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Fallout from Pinkston suspension

I don't know how much JayVaughn Pinkston's absence is going to impact Villanova's basketball fortunes this season. Or how much the season off will affect his progress. I do think his presence would have helped, probably sooner than later, if only because he supposedly brought a dimension at power foward that the Wildcats have pretty much lacked for some time.

But now, we'll just have to wait to find out. I just hope he comes back, as he says he's going to. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of folks back in New York who will be telling him to leave, after what went down. It won't be easy on him, having to sit out a semester. Jay Wright can only hope that he indeed learns from it, and is stronger because of it. But you know he's going to hear about it, almost every place he goes from here on out. That goes with the territory.

From everything I've heard about the incident/altercation, I don't have much problem with what the university did. Pinkston got caught in a bad situation. He obviously should have walked away. He didn't. He made a mistake. Now he's going to pay for it. He's hardly the first, or the last. I think Villanova was actually fortunate that it didn't escalate into anything more, since some of his teammates were also at the scene. Things happen. And sometimes you have to face the consequences. The bigger question might be what they were doing at an off-campus party at that hour, but hey, I guess that's just college kids. I used to be one.

By the way, wouldn't it be nice to know what's going to happen to the two victims?  That's not to excuse Pinkston's actions. They are students, too. Will they be disciplined? We'll never know, because the school won't be putting out any press releases on them. The lesson here is that if you're an athlete, you might be held to a different/higher standard. So you'd better understand that going in. As Pinkston's laywer will tell you, there's two sides to every story. And the full story may never be put out there for public consumption. That's just the way this stuff works.

I don't feel sorry for Pinkston. He was wrong. That's why they have rules, and codes of conduct. But it does seem to me that the justice being handed out is not always handled equally. And that is a shame.