High school hoopers take note: MU hoops is becoming a terrible example

There is little doubt that the University of Missouri's hoops program is STILL in shambles. Unable to recover from the all-too-memorable Quin Synder era, the Tigers are in the headlines yet again for the wrong reasons.

This list of MU mishaps is getting long, too long. Colorado football is no longer the laughingstock of shambled programs in the Big 12. Missouri basketball is.

It's too early to turn the cold shoulder to Mike Anderson. In all fairness, he hasn't been given a long enough shot to shoulder all the blame for this team. A lot of the problem still lies in the shadow of Coach Q, many of the players involved in the fight last weekend outside Club Athena were Coach Q's boys. And Anderson deserves a round of applause for the disciplinary actions he took this week.

But at some point, and hopefully sooner rather than later, somebody needs to step up and make this stop. Whether it be the president, the athletic director, or the head coach taking charge, it needs to happen. This program needs a new direction. A positive direction. If Q's old players are going to continue to act like thugs and hooligans in the streets of Columbia, then drop their scholarships, kick them off the team, and start the hell over.

Bottom line.

Send the message to the new recruits that this is a program following the football teams' direction. This is a program in rebuilding mode, and it won't take much, but it can't stand for selfish, egotistic BS off the court.

It's hard to say whether or not those guys were just coming to the aid of a friend in need. In all fairness, I won't rule it out. Maybe it was legitimate. But I doubt it. I've been around that campus long enough to know that those players are worshipped. Students bow and pray at their feet. Girls fling their panties at them.

If they can't handle being bullied around by one or two drunk guys at a bar, if they can't just turn the other cheek and move away from the bad man making faces and turn toward the 98% of the bar that thinks they're god ... if they can't handle themselves, then they should be punished.

You're not going to convince me that Hannah was in a situation where he couldn't have walked away. I wasn't there, but I'd be willing to bet that this is an issue of somebody stepping on the little man's pride. And the little man just couldn't handle people laughing at him.

When you're getting a free ride to a Big 12 school to play basketball, you don't need to prove your worth. We know you're a stud. Walk away. Or fight ... and have your name involved with negative commentary all across the country. Your choice.

And high school hoopers take note: You're on the basketball team, which automatically makes you one of the coolest kids in the school. Don't blow it because some punk is jealous.