Girmindl's Ghost

Rumors: Not much to talk about today, but rumors are flying over at syracuse.com that the Albany player who knocked out Hans might face some discipline. Someone said that WTEN showed a tape of it, but I haven't seen it yet. I also don't know the extent of Hans' injuries, although from what I gather he's pretty much fully recovered, save for a few chipped teeth. And obviously, that's the most important thing in all of this.

As I said on Sunday/Monday, I didn't have a great view of the incident because of my relative location to it in the bleachers. So I'm going to reserve all judgement now until I see the tape. I can tell you that my intial reaction at the time was that it was more than just a incidental collision. But that was largely based on seeing Brad very adamantly protesting to the referee about it. I've heard various eyewitness acounts - ranging from "it was totally an accident" to "obviously intentional" - so I'm pretty sure I'll need to see the tape to make a judgement.

However, I did have an excellent view of Brad going down at midcourt in the 1st quarter, because I was sitting on press row at the time. In my opinion, that one was hardly accidental. It was a pretty clear takedown. But again, if a tape exists, I'd like to see that before drawing any real conclusions. One thing that bothers me about what I'm hearing is that both incidents (the takedown of Brad and the elbow to Hans) came directly after the Albany player had their shot blocked or otherwise was stifled on offense. That might indicate that it's not dirty play per se, but instead a lashing out in anger or frustration.

Of course, I have no idea how discipline works in these situations, and even less of an idea of what kind of disciplinary action - if any - is appropriate. I do know that the goal of any discipline system should be to prevent this kind of stuff from happening in the first place. But the best way to do that? No clue. If it's clear that the elbow to Hans was intentional, then I'd think the same system used to discipline an on-court fight would be appropriate. I don't know what that system is, but it's probably a suspension for one or more games, depending on the severity and the prior record of the offender.

I'll update you when I find out more.

UPDATE: Just saw the Erwyn/Hans video on WTEN. Here's what I learend from the broadcast:

1)Albany High has reviewed the two tapes and has determined that it "was not conclusive that it was intentional" and thus they have decided not to discipline Erwyin.

2)The Section 2 executive committee is going to meet tomorrow AM to review the tapes and consider disciplinary action.

Oddly, one thing the news said is that Albany called Erwyn's old coaches to inqurie about this, and they all said he was a choir boy on the court. That doesn't seem possible, given what I've heard people say about his on-court behavior.

Here was my take from the tapes: It's pretty tough to judge. It's not a classic sucker-punch and he doesn't do anything that makes you go, "oh man, he's simply trying to deck him." But he does raise his arm as he runs by, for no apparent reason, and that's more than a bit strange - it's not a natural motion, you don't just do that running down the court. Put it together with my other observations of his play, and other people's descripton of his play, and it looks pretty intentional. If I were the arbiter, a one-game suspension seems appropriate, with a stern lecture about harsher future consequences.

Still, it's not so blatant that the section 2 committee is definitely going to suspend him. I guess we'll see tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 02, 2006 at 1:08 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.