Maturi backs how Gophers coaches handled recent disciplinary actions

[BleedGopher]

http://www.twincities.com/gophers/ci_13763666

Joel Maturi hasn't dodged questions about having to deal with a rash of student-athletes involved in off-court and off-field incidents in recent months.

The University of Minnesota athletics director has seen two of his most high-profile sports programs take a hit in the public eye. But he says he has done his research on each issue. And he has supported decisions made in the cases of eight different players under football coach Tim Brewster and men's basketball coach Tubby Smith.

If the bad publicity was weighing heavily on Maturi, adding to his discomfort over a torn Achilles' tendon, he's not talking about it.

"The timing is not good, obviously," he said in a telephone interview Wednesday while attending Big Ten Conference meetings in Chicago. "But I think that's where as an athletic director I just have to take a deep breath and deal with every issue independently and appropriately. That's the right thing to do. I think we have. I think we will continue to try to do that."

But the situations have piled up.

Basketball players Royce White and Devron Bostick were suspended indefinitely last week, and Trevor Mbakwe is facing a legal issue that could keep him out the entire season. University police then told Maturi this week that White was a possible suspect in a campus burglary Saturday.

"We have to be careful to rush to judgment, in my opinion," Maturi said of Saturday's development. "Based on other issues, Royce is suspended. This does not impact that, one way or the other, at this time because we don't know what the facts are in this case."

Football players Cedric McKinley and Tim Dandridge had been suspended for two games in September for violating unspecified team rules. Two more football players, Michael Carter and Gary Tinsley, received citations, including underage drinking for both, in incidents in October and November but weren't suspended.

Maturi on Wednesday also addressed a situation regarding football player Nathan Tow-Arnett, who is a suspect in a Halloween morning incident in which a 21-year-old woman says she was assaulted, according to Minneapolis police.

"What Nate says is significantly different from what the allegations are," Maturi said. "That's why we have to be careful. That (case) has yet to be determined."

In an interview with the Pioneer Press on Wednesday, Neena Kurian alleged that Tow-Arnett, trying to break up a dispute between her and his girlfriend, threw Kurian against a wall before repeatedly kicking her while she was on the ground.

According to Kurian, she had attended a concert with Tow-Arnett and others the night of Oct. 30 before attending a house party early Halloween morning. Kurian alleged that she and Tow-Arnett's girlfriend got into an argument before Tow-Arnett stepped in.

"Everybody was trying to calm her down, but that's when he got involved and grabbed me by the neck and threw me up against the wall," Kurian said. "I don't know how much she had to drink, but I had three drinks at the most all night. She had been drinking, but he supposedly hadn't been. He drove everyone there."

Tow-Arnett, a sophomore defensive back, was unavailable for comment after Wednesday's practice. Brewster spoke generally about how he has handled each incident with his players.

"The facts are what's important in each situation, and a lot of times the facts are not reported properly," he said. "And so again, we seek out the facts in each situation and handle each situation accordingly."

Smith hadn't been informed about the most-recent situation with White when he talked Tuesday morning about the talented 6-foot-8 former Mr. Basketball from Hopkins High School.

"Much has been given to him, so much is expected of him," Smith told the Pioneer Press. "He's been in the limelight for a long time being a good athlete, (and) with that comes a big responsibility and major accountability.

"It's like a teacher. You have to deal with a kid. Maybe he's doing something he's not supposed to be doing in class. You confront him. You take care of it. You move on. But pretty soon, he can't stay in class. You go in to the principal's office and say you can't teach the kid anymore, I can't work with him anymore, and he has to find someplace else to go. You don't want to ever get to that point."

White has not been charged or accused of a crime. But university police told Maturi that White was seen in Territorial Hall when a laptop was stolen Saturday. White, who was dismissed from DeLaSalle during his junior year of high school for academic violations, already received misdemeanor citations on Oct. 13 for shoplifting and fifth-degree assault after an incident at Macy's in the Mall of America in Bloomington, according to a police report.

"If he were to be found guilty, it's different than him being charged," Maturi said. "I think everybody needs to understand that. If he were to be found guilty, then I'm sure he would be dealt with in the appropriate manner."

Overall, Maturi said there isn't a blanket approach to prevent more incidents from occurring.

"If anybody even believes that the coaches aren't talking to the kids or that the athletic director and the administration aren't talking to the young people, I think they would be wrong," he said. "We know how highly negative this visibility is at this time. We're not naïve to it. We will continue to try to make our young people aware of appropriate behavior and conduct, and not put themselves into positions where, even if they're innocent, people might accuse them of being involved in something negative."

Go Gophers!!

 

[UpnorthGo4]

Foxes Guarding Henhouse at U

Gophers Vary in Suspension Policy
The U has head coaches and the athletics director determine the length and possibility of suspensions.
Published: 11/11/2009
By Michael Rietmulder - The Minnesota Daily

The University of Minnesota’s student-athletes “are expected to represent themselves, their team and the University with honesty, integrity and character whether academically, athletically or socially,” according to the student-athlete code of conduct.

While neither academic ineptitude nor in-game player conduct has recently besmirched coaches Tim Brewster and Tubby Smith’s programs, Gophers players as of late have had difficulty maintaining their composure in the social arena.

Though the University’s athletics department is certainly not the only Division I program grappling with difficult suspension decisions, it undoubtedly has among the highest number of recent issues.

