By Mike Gallagher
It seems all the hubbub and hoopla around Royce White and Trevor Mbakwe donning the maroon and gold was all for naught. Well, for this season at least.
With the news last week that Royce White was quitting the Gopher Basketball team already hitting Gopher fans down this holiday season, it appears that the Gophers other prized recruit will sit out this season as well.
The monotony of the American legal process, one that Royce White cited as one of the reasons he was stepping away, is rearing its ugly head again. Mbakwe’s trial date for his felony assault charge, which was set for December 14th, has come and gone with no action. It was subsequently pushed back to have the pre-trial set to begin January 7th.
By that time, the Gophers will have played three conference games already, and Mbakwe will still not have even seen his actual trial yet.
The court date being pushed back is a result of a number of different issues taking a very long time to develop. Firstly, Darnell Dodson, University of Kentucky player and Mbakwe’s former roommate at Miami-Dade Community College, would not have been able to make the December 14th trial to speak on Mbakwe’s behalf because of the hectic UK basketball and finals schedule. The same goes for Mbakwe’s former coach, Matthew Dunn, now an assistant at Memphis.
Secondly, the girl that was supposedly hit by Mbakwe was nowhere to be found to give a deposition, which strikes some as odd and was one of the reasons that Tubby Smith thought the charge might be dropped and Mbakwe would be cleared to play. Unfortunately, that never came to fruition and everyone involved has been left in limbo.
That being said, Mbakwe has a number of different people backing him in this long journey, andlined up to testify on his behalf when the trial does finally come around. It’s becoming pretty clear, with the character of the girl being developed a little more, the number of people on Mbakwe’s side, and mounting evidence secured by his lawyer (photo texts, facebook posts, and phone records), that he will be proven innocent when the time comes.
But by that time it will be at least the middle of January and the Gophers will have been playing without Mbakwe for nearly two months.
Obviously, Mbakwe is allowed to work out on his own and stay in shape and all, but Trevor would have to get into basketball shape and jump right into a team that has gotten used to each other for the entire season. Trying to come into a situation like that doesn’t make too much sense for the team or for Mbakwe, who could easily take a redshirt and have two more full years with the program, rather than having one of them shortened because of legal troubles.
Knowing how Tubby coaches, he goes with the guys that got him there and will always be cautious with a guy that hasn’t gotten a lot of time in his system and may not know the intricacies of it yet. With Mbakwe being a newcomer, he hasn’t been around Smith very long. A returnee might be able to fit in Smith’s scheme better and more quickly, but Mbakwe doesn’t have that experience to do so.
It always takes time to adjust to game speed and being out there against actual competition, a luxury Mbakwe wouldn’t have jumping in so late in the season. It’s been a long time since he stepped foot on a college court for a game, and the Big Ten is not too forgiving on newcomers looking to ease their way back in to basketball.
As much as it may hurt Gopher fans to hear this, you should just move on this year and put your curiosity about a possible return aside. There’s no use WASTING your brainpower thinking about it, when you could be wasting your mind strength thinking about so many other things, like when Royce White’s first record will drop.
I’ll advise Trevor Mbakwe the same thing I advised you, readers. Don’t waste your time thinking about this year Trevor. Take care of your legal problems, take a redshirt, and don’t WASTE a year of your eligibility on half a season of basketball.
whether innocent or guilty, please tell our kids to stay away from questionable situations… they should not put themselves in a position to be accused of wrongdoing, even if they haven’t done anything… this is especially true for anyone who may at some time be in the public eye, as the media are relentless & can ruin people’s lives… BE CAREFUL!
If he’s innocent, what’s the questionable situation he put himself in?