That's it, I quit. NEVERMIND

[NEVERMIND ALL THIS.  FOR NOW]


It appears likely that the Gophers' best player, Trevor Mbakwe, will be suspended. 

And of what heinous offense was Mbakwe guilty?  Sending a message on facebook.  FACEBOOK!  Fucking facebook.  He didn't attempt to bash in a door with an axe or stand outside a window with a boom box, he simply sent a message on facebook.  Must have been a hell of a threatening message, no doubt?  No, it was simply something along the lines of "I hope you are doing well."  Now, I've looked and I've looked, but I'm having all kinds of trouble finding any kind of death threat in there, so unless this is some kind of zodiac killer code I'm thinking this was pretty innocuous.

Perhaps intent isn't part of the law, but it sure as hell should be part of the sentencing.  Let the law do what the law do, but not taking all the facts into account on this is ridiculous at best, reckless at worst.  Trevor Mbakwe, despite his physical attributes, is a kid.  He's a kid.  He made a mistake, as all kids inevitably do, and Joel Maturi is coming down on him as if he maced the vice president.  I mean jesus christ it's not like he starting the Army of the Twelve Monkeys here.  He sent an innocent message on a social media site which violating a restraining order against him.  Whether it was a simple mistake in timing or simply a rebellious maneuver it shows more immaturity and irresponsibility than malice aforethought.

And now because of it, the great Joel Maturi is playing around with Mbakwe's future, and not for the first time.  I get that you need to players to hold to a certain standard, and although I disagreed with what happened with Royce White I at least understood it, but what has happened to Mbakwe since he enrolled here is absolutely ridiculous and should really be the criminal act under investigation.  Maturi needs to step back from the big picture once in a while and realize he's dealing with real people - kids, actually - and his decisions don't just affect the school, the team, and us fans, but the real people he deals with day to day.

I can only guess that if this indeed comes to pass as a suspension Mbakwe will be out of here, and who could blame him?  At this point it has become apparent that Gopher athletic teams have zero chance of finding success as long as Maturi is still in power.  If they grabbed a flux capacitor and brought back Bill Walsh and John Wooden to coach, he'd still find a way to fuck it all up.

Seriously, I'm one of those "don't really care about what kind of citizen the players are as long as we win" kind of guys, I'll admit that.  But it's hard for me to see how even the most ardent believer in the character before winning philosophy can think this is justice.

For shame.