This fall a string of off-field incidents began with Gophers sophomore linebacker Gary Tinsley’s citation for underage drinking and fleeing from University police after a Dinkytown brawl on Sept. 27. Though other football players were allegedly present, no other citations were made. Tinsley has not been suspended from the team.

Two days later, senior defensive end Cedric McKinley and sophomore safety Tim Dandridge were suspended two games for violating unspecified team rules.

Fast forward through a relatively placid month of October to when freshman defensive back Michael Carter was arrested and charged with underage consumption and obstructing the legal process on Nov. 2. Carter allegedly attempted to pick a fight outside of a Dinkytown pizza parlor.

Carter has not been suspended.

Most suspensions are levied by head coaches, with more severe incidents handled by Athletics Director Joel Maturi , according to Senior Associate Athletics Director Regina Sullivan .

Some schools, including the University, have minimum disciplinary measures for certain types of infractions, but the amount of discretion coaches have in determining suspensions can make it difficult to entirely ensure consistency in punishments across different sports.

Sullivan said the department does look to past incidents for precedent although “every case is different.”

The University handles disciplinary decisions similar to Oregon University, which ran into player suspension problems after a football game against Boise State University.

After the game, Boise State defensive end Byron Hout taunted Oregon’s star running back LeGarrette Blount , yelling in his face. Blount responded with a stern jab to Hout’s face. Blount was suspended for the rest of the season following the scuffle.

This meant that the senior with National Football League prospects had played in his last game as an Oregon Duck.

But on Monday, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly announced that Blount’s suspension had been lifted and that he will return to action Saturday against Arizona State after missing eight games.

Oregon Athletics Director Mike Bellotti said that suspension decisions are generally made by head coaches, though egregious infractions may be brought to him or University President Richard Lariviere .

“[University presidents] don’t want to be surprised by something on the front page of the paper,” Bellotti said.

In a case similar to Blount’s, University of Florida head coach Urban Meyer suspended senior linebacker Brandon Spikes for the first half of last Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt University, after Spikes gouged an opposing player’s eye in a win against Georgia on Oct. 31.

Meyer’s decision to suspend Spikes for only half of a game was highly criticized by the national media as being too light.

In an unanticipated move, Spikes elected to suspend himself for the entire game, saying he did not wish to be a distraction to the team.

When facing issues of player misconduct, coaches are usually the ones responsible for handing out suspensions, even though it can directly interfere with their primary objective — winning games.

At the University, men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith does not seem to have trouble taking disciplinary action, even if that means jeopardizing on-court success.

On Nov. 2, the same day as Carter’s arrest, Maturi announced that highly-touted recruit Trevor Mbakwe, a junior college transfer, would not play for Smith’s squad pending the outcome of an assault trial scheduled for Dec. 14. The case stems from an April 3 incident in Miami-Dade County, Fla. where Mbakwe was playing for Miami Dade College . A woman who lived in the same apartment complex as Mbakwe alleges that he punched her in the face.

Just one day after the Mbakwe announcement, Smith announced his decision to indefinitely suspend senior Devron Bostick and incoming freshman Royce White for violating team rules.

White, who was named Minnesota’s 2009 Mr. Basketball after his senior season at Hopkins High School, is facing misdemeanor theft and assault charges from an Oct. 13 incident at the Mall of America, in which White allegedly shoved a security guard who confronted him for shoplifting.

Since his suspension, White’s name has been mentioned as a suspect in a separate theft.

Though coaches and athletics directors are the ones who most frequently handle suspensions, they are not always exclusively internal matters.

As Oklahoma State University’s football wide receiver Dez Bryant recently found out, suspensions can also be initiated by the NCAA.

Bryant was suspended for the remainder of the 2009 season on Oct. 7 after lying to NCAA investigators about meeting and working out with former NFL star Deion Sanders . The University appealed the NCAA’s ruling, though it was rejected last week.

An Alternative Approach

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has gone to great lengths to try to remove authority on disciplinary matters from the head coaches, establishing the University of Wisconsin-Madison Athletic Board , which plays an integral role in determining the consequences of student-athlete misconduct.

The 23-member board is comprised of university faculty, academic staff, alumni and students, all with equal votes. The board is charged with setting academic and eligibility standards, participating in the vetting process for perspective head coaches and acting on issues pertaining to the supervision of the athletics department.

When it comes to determining whether or not to suspend players, the board may not be the sole decision maker. According to Athletic Board Chairman and law professor Walter Dickey , some decisions may be left for the head coach or athletics director, depending on the matter. The board has jurisdiction on the more severe incidents, particularly those involving any alleged criminal activity.

Dickey said “taking the decision out of the coach’s hands” eliminates a conflict of interest for coaches who are measured by wins and losses.

The relationship between the Athletic Board, head coaches, and the athletics director can be characterized as a system of checks and balances. Dickey recalls an instance a few years ago in which a player, dissatisfied with a coach’s suspension decision, appealed to the board in an attempt to overrule the coach. Dickey declined to give the specifics of the case, but stressed how the system is designed to work for the administration, coaches and students alike.

 

[Dr.Don]

This is not an easy problem to deal with, no matter what anyone says or reports. I let the system decide.

 

[Bronko Nagurski Gopher]

yawn! that being said, i have a few questions.

1.) who in the hell is michael rietmulder?

2.) why do i care what another smarmy reporter thinks? let alone a college paper reporter?

3.) who outside of the u of m campus actually reads the minnesota daily?


that is all. thanks!