Max Bieldfeldt is playing his fourth season of college basketball, and tonight will be his "Senior Night" in the Crisler Center. Funny thing is, he will be wearing an Indiana University uniform and playing against the team he signed-up to play for, against the coach who recruited and signed him.
Michigan Basketball Coach John Beilein dismissed Bielfeldt from the UM program last year, casting him aside like a used candy-bar wrapper. Rather than keeping the fifth-year Senior, Beilein gave Bielfeldt his walking papers, presumably in favor of "new blood".
This is the new Wolverine Tradition. Beilein has done it before (Evan Smotrycyz) and Jim Harbaugh has expanded the "Say No To Seniors" initiative, even making his redshirt-juniors take a walk at the last home game of the season on November 28.
Apparently, the new UM formula is:
Fifth-Year College Seniors = Bad
High School Seniors = Good
In case anybody says that Bielfeldt himself wanted out of Michigan, here's one article that clearly shows otherwise. It was Beilein that shoved his veteran towards the exit door.
These are certainly strange days at the University of Michigan. Once a tradition-rich institution, UM now employs the philosophy that winning at any and all costs is the prime directive. If a coach thinks some freshman could help out more than some fifth-year senior, the veteran, who has loyally served the program, is thrown on the chopping block in favor of a kid who hasn't even enrolled in college. If a coach thinks some high school senior could help out more than another high school senior to whom that coach promised an athletic scholarship, the coach can hold the committed kid on a string until such time as the new kid is ready to commit. Then dUMp the first one, loyalty be damned, for a better piece of fresh meat.
And they defend these practices on
the grounds that they are "legal".
As if "legality" was ever the end-all
determinator of MORALITY.
There's a lot more to ETHICS than the law. Bielfeldt should have been allowed to stay where his heart was, where he had devoted his life to helping his team succeed, where he sweated and bled and pushed himself as far as he could go. The current behaviors by Michigan coaches run directly against the fundamental principles of college sports.
When will UM coaches like Harbaugh and Beilein
face some tough questions about how they are
running their "college sports programs"?
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Exactly right. The only changes I would make to post are these:
ReplyDeleteApparently, the new UM formula is:
5th year college seniors = Bad
High school seniors = Good
"If a coach thinks some high school senior could help out more than a player who is already in the program and able to come back for a 5th year, the veteran, who has served the program, is thrown on the chopping block in favor of the kid who isn't even enrolled in college."