NJCAA beats down Barton County

http://www.njcaa.org/sports.cfm?menu=15&sid=34&cid=5006&divid=0&gender=m&slid=0

Wow. Every single team on probation but men's basketball, which just served a two-year probation sentence. This has to be one of the most crippling things I've seen in college athletics.

 

I was wondering when this would come down. The NCAA had to do something. The thing is, how did the men's basketball team stay clean?

 

Something about it serving the "maximum" penalty. I guess they got parole.

 

Yeah, or house arrest.

 

I used to play in the summer basketball league at Barton and I'm pretty sure the players were getting paid pretty damn well to "coach" us. Coaching usually included showing up about five minutes after the game started with a few Tupac and Snoop CDs, a brand new discman with $200 headphones, and sitting the bench checking out the girls that came to watch their boyfriends play.

Alex Radojevic, the guy who Jim O'Brien paid at Ohio State sat on our bench quite a bit. My mom also took a summer school class there with a point guard that couldn't read, the tests were taken in pairs.

 

It's crippling and in some ways, it's bogus.

There are some sports - soccer, tennis, golf - that had no work study money. Still put on probation. Women's basketball, baseball, softball, never had a coach indicted. Still put on probation. Although in those cases, there might have been something that came out during the trials.

Bryce Rodrick better hope that none of the other members of the KJCCC have to go through as intense an investigation as Barton County, because this is one hell of a precedent to set.

 

You know, if you haven't already that's the kind of stuff that would make a good column, or something along those lines.

 

Barton County was Region 6 runner-up last year in men's soccer, volleyball and women's basketball. Women's soccer was really good also until its best player tore an ACL. Baseball is always pretty good, and softball is always competitive. I know many of the coaches there right now, and people like Lane Lord (women's basketball), Mike Warren (baseball), Kurt Kohler (former volleyball, now athletic director) Tom Curtis (softball) and Craig Fletchall (men's basketball) all deserve better.

I have to wonder if there will be mass exodus by Barton athletes. I would not want to play for a team that cannot play in the postseason. Cripes, as a former high school and college player, that was all we looked to. My most memorable games were in the postseason.

 

I'm about 1,100 miles away from Great Bend, Kan., these days and it wouldn't work at the particular publication I work for. But if anybody is in position to write something go ahead and PM me and I'll do what I can to help. I'm getting ready to go out of town for a couple of weeks though, so I don't know how much I'll be checking in until I get back.

 

Read it again ... the men's hoop team already served the "maximum" two-year probation allowable under juco rules.

Barton County is also being sued by an ex-president who was fired after pointing out problems with the school's work-study program. And several ex-coaches and athletic officials either face criminal charges or copped pleas for various charges including mail fraud and embezzlement. The former AD pled guilty to mail fraud last week. The former men's basketball staff --- not coach, staff --- is awaiting sentencing. Another former men's basketball coach was forced to resign after refusing to sign falsified work-study timesheets.

Stay classy, Barton County.