re: Tide Hoops | 31-6 (16-2)

Here’s the rest of the article.

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Where does Brandon Miller go to get his reputation back?

It won’t be on the basketball court, even when he scores 41 points as he did Wednesday, with one driving layup to force overtime and another to win the game. When Miller stepped into his sanctuary at South Carolina, he was greeted by craven chants of “Lock him up.”

On what charge? On what evidence? If his attorney’s statement is correct, Miller did not commit either of the damning acts suggested at the preliminary hearing. He did not meet up with Miles in response to Miles’ text to deliver Miles’ gun, which sat hidden in the back seat of Miller’s car, because Miller “was already on the way” when that text was sent. Nor did he park his car to block the exit of the Jeep in which Jamea Harris sat because he had already arrived and parked “when the Jeep pulled up behind him.”

One life already has been lost. Why try to throw away another before even hearing Miller’s side of the story? It would have been wiser, and it will remain so unless facts dictate otherwise, to stand on innocent until proven guilty in a moral and ethical sense as well as a legal one.

Alabama, in possession of far more facts than any of its detractors, has supported Miller by keeping him on the team, on the floor and in the lineup since the tragedy. While major college programs often tilt the scale toward winning over doing the right thing, no convincing case has been made on social media or elsewhere that school officials would have been justified in suspending the freshman, let alone dismissing him.

On what charge? On what evidence? If his attorney’s statement is correct, Miller did not commit either of the damning acts suggested at the preliminary hearing. He did not meet up with Miles in response to Miles’ text to deliver Miles’ gun, which sat hidden in the back seat of Miller’s car, because Miller “was already on the way” when that text was sent. Nor did he park his car to block the exit of the Jeep in which Jamea Harris sat because he had already arrived and parked “when the Jeep pulled up behind him.”

One life already has been lost. Why try to throw away another before even hearing Miller’s side of the story? It would have been wiser, and it will remain so unless facts dictate otherwise, to stand on innocent until proven guilty in a moral and ethical sense as well as a legal one.

Alabama, in possession of far more facts than any of its detractors, has supported Miller by keeping him on the team, on the floor and in the lineup since the tragedy. While major college programs often tilt the scale toward winning over doing the right thing, no convincing case has been made on social media or elsewhere that school officials would have been justified in suspending the freshman, let alone dismissing him.

On what charge? On what evidence? If his attorney’s statement is correct, Miller did not commit either of the damning acts suggested at the preliminary hearing. He did not meet up with Miles in response to Miles’ text to deliver Miles’ gun, which sat hidden in the back seat of Miller’s car, because Miller “was already on the way” when that text was sent. Nor did he park his car to block the exit of the Jeep in which Jamea Harris sat because he had already arrived and parked “when the Jeep pulled up behind him.”

One life already has been lost. Why try to throw away another before even hearing Miller’s side of the story? It would have been wiser, and it will remain so unless facts dictate otherwise, to stand on innocent until proven guilty in a moral and ethical sense as well as a legal one.

Alabama, in possession of far more facts than any of its detractors, has supported Miller by keeping him on the team, on the floor and in the lineup since the tragedy. While major college programs often tilt the scale toward winning over doing the right thing, no convincing case has been made on social media or elsewhere that school officials would have been justified in suspending the freshman, let alone dismissing him.

In a 20-minute interview Wednesday with ESPN’s Rece Davis and Pete Thamel for their College GameDay podcast, Alabama AD Greg Byrne said the school knew within a day of the shooting that Miller and teammate Jaden Bradley had been at the scene. Hindsight shows that Alabama should have shared that information with the public ahead of the preliminary hearing. The school’s silence on that point allowed Miller to become a public villain Tuesday. Despite his lawyer’s strong statement a day later, the original accusation almost always makes a far greater impression.

There are other legitimate fingers to point at Nate Oats and Alabama and their performance this week. The school allowed its head coach to meet the media per usual Tuesday, knowing the preliminary hearing was taking place but not briefing him on the testimony to that point. That was an obvious mistake, as was Oats’ decision to not ask for an update and his shockingly cavalier statement that Miller’s presence at the scene was a case of “wrong spot at the wrong time.”

At least that was the widespread perception of Oats’ words a day before anyone had heard from Miller’s attorney. The attorney’s statement indicates that what Oats said was not terribly far from the truth. He was excoriated for it from coast to coast, but until that moment, Oats generally had said all the right things since the shooting.

As Byrne said, “I’d actually been pleased up until that point about Nate’s empathy through this in trying to manage a very difficult situation.”

The difficulty remains, day by day, in different ways, for so many people. First and foremost, for the family of Jamea Harris, and in a lesser but no less real context, for Miller, Oats, Byrne, Alabama basketball and the university itself. Two other men stand accused of capital murder. There are still questions to be answered, and justice to be served.

Justice in the memory of Miss Harris is not served by slandering anyone with suggestive half-truths in support of reckless conclusions. Better we do what Darius Miles and Michael Davis allegedly, tragically did not do on that fateful night. Step back. Stand down. Do not add to the damage done.

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Shockingly rational take from Scrabinsky.

Is there anyone interested in two tickets for the Arkansas game Saturday?

These kids these days don't use phones to talk, so I would assume all communication between Miles and Miller was via text, which they have.

To me, the tricky thing is if Miller wasn't on his way to Miles before Miles texted him. If Miller was already on his way and then Miles texted him about the gun it looks bad, but isn't criminal. If Miller was already on the way to get him when the text was sent, it had no impact of Miller's actions, so he's 100% in the clear.

By the way, not sure if this was mentioned during the game, but looks like Alabama had another underwhelming performance last night using the Wilson EVO NXT ball.

It’s an ugly ball, too, way too orange. Hope Oats can get them some significant practice time with the ball before the tourney.

You should have known what side of the argument Forde was going to be on.

Forde is a joke. He is yet another media blowhard that wants to sensationalize things without looking at the facts. He wrote articles ten years ago about Auburn having NCAA penalties under Chizik and nothing ever materialized from his Yahoo ! articles.

I had to turn the game off at halftime and just follow online. Just couldn’t take the commentary on ESPN2.

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They've already gone full stupid. It's very difficult to admit that and do a 180. As others come out defending the actual truth, the clowns will just discreetly shut up and try to change the subject rather than admit they were wrong. They'll have a few "but Oats said something slightly wrong" takes for a while, but mostly they'll just pipe down and try to talk about something else.

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Yep. Narrative is going to shift to criticizing Oats and the school and then go away. They jumped to conclusions, but will never admit it. Lacking credibility isn't a barrier to media people. Admitting they lack credibility is.

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He doubled down on saying Alabama handled this poorly from the outset, and that Miller should have been suspended "for at least a couple of games." However, he didn't really specify why he felt that way, other than to say Miller "showed poor judgment."

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This is exactly what I pointed out the other day. National pundits, fueled by opposing fans and a clickbait-y headline, have built Miller up to be responsible for a murder by making it sound like he delivered a handgun to the assailant Uber-style while intentionally blocking the exit of the victim so they couldn't escape.

It's arguable that suspending him for a game or two would have actually caused MORE backlash at this point, because the narrative would be "Miller was an accessory to a murder and caused the death of a young woman, and Oats thought the appropriate punishment was a TWO GAME SUSPENSION?!? I'M VERY OFFENDED!"

There's nothing Alabama could have done other than shut down the basketball program and fire everyone that would appease the Clay Travises of the world, so there's no use in trying to do so at this point.