Thursday, February 16, 2023

NM State Men’s Basketball Season Wrap Up


Yes, this is how we all foresaw the Aggie Men’s Basketball season ending: a press conference with Chancellor Dan Arvizu and Athletic Director Mario Moccia announcing that Coach Greg Heiar had been fired in disgrace.  Who could believe that this all started with a fight between students at an Aggie/Lobo Football game last year?  This somehow escalated to a shooting between a team member and some UNM students in Albuquerque.  Then we found out that the team’s troubles actually started when this team came together to start practice last summer, but that scandal didn’t come out until last week.

 

When Ron and I drove away from the Softball stadium Saturday evening, there were two local news crews at the Pan-Am Center shooting footage.  That was a bad sign.  The story about the Aggie Men's Basketball team “hazing” scandal was getting bigger.  A player was getting molested in the showers by a gang of other players.  He was “touched inappropriately” in his privates.  This had been going on from the team’s first practices up until last Monday, so it was ongoing harassment and finally led to a report being filed with the campus police.     

 

Dad called me and said it made the national newscast that evening.  It was also the main story on ESPN.  The university canceled the team’s Saturday night game.  They were out in California ready to play and got called home.  The team and all of the coaches were suspended.  I talked to my Aunt Judy in Missouri after the Superbowl on Sunday (to congratulate her).  She had heard about our scandal on the national news and didn’t realize it was referring to us, until I connected it.       

 

Superbowl Sunday afternoon, I was going over to watch with dad and we decided to get a pizza beforehand.  Roadrunner Pizza was busy as expected and I had to cool my heels for about 10 minutes.  I noticed a guy in the shop waiting that looked familiar.  He was also wearing an Aggie Men's Basketball hoodie.  I asked if he was one of the coaches and he was.  It was Darian Graham, Director of Player Development. 

 

It was kind of loud and hard to hear while we were both waiting, but with the merest prompting, Mr. Graham gushed.  He was nearly inconsolable while trying to explain how they couldn't prevent what had happened.  They did what they could to keep curfew, but the player willfully violated it.  Mike Peake did apologize to the team later.  He didn’t mean to put the whole program in jeopardy, but what you do reflects on the team.  Graham more or less said, “We have them from 7 am to 7 pm, but not the rest of the time.  Are we supposed to follow them around 24 hours a day?  Is everyone, players and coaches, going to have to live in the same dorm?” 

 

He felt the hazing incident was being overblown, as well.  That’s a possibility.  I’m willing to believe the story because I’ve seen how the team didn’t come together.  I thought the team may have factionalized over the shooting, since some of the players were directly involved.  This hazing incident would actually explain it a little better.  Further, to be honest, there isn’t a woman involved.  I’m not saying there couldn’t be a personal agenda being acted on, but I can see where a guy might be putting up with this kind of behavior longer out of shame.       

 

Darian described himself as a “hard-ass” coach.  He wanted his guys to graduate and do well in life.  He felt bad for the fans and the community.  He likes Las Cruces and wanted to stay here.  “I went from here (holding hand up high) getting a championship ring last year to here (holding hand by the floor).”  I really felt for Darian.  He seemed very sincere and in shock.  I did ask about Coach Heiar.  He was not going to say anything critical about him, at least not at this point.   

 

I’m worried about a couple other assistant coaches.  I found out that they are all on a one-year contract that comes up in April.  Dominque Taylor, who I’ve met and was a really nice guy, was involved in the shooting cover up.  He’s gone and it’s too bad, because he likely on a fast-track to becoming a head coach somewhere.  Then there’s local hero Johnny McCants.  He just got married and had a kid.  I think he wanted to set some roots here.  I do feel really bad for the player who was getting molested.  There’s justification for that.  I’m not worried about the other players, frankly.  They can all go.  For whatever talent it looked like they had, it didn’t materialize into wins.  And unfortunately, so much for seeing more of red-shirt local player, Deuce Benjamin.

