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People always ask, about March every year, what I'm going to do once basketball season is over, and every time I tell them the plan is to write about basketball. They laugh and say, "No, really?" Then I laugh and say, "Yes, really!" And the conversation usually ends with me trying to explain that writing about college hoops is a 12-month-a-year job, that it's actually more difficult than some might think to pull away and completely detach.
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| There's no offseason for Tom Crean, who continues his housecleaning in Bloomington. (US Presswire) |
Like last week, for instance.
And it seemed like a decent time to vacation ... up until Tom Crean had to release a statement about Eli Holman.
"His behavior took me, along with the other people in the office, by surprise," Crean said. "We saw him as a danger to himself and wanted to take precautionary measures to help him."
Just my luck, isn't it?
On the week I decide to relax and not write, the new Indiana basketball coach has to call campus police because one of his players lost his mind and threw a potted plant in the office. True story. It's crazy. But I suppose that's better than getting busted smoking an un-potted plant, which brings me to Ramar Smith and Duke Crews, the two Tennessee players who were dismissed last week for reportedly failing drug tests.
Look, I know lots of college basketball players smoke weed.
As do lots of college soccer players.
And lots of college volleyball players.
And lots of college golfers and college tennis players and all kinds of so-called student-athletes with a capable set of lungs. Personally, I don't care one way or another as long as they don't get in a car and kill me and my family.
But it seems incredible that two guys from a potential Final Four team would put their careers at risk in such a way when they know a drug test is coming. I mean, it's not like college athletes aren't aware there's always the chance that a urine test is about to be performed. So why can't these guys just chill until the offseason (did you learn nothing from Josh Howard?) or do a Google search and order some of that Never Fail stuff to keep in their travel bag right beside their i-pods, ankle braces and rolling papers?
(Never Fail apparently costs $99.95 plus shipping. I'm not a financial wizard, but it seems worth the money if the alternative is losing a full-paid scholarship including room and board and books. But I digress ...)
