CURSED AZTECS: San Diego State basketball player Lorrenzo Wade was arrested on felony burglary charges this past month, the latest in a recent line of run-ins wih the law for the school’s athletes. |
Late-night shopping
San Diego State Aztecs basketball coach Steve Fisher lectures his players during the season about how to behave off the court, getting pretty specific about what he doesn’t want to see. “We talk about it all the time,” he says. “ ‘Don’t you be the one that people are going to read about in the newspaper.’ ”
Well, here we are reading about one of his players, Lorrenzo Wade, who got arrested this past month on felony burglary charges after he and a friend visited a young woman in the middle of the night and, apparently, carried off her television. Wade’s attorney claims that Wade was only at this woman’s apartment because he believed her car was blocking a parking space he wanted. So that’s why he was there, in her apartment, at 3:30 in the morning.
The woman first heard knocking at her door, then noticed people in her place, and then finally saw Wade’s friend carrying out a TV worth about $600. Wade’s attorney is making a lot out of the fact that it wasn’t Wade carrying the TV. Good luck with that. Fisher has already indefinitely suspended Wade from the team.
SDSU has had some issues lately. Senior guard Richie Williams had a bench warrant issued for him when he failed to show up for a drunken-driving education program he was ordered to attend following a DUI (the warrant was cleared this past week, when Williams finally came to court and was ordered to resume the program). A few years back, the team also had problems with forward Kyle Spain — who, like Wade, was one of the team’s top scorers. Spain ended up getting bounced from the team, reportedly for positive drug tests.
Getting back to Wade, the alleged TV boost feels like a 30-point crime to me, maybe more like 35. We’ll see what the indictment ultimately looks like.
Really tough love
You’ve got to give Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis credit for one thing. The gastrically stapled former Pats offensive coordinator preaches tough love to his kids, and he apparently means it. Or someone at Notre Dame does, anyway — for there was a punishment handed down to a misbehaving college athlete the likes of which I have never seen before this week.
Earlier this year, ND tight end Will Yeatman got busted for a DUI. Drinking and driving is dumb at any age, but doing it under 21 is especially bad — we get that. And he was punished for it appropriately by the legal system.
But get this: after a 23-7 loss to Michigan State a few weeks back, Yeatman got caught drinking along with 36 other Notre Dame students when an off-campus party got busted by cops. His blood-alcohol level reportedly was .02. This guy is 6-6 and 255 pounds — a .02 blood level for him is like half a drink. A guy that big is a threat to accidentally ingest that much alcohol just by leaving his mouth open in a restaurant. Nonetheless, Notre Dame has suspended the sophomore for the whole season, because they consider this a second drinking offense.
