Alabama Basketball is having their best Season ever-they are currently the Number 1 overall Seed for the Tournament in March per the Selection Committee and their star Freshman Brandon Miller is arguably the best Player in the Country.
But a pall is now over this team and will remain there.
For anyone not up to speed on the story,the below article lays it out.
Some are now calling for Nate Oats to resign.
I am sure that Nick Saban will be asked about the situation at some point-will be very interesting to hear his response.
Nate Oats, Alabama Offer Little in Wake of Murder Investigation
The school’s withholding of information and its men’s hoops coach’s dismissive statements have only served to worsen a tragic incident.
The more we hear about the capital murder case involving former Alabama men’s basketball player Darius Miles, the worse it gets for the Crimson Tide. The more coach Nate Oats speaks, the more dishonest and dismissive he sounds. The more information is made public, the more it’s clear that the school didn’t give a full accounting of a tragic situation.
This was the new information from a hearing Tuesday pertaining to a fatal shooting on Jan. 15, according to AL.com: Police testified that Miles’s teammate, freshman Brandon Miller—one of the five best players in college basketball—delivered the murder weapon to Miles at Miles’s request. Miles then told his friend, alleged trigger man Michael Davis, where the gun was located.
Davis and Miles are charged with murder in the killing of Jamea Jonae Harris, who was in a car with her boyfriend, Cedric Johnson, in downtown Tuscaloosa. Davis allegedly started shooting after a verbal confrontation, and Johnson returned fire. Attorneys for Miles and Davis have said their clients acted in self-defense.
AL.com says police also testified that Miller’s car and that of another teammate, Jaden Bradley, were blocking the road where the victim’s car was parked, and that Miller’s car was struck by two bullets. Whether those cars were intentionally blocking the road before shots were fired is unclear.
Miller has not been charged. When asked why not, Tuscaloosa deputy district attorney Paula Whitley told AL.com, “That’s not a question I can answer. There’s nothing we can charge him with.”
Oats took the exoneration of Miller several steps further, declaring that his involvement was nothing more than being in the “wrong spot at the wrong time.” That statement is an insult to everyone’s intelligence, if indeed Oats understood what had been said Tuesday in court. It’s a gross mischaracterization of a tragic situation that Miller materially helped escalate by allegedly delivering the murder weapon to the scene of the crime. Quite frankly, with Davis allegedly firing eight shots and Johnson returning fire near a busy campus bar area, it's extremely fortunate that this didn't turn into a mass murder.
“Wrong place at the wrong time” would be walking out of a bar unwittingly into the crossfire of the shooting. That’s not what this is. Responding to a text asking for a weapon by bringing it to a teammate is wrong act at the wrong time—a criminally wrong act, some prosecutors (other than Whitley) might contend.
“Can’t control everything anybody does outside of practice,” Oats also said Tuesday. “Nobody knew that was going to happen. College kids are out, Brandon hasn’t been in any type of trouble nor is he in any type of trouble in this case.”
College coaches famously do their best to control (or at least be aware of) almost every aspect of their players’ lives outside of practice. Coaches want to know what they eat, so they feed them at the facility or at a training table. They want to know what classes they take, and often require that they build their academic schedule around the practice schedule. They want to know who they hang out with, and where, and when, and why.
Until something goes very wrong. Then, shrugs. Can’t control everything. Let the star player play.
But a pall is now over this team and will remain there.
For anyone not up to speed on the story,the below article lays it out.
Some are now calling for Nate Oats to resign.
I am sure that Nick Saban will be asked about the situation at some point-will be very interesting to hear his response.
Nate Oats, Alabama Offer Little in Wake of Murder Investigation
The school’s withholding of information and its men’s hoops coach’s dismissive statements have only served to worsen a tragic incident.
The more we hear about the capital murder case involving former Alabama men’s basketball player Darius Miles, the worse it gets for the Crimson Tide. The more coach Nate Oats speaks, the more dishonest and dismissive he sounds. The more information is made public, the more it’s clear that the school didn’t give a full accounting of a tragic situation.
This was the new information from a hearing Tuesday pertaining to a fatal shooting on Jan. 15, according to AL.com: Police testified that Miles’s teammate, freshman Brandon Miller—one of the five best players in college basketball—delivered the murder weapon to Miles at Miles’s request. Miles then told his friend, alleged trigger man Michael Davis, where the gun was located.
Davis and Miles are charged with murder in the killing of Jamea Jonae Harris, who was in a car with her boyfriend, Cedric Johnson, in downtown Tuscaloosa. Davis allegedly started shooting after a verbal confrontation, and Johnson returned fire. Attorneys for Miles and Davis have said their clients acted in self-defense.
AL.com says police also testified that Miller’s car and that of another teammate, Jaden Bradley, were blocking the road where the victim’s car was parked, and that Miller’s car was struck by two bullets. Whether those cars were intentionally blocking the road before shots were fired is unclear.
Miller has not been charged. When asked why not, Tuscaloosa deputy district attorney Paula Whitley told AL.com, “That’s not a question I can answer. There’s nothing we can charge him with.”
Oats took the exoneration of Miller several steps further, declaring that his involvement was nothing more than being in the “wrong spot at the wrong time.” That statement is an insult to everyone’s intelligence, if indeed Oats understood what had been said Tuesday in court. It’s a gross mischaracterization of a tragic situation that Miller materially helped escalate by allegedly delivering the murder weapon to the scene of the crime. Quite frankly, with Davis allegedly firing eight shots and Johnson returning fire near a busy campus bar area, it's extremely fortunate that this didn't turn into a mass murder.
“Wrong place at the wrong time” would be walking out of a bar unwittingly into the crossfire of the shooting. That’s not what this is. Responding to a text asking for a weapon by bringing it to a teammate is wrong act at the wrong time—a criminally wrong act, some prosecutors (other than Whitley) might contend.
“Can’t control everything anybody does outside of practice,” Oats also said Tuesday. “Nobody knew that was going to happen. College kids are out, Brandon hasn’t been in any type of trouble nor is he in any type of trouble in this case.”
College coaches famously do their best to control (or at least be aware of) almost every aspect of their players’ lives outside of practice. Coaches want to know what they eat, so they feed them at the facility or at a training table. They want to know what classes they take, and often require that they build their academic schedule around the practice schedule. They want to know who they hang out with, and where, and when, and why.
Until something goes very wrong. Then, shrugs. Can’t control everything. Let the star player play.
