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.
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