Pac-10 Basketball Tipoff Podcast (6 pm PST)

Chris Fowler teeing up the Leach story for Craig James? I am still conflicted by this story but ESPN’s coverage of this story has been sickening.

If we can somehow scrape a win tomorrow afternoon, I think it will really have some big implications for rest of the season.

I tagged up your podcast with tomorrow’s game.

For starters, while I don’t think Craig James’ time at SMU should have anything to do with this current situation, Craig has never been linked to any illegal activity or extra benefits as an SMU student. In fact, he committed to SMU before it was “cool” to go there, as he arrived just on the cusp of our early 80s hay day. Supposedly he made his decision to go SMU because his girlfriend was going there. Obviously though, other players on his team were receiving extra benefits and payments from a slush fund, I’d just like to point out that he was never found guilty of this.

Secondly, while there may have been a way to handle this more privately, to my knowledge, Craig did not make any on air comments about this until after it was announced that Leach was put on probation, and that it was reported by espn that Adam (Craig Junior) was linked to the situation. I don’t see any way Craig could have avoided being interviewed, being that he is WWL color commentator, and ironically, was scheduled to cover the Michigan St.-Texas Tech Game.

Regarding Adam (Craig Junior) James, I’ve heard enough to believe that he is a prima donna, and that he feels entitled to more than he has worked for. But regardless of his character and work ethic, I don’t believe Leach’s decision to throw him in an electrical closet because he wouldn’t practice was appropriate either. Therefore, I’m not sure I can blame Craig for bringing this forth to the university, I imagine many father’s concerned about a son that recently suffered a concussion would do the same.

My opinion is that this is really more about the school’s frustration with Leach after last year’s contract negotiations, and were looking for an excuse to throw him out without pay. I believe the school has turned what would normally be a fixable situation, into a reason to fire Leach, because the school was already fed up with Leach’s insubordinate behavior and frankly his ego.

I just don’t agree with the personal attack of Craig James in regards to this matter, and think the focus should be more on his son’s behavior, Leach’s behavior, and the school’s behavior, and thats the only reason I decided to write up this long winded post. As you may know, I’m an SMU student, and felt obligated to defend a fellow Pony. : )