  

At work on Monday, I got more details.  The reporting player was getting his nuts grabbed in the shower and along with being held down.  This harassment had gone on from last summer to last Monday.  This wasn’t hazing.  The offending players were trying to force him to quit.  Apparently, he wasn’t in a position to do so easily.  This scandal could get even worse if this involves the players I think it involves.  (I’ll avoid that speculation in print.)  For now, it looks like this clip might be appropriate to describe the offenders.  This might explain why they’re calling it “hazing,” because otherwise it’s a bunch a gay men sexually assaulting another guy in a shower.  (And again, this really could get worse than this.)      

 

Moreover, the other players reportedly just stood and watched.  Surely, some of the coaches had to have at least heard what was going on in the shower at some point.  It’s going to be a total house-cleaning for the program.  Everyone is going to be gone.  I hope the NCAA doesn’t get involved and this fumigation may be the only way to do it.  Given how bad the season has been and that they’re likely going into a new conference with a completely new team and staff, what more need to done to the school?  Vacate their pathetic number of wins this season?

 

Three players have already declared for the portal and without any kind words for NMSU.  A four-star recruit has also asked to be released from his commitment.  (In all honesty, he was probably going to do that anyway without the scandal given the team’s record.)  The WAC and the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas must be furious.  Aggie fans have to be like half the attendance for the tournament, which the team probably wasn’t going to make anyway.  Those people who bought those new $1,000 a seat suite tickets along with the season ticket holders can’t be happy.  They’re missing out on three games with no chance of making them up. 

 

The best I can say is that this season has been a blip in Aggie Men’s Basketball, I don’t think that the fans will have a problem forgiving it.  The team has had so much success with very little off-court drama for the last 20 years.  (That was an academic scandal under Coach Neil McCarthy, which seems positively quaint by comparison.)  It was a new coach, new to being a head coach at D1, with a mostly new team.  I don’t think Heiar had had any scandal before coming here, but he’s committed the worst sin of any college coach: disgracing the college without actually winning anything. 

 

I was going to tack this on to my last Softball post, but I kept writing about it.  (And I’m sorry this post is going all over the place.  I don’t have an editor and I want to get this out now.)  I’m glad I held off.  The press conference about the firing came up Monday morning.  I took away two salient points.  One, the other Aggie Sports programs were said to be okay.  (I’m not surprised.)  Two, Coach Heiar was fired with cause and there was no settlement of his contract.  (That’s probably going to court, but still cheaper than paying him off.) 

 

So, Heiar likely knew about the hazing and covered it up.  He probably lied to Mario at some point, which may have actually saved Mario’s job.  I could sense a shift in Mario’s attitude towards the program in listening to his pregame talks.  He went from excuses to irritation.  I don’t think he knew what was going on, but he knew something was going on.      

 

I’m glad Athletic Director Mario Moccia didn’t get fired.  He’s very earnest and has done a remarkable job with Aggie Sports in general.  It might just be that the university didn’t want to have to hire a new AD along with a new basketball coach.  (They might be waiting for the next Chancellor to come in to really make a decision about Mario.)  Heiar was a good hire at the time.  Mario had no ability to fire him after the shooting or after poor team performance.  (The university couldn’t afford to buy out his contract.)  Heiar probably should have resigned before this hazing scandal came out just over the team’s performance. 

 

I hate to say it, but the media people who were questioning restarting the program after the shooting may have been right.  Nothing good came after.  There was a good question from a reporter wondering why wasn’t Heiar fired after the shooting?  There wasn’t a great answer, but it was probably because the team had done diligence in monitoring players.  However, the team did seem to be trying to cover up the incident to the police immediately afterward.  Honestly, I don’t think the administration could blame Heiar without indicting themselves, since they were the ones who Okayed the team continuing to play without resolution of the issue.  (Now Heiar is no longer cooperating with university on the shooting investigation.)

 

The best case scenario is that this is basically over (at least for the university, but probably not some of the players).  NM State then cleans house and brings in an experienced coach to restart the program with a new team.  The fans will be fine and will likely not have a lot of expectations, especially going into a new conference.  (It was asked if Conference-USA would still want us.  They’re losing six teams after this school year.  Oh yeah, we’re still in.)  The Media will blather from their high horse and then lose interest.  That’s the best case.  Let’s hope for it. 

No comments:

Post a Comment