Sports outlook 8/24

This is a column I had more or less delayed writing in hopes that it would go away. The opposite has happened and after the umpteenth person urged me to weigh in on it -- OK. It is the saga of one Ricky Clemons, another episode in what has become rather routine during the relatively short tenure of the young lions at Mizzou. I know a lot of people out there are not Norm Stewart devotees, but I don't consider myself to be among them for numerous reasons. In the first place, despite his reputation as at least a semi-ogre, he was nothing less than affable and talkative in our meetings over the years. People said, "Yes, but you're the press." Exactly my point. It is the press he was supposed to have so much trouble with as is usually the case when a man speaks his mind. If people don't agree, they condemn. Far too many people don't recall the sorry shape of Missouri basketball in the days preceding Norm Stewart. Back then, a .500 season was cause for celebration. Stewart walked into that bat cave known as Brewer Fieldhouse and transformed the basketball program into one that made Missourians proud. And how many people remember that Lew Alcindor, because of Missouri's journalism school, might well have chosen Mizzou over UCLA had Hearnes Arena been built earlier. Some people are greedy, though, and as much success as Missouri enjoyed under Stewart, it was not enough. Others had personal grudges and the money to back it up. They proved that dollars trump all else in the seedy world that has made collegiate athletics in America something we can all be ashamed of. Sure, the folks who want to dump millions into a new playpen for the Tigers will get their luxury suites, but, most of all, they will get what they want more than that -- continued revenge against Stewart, whose name will not appear in connection with the new building. Over the many successful years Stewart strung together, his most successful came when he and his people beat the bushes of Missouri and nearby states for talent. When Stewart finally broke with that tradition and started recruiting in places like Detroit, where they play a game foreign to what Stewart knew, his days were numbered. When the dollar signs won out and Stewart was put out to pasture where he could be honored at places like KU instead of MU, the call went out for his successor. The primary entry on the replacement's resume had to be that he regularly visited a hair stylist and never stopped at a place with a barber pole. Lures were cast in one direction -- east, where Quin Snyder took the bait and was hauled in. It seems to me there has been a lot of trouble at Missouri since Snyder took over. Snyder had the tunnel vision of so many coaches. People Stewart would never have let on the court were suddenly wearing the Tiger uniform, which had been changed in the post-Stewart era. I suppose the huge "M" on the old uniforms over-emphasized Missouri or something. Snyder's most infamous recruiting snafu has to be the acquisition of Clemons, a dandy if ever there was one. This guy was given more chances than Methuselah was given years. The situation and plot, I suppose, really thickened when Jessica Bunge got her gums in gear. If one-tenth of the things she has said are true, the Missouri program has acquired serious tarnish since the Stewart departure. You see, if Clemons was getting so much from the program, what about others? Certainly he is not an isolated case. We can always go back to the Rush brothers if we want to stir up more mud. As far as Bunge is concerned, I wonder how much trust we can place in what she says. She certainly didn't exercise a great deal of good judgment in dating him in the first place, which led to the shenanigans that landed him in jail and landed the Mizzou basketball program in hot water. Bunge's allegations include cash payments, tests being taken for Clemons by tutors, gifts being bestowed on him and clothing showered on his person by none other than Snyder himself. If even a few shards of this ring true, this guy must have been some kind of basketball talent for people to fawn over him as they apparently did. If not, there must be a real problem somewhere. Sure, I want Missouri to win as badly as most Missourians. But all of these wondrous things that were supposed to happen when the rug was pulled from under Stewart has not happened. Maybe if you win a national championship or finish in the Final Four a couple of times, a bit of probation might not seem all that bad. But the black eye Missouri has gotten over this last fiasco is certainly not worth it. So, enjoy your tickets at Hearnes while you will still be able to see a game from a good seat and remember how much fun it used to be and how proud you stood when Stewart prowled the sidelines. Yet people griped and couldn't wait to replace the guy who pulled the program out of the gutter and made it sparkle. Be careful what you wish for.