it. I bet you never looked back through the posts - can't help it if you're lazy.
-Aggie Glare
Glare -
I'm pot. You're kettle.
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