| MBB/WBB Pittsburgh Post Gazette's Paul Zeise: Nate Oats said dumb things, but his handling of Brandon Miller situation has been correct

The NCAA tournament will essentially begin this weekend as conference tournaments are the first step toward filling the field. A number of the minor conference tournaments have begun or will begin this weekend, and most of them are one-bid leagues, which means they will only send their champions to the Big Dance.

That means college basketball’s March Madness is about to officially begin, and there will be storylines aplenty as the sport takes center stage nationally for the next month.

Most storylines are good ones, but some, like the Brandon Miller saga at Alabama, are not and I’m quite sure, based on the way the story has been told, the school, team and coach Nate Oats are going to get a lot of criticism and skepticism thrown at them over the next few weeks.

Alabama is projected to be a No. 1 seed, maybe the No. 1 overall seed, in the NCAA tournament and is on everybody’s shortlist to make a Final Four run and perhaps win the national title. And Miller is not just the Crimson Tide’s best player — he is one of the best players in the country.

In short, Miller is the highest-profile player on one of the highest-profile teams and naturally his story is going to be one that is told over and over and used as the basis of larger discussions on many issues both on and off the court.

Some of these discussions — like criticism of some of the things Oats said in the aftermath of it all or the pregame ritual of Miller the other day — is earned and fair. Most of it, however, is going to be way-over-the-top shrieking by a lot of people who are ignorant — and many willfully ignorant — of the actual facts of the case.

First, let’s back up and examine the facts of the case. Here is a good breakdown of why this story is such a big one and another with the timeline.

The Cliffs Notes version of the facts of the case is Miller gave his teammate, Darius Miles, and his friend, Michael Davis, a ride to a sports bar in the bar district in Tuscaloosa. Miles left his legally registered handgun in the backseat of Miller’s car.

Miller was on his way back to the bar district to pick up Miles and Davis when he got a text from Miles saying he needed his “joint,” meaning his gun. Miller, his attorney said, didn’t even know the gun was in his car.

Miles retrieved the gun and apparently handed it to Davis and Davis fired into a Jeep and killed 23-year old Jamea Harris, whose boyfriend returned fire. Davis apparently got into some sort of beef with Harris, her boyfriend and her group, and that’s what led to the confrontation.

Davis and Miles were charged with murder, as they should have been, but Miller, who had nothing to do with the entire incident, was not charged with anything. So the idea he “supplied” or “provided” the gun used in a murder is patently, 100% false because it wasn’t his gun and he never had possession of it.

And the reason he wasn’t charged with anything is because prosecutors said he didn’t commit a crime and therefore they had nothing to charge him with.

Those are the facts, and given those facts, everyone calling for Miller to suspended or kicked off the team, everyone acting as if Oats and/or Alabama are immoral and don’t care that a young woman lost her life is being disingenuous and intellectually dishonest at best and utterly ridiculous at worst.

Oats had a press conference the day it was announced that Miller would not be facing charges and he handled it about as poorly as he could. He said dumb things, things that suggest he had a severe lack of self-awareness, and he was criticized for it. Rightfully so.

“We knew about that,” Oats stated about Miller being at the scene of the murder. “Can’t control everything everybody does outside of practice. Nobody knew that was going to happen. ... Brandon hasn’t been in any type of trouble nor is he in any type of trouble in this case. Wrong spot at the wrong time.”

That’s the wrong answer. Oats knew as much and issued a “clarification” a day later.

The right answer would have been, “This was an absolute tragedy, and the focus should be on the fact that an argument between young people resulted in a young woman being murdered. My heart goes out to her family, as well as the families of Darius Miles and Michael Davis, whose sons are now facing a life in prison for one bad choice in the heat of the moment. That being said, I am confident that Brandon did not have anything to do with this murder nor did he even know there was a feud between these two groups or that he had a gun in the backseat of his car, and that’s why we are so comfortable with our decision not to suspend him.”

Miller didn’t help his cause Saturday when he chose to participate in a pregame ritual as he was being announced as a starter in which he mimicked being patted down by a law enforcement officer. It’s something that actually is fairly common as starters all have to do these ridiculous rituals as they run out to midcourt while they are being announced. But given the circumstances, it was absolutely inappropriate and Oats was quick to apologize for it and condemn it after the game.

The dumb stuff Oats said in his press conference and Miller’s choice of pregame announcement rituals were missteps and worthy of criticism. They came off as cavalier and completely disregarding the seriousness of the incident in question.

Those, however, are separate from the actual issue of whether Miller should be allowed to play basketball for Alabama. And the answer to that question is unequivocally yes, he should.

And the criticism for Oats and Alabama for continuing to stand behind Miller is misguided. For one thing, why do we do this thing where we want to hold basketball coaches to a higher standard than we do prosecutors and district attorneys?

The prosecutor made it clear Miller did not commit a crime and they couldn’t even think of a crime to charge him with. Miller wasn’t a part of the feud that led to the shooting. Miller didn’t own the gun, didn’t provide the gun and wasn’t a participant in the shooting.

Oats was cavalier when he said “wrong spot, wrong time” and it came off horribly, but in many ways, he wasn’t lying. Miller was a victim of bad circumstances, not a bad actor and not someone who was a participant in any way of a murder.

Oats said dumb things, but in the end, he was right not to discipline Miller.

 
Those are the facts, and given those facts, everyone calling for Miller to suspended or kicked off the team, everyone acting as if Oats and/or Alabama are immoral and don’t care that a young woman lost her life is being disingenuous and intellectually dishonest at best and utterly ridiculous at worst.
Nailed it!
The dumb stuff Oats said in his press conference and Miller’s choice of pregame announcement rituals were missteps and worthy of criticism. They came off as cavalier and completely disregarding the seriousness of the incident in question.

Those, however, are separate from the actual issue of whether Miller should be allowed to play basketball for Alabama. And the answer to that question is unequivocally yes, he should.

Glad somebody took the time to research the facts, articulate the sequence of events, then, finally, give their opinion based on the body of the article... which most don't read anymore.
 
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