Kickin' It
Kai Caddy

Tupelo and the Gulf South Conference Tournament are next up for the Bears and Sugar Bears, but what a wild regular season closer we had on Thursday.

Thursday was the last time the Sugar Bears’ and Bears’ seniors would see time on the Farris Center court. There was quite a crowd on hand prior to the start of the women’s game. It was Greek Night — the one night of the year the Greeks manage to wander on over to the Farris Center and support the university’s athletic programs.

Nevertheless, it seemed like it was going to be a great night. From all accounts it looked to be a spectacular night. UCA brought home two victories and cemented their spots in the tournament (the men just poured their 18th layer on top, they’ve been stuck in fifth place for the last week or two). All kinds of honors were dished out between games, at halftimes and even during timeouts.

So, on the surface it looks like one great night for UCA, but once you get below the surface a little bit, some things went horribly wrong.

About mid-way through the second half of the women’s game, SAU figured out that they weren’t going to win the game and just looked like they were going to hurt folks.

Well, they did. Freshman point guard Renita Dobbins got bumped and landed badly on her knee. After some tests Friday, it was determined she had a torn ACL, thus putting her out for the rest of the year.

On that particular play, SAU didn’t appear to be after anyone. Earlier, though, the Lady Riders seemed to be just getting dirty. So, it would be unfair to say that anyone was trying to hurt Dobbins, but based on the previous minutes in the game and the Lady Riders’ reputations for dirty play it can’t be completely ruled out.

The referees should have garnered control of the game much earlier when Carone Harris was tackled a couple of time and when Dobbins got bumped and called for an offensive foul.

Now on to the men’s game. It started out just fine and dandy, with Senior Night ceremonies taking place between games and coach Rand Chappell giving all five UCA seniors the starting nod for the ball game.

Going in the locker room at half time the Bears held a comfortable nine point lead, but it was not over yet.

At the half a Who’s Who ceremony was held. (You know Who’s Who. The folks that “honor” you by putting you in that book that costs something like $40.)

Several of the Greeks were Who’s Who honorees, and the Greek section of the arena suddenly came to life with their loudest cheers of the night.

After the ceremony was over, the mass exodus had begun. First the Greeks grouped together and headed for the exits as fast as they could. Unfortunately their exit was slightly postponed. Since they hadn’t spent much time in the Farris Center, they had trouble finding the exits. After a couple of tries, they had it down and they were gone within five minutes. The crowd that had been close to 2,000 folks had suddenly slimmed to about 500.

With about four minutes left in the game, the place got even emptier when three senior basketball players decided to leave the bench.

It seems the three players weren’t happy with their minutes. It may seem like a logical explanation: pissed at coach, leave bench. But, it’s really not. Besides making yourself look bad, you’re making the coaches and the institution look bad.

There’s no reason the players can’t be upset, but that was not the way to show your disgust. Grin and bear it for those last five minutes, then go meet with the coach and have a nice civilized conversation about the situation. It’s not that hard and it makes everyone look a hell of a lot better.

Also, there couldn’t have been a worse time to do it than the game before the conference tournament starts.

It was a very interesting night and it leads to even more interesting things in the days to come. Will the Sugar Bears be able to carry on without one of their leaders and win the elusive Gulf South Championship and will Coach Chappell have enough troops to even get a game going?

It’s been an exciting season and it should only get more exciting, even without some key players.

See ya in Tupelo.