Urick quote on Duke mess

[guru]

In the story in today's Washington Post, Urick says: "I think obviously what happened at Duke could've happened on any number of campuses," he said. "I feel bad for Mike and his family. For those of us in the coaching profession, this is tough to see."

"OBVIOUSLY" this could have happened on any number of campuses? Really? I sure hope it couldn't have happened at GU, and I really hope Urick hadn't read that email before he said this. I understand he was probably caught off guard by a reporter's phone call, but I just don't think that quote sounds very good.

[kchoya]

Why couldn't it have happened on any number of campuses? If it [allegedly] happened at Duke, why not somewhere else?

[guru]

I just don't know that it's obvious that this type of behavior - if true - is prevalent at lots of campuses. I would like to think it's not. In any case, the email that was sent was so sickening that I am fairly certain THAT type of thing is not common on most campuses. Don't get me wrong - I've been involved in email chains that were in poor taste, but nothing even approaching the level of what was sent by that Duke lax player.

[nychoya3]

Well if we're talking about the email, it's still just one email by one drunk kid sent late at night. Bad as it is, it's pretty ancillary to the actual problem here, which is the alleged rape.

Urick is just sticking up for a fellow coach, pointing out that kids make bad decisions or do horrible things sometimes and there's not too much a coach can do. There have been rapes by Georgetown students. A student was killed by another student on campus only five years ago. Urick's point is that it doesn't neccesarily reflect on Pressley.

[guru]

Fair enough. It's certainly not a terrible quote, I just thought "obviously" was an odd word choice, given the heinous nature of the alleged crime, and the way the fallout was handled by the Duke program.

[SFHoya99]

This can and does happen at every college campus in the country. Rape statistics, even though some of them may be inflated, are frightening. It's not an isolated problem or rare occurrence.

[kchoya]

guru said:

I just don't know that it's obvious that this type of behavior - if true - is prevalent at lots of campuses. I would like to think it's not. In any case, the email that was sent was so sickening that I am fairly certain THAT type of thing is not common on most campuses. Don't get me wrong - I've been involved in email chains that were in poor taste, but nothing even approaching the level of what was sent by that Duke lax player.

He's not saying it's prevalent at a lot of campuses, but that this could happen anywhere. If it can happen at a school with the reputation of Duke, then it can happen most anywhere. I don't think this is commonplace on college campuses. At least I hope not. But I think that few schools are immune to something like this happening.

[hoya4ever]

I have heard people talk about this all the time, that our guys wouldn't do it, that we are better than that. Personally, yeah I can't see our guys even do something remotely similar but think about it: our guys went to school with those guys. In fact it's pure recruiting chance that those three went to Duke. If they were good enough to go there they were good enough to come here. It's all chance. It could have happened anywhere.

[Filo]

hoya4ever said:

I have heard people talk about this all the time, that our guys wouldn't do it, that we are better than that. Personally, yeah I can't see our guys even do something remotely similar but think about it: our guys went to school with those guys. In fact it's pure recruiting chance that those three went to Duke. If they were good enough to go there they were good enough to come here. It's all chance. It could have happened anywhere.

Fair point, to some extent. But, missing from your post is the environment in which the alleged crimes were committed. The racial environment is one part, but also -- it seems that the Duke lax team was treated as the most privileged among the already privileged (granted this is based on media accounts, not based on my personal knowledge). What is the environment like at GU now (honestly asking, since I have not been in campus in quite a while)?

[JimmyHoya]

There's is a potential for supreme stupidty on every campus, athletes and non athletes included.

While it may not always come in the form of rape, it could be like the garbage at Baylor, the UC's, etc.

[HoyaLawya]

Well ... suburbia in NJ is thoroughly roiled. And Delbarton spokemen have gone into hiding.

www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060407/COLUMNISTS03/604070338/1102/COLUMNISTS

Whether its author was drunk or not when he wrote it, there's some real sick puppy mentality in that e-mail -- as in waaaay over-the-line misogynistic "madonna/whore" delusional crazy stuff. Seattle paper tried to gloss over a little of it with bracketed substitute words.

seattlepi.nwsource.com/miller/265913_miller07.html

[Madgesdiq]

This is not an attack the victim or defend the accuser post. However, I really think the media has been irresponsible in handling this when there are so few facts known. This article indicates that there may be more to this story. I am not jumping to conclusions either way, but for a newspaper like the NY Times to show pictures of students that haven't been charged with anything is less than responsible journalism.

www.wral.com/news/8513890/detail.html?rss=ral&psp=news

[Cambridge]

The email is a near quote from American Psycho. The response email from his friend supposedly said "I'll bring my Phil Collins CD."

Not saying that it makes it any better, but that adds a lot of context to the email.