Across All Sports

When Bobby Davis and Mike Lang first came forward saying that Syracuse assistant coach Bernie Fine sexually molested them, I, like many, was suspicious. The accusations came just days after the scandal involving Jerry Sandusky, the long-time assistant of former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. It just seemed too coincidental for Davis and Lang to wait until just that moment. And given that Lang is Davis’ step-brother), it seemed more like a way for the two men to get a payoff then anything else.

Well, I owe both men an apology for doubting them.

Today, Outside The Lines released a 2002 audio tape of a conversation between Davis and Fine’s wife, Laurie Fine, in which she admits:

I know everything that went on, you know. I know everything that went on with him … Bernie has issues, maybe that he’s not aware of, but he has issues … And you trusted somebody you shouldn’t have trusted.

Davis recollects Laurie Fine telling him that she once witnessed the molestation herself, peeking through a window and seeing her husbands horrifying acts.

And yet what did Laure Fine do? Nothing. Zero. Zippo.

How could she possibly sit back and let her husband sexually molest a young boy? How could she continue to let it happen? Why didn’t she tell Davis not to come over? Or get rid of the personal room that Davis had in their home? Why didn’t she go to the cops or to Syracuse University? Why didn’t she do anything in her power to put a stop it?

We’ll never know the answer, but it is despicable that she did nothing. Even worse, Davis claims that he and Laurie Fine also had sexual relations themselves when he was 18. Laurie Fine goes on to say:

You know, he needs … that male companionship that I can’t give him, nor is he interested in me, and vice versa

So neither husband nor wife had any interest in each other but they did share one thing in common: a revolting, sexual interest in Bobby Davis.

Note: I have spent the past few months studying abroad in Florence, Italy and have been unable to update the site. Look for more updates and posts in the next few weeks and onwards.

Every year, we hear how good the Big East is at basketball. Experts wonder how many teams the league can get into the NCAA tourney and how many teams have legitimate Final Four aspirations. Last year, 11 Big East teams danced. After the first weekend, guess how many remained?

Two.

The conference had five teams ranked in the top four in their brackets, meaning that all five were expected to advance to the Sweet 16, but only one of those teams, eventual National Champion UCONN, did. The only other team to reach the second weekend from the Big East was Marquette and they advanced by knocking off another Big East team in Syracuse. In retrospect, the conference was not worthy of 11 teams.

In his college basketball preseason power rankings for Yahoo Sports on September 14, Jason King said, “The Big East may be even tougher than it was last season.” Well, given the conference’s poor showing last March, that shouldn’t bee too hard to accomplish. Except, King’s tone implies that he thinks the Big East was tremendous last year and can actually out do that last year. Read more…

Do you know who Tyler Laser is? I doubt it and you shouldn’t. I didn’t until a few minutes ago when I came across this article saying that the NCAA had denied Laser’s appeal for an additional season.

Except, Laser’s circumstance is a bit different. The NCAA states that a player can earn an additional year of eligibility if he plays in less than 30 percent of his team’s games (or equal to).

Laser played in 10 games this past season before he was injured and needed season ending surgery. His school, Eastern Illinois, played 29 games on the year. Thus, Laser played in 34.4% of his team’s games.

And that’s all it took. After waiting a few months to hear the answer to his appeal, Laser found out yesterday that his college career had come to an end.

When I first read that article, I was once again annoyed at the NCAA. It seems every week I find a new article that shows how the NCAA is looking out for its bottom line and not the kids that make them that money. But after further reflection, I don’t disagree with them here.

At some point, there has to be a line. The NCAA decided that line was 30 percent, a pretty reasonable number. You can’t just grant slight exceptions, because then that line becomes meaningless. All of a sudden, it’s 35 percent, then 40 and so on and so on. Eventually, a player will miss five games and be eligible for an extra season.

In the article, Diamond Leung contends that “Laser had played one game over the participation limit [30 percent of the season] that would have allowed him to gain back the additional year.” I’m a bit confused on this. If Laser had played in just nine of his team’s 29 games as Leung suggests, that would still be 31 percent and above the NCAA’s threshold.

If somehow Leung meant that if Eastern Illinois had played an additional game than Laser would get an added season, he’d still be wrong. In that case, Laser would have played in one-third of his team’s games.

Either Laser had to play two fewer games (8/29=.275) or Eastern Illinois would have had to play five more games (10/34=.294). That’s more than just a single game as Leung suggests. It’s heartbreaking for Laser, but the NCAA had to draw a line.