Analysis: The Emmitt Holt Decision

OK, this one surprised me.

I expected the penalty to be harsh for Emmitt Holt in particular after he was cited a little over a week ago for possession of alcohol along with freshman teammate Thomas Bryant.

Given the incident with Devin Davis less than a year ago where Holt was driving the vehicle that struck his teammate in the road way, you knew that IU coach Tom Crean was going to have to do something that would really get Holt’s attention this time.

The original incident didn’t do it. And seeing Davis and Hanner Mosquera-Perea dismissed on May 15 after Davis was cited for having marijuana in his dorm room apparently didn’t do it either.

So it had to be something major and significant. He got four games last time – two regular season and two preseason. So I was expecting 10 games this time. Perhaps a non-conference penalty that would have him playing by the time the Big Ten season rolled around.

But I had really never given a lot of thought to the possibility that Crean might just dismiss Holt from the Indiana University basketball team.

And yet that’s exactly what happened Monday afternoon.

In a simple, yet straight to the point two-paragraph press release from IU Media Relations, IU announced that Holt had been dismissed and that Bryant would face internal discipline.

The statement read: “Sophomore Emmitt Holt has been dismissed from the men’s basketball program effective immediately for demonstrating exceptionally poor judgment in the circumstances surrounding his recent citation, particularly coming after his involvement in the Devin Davis accident which should have motivated him to make better decisions.

Freshman Thomas Bryant, as a result of his citation, is receiving internal team discipline and is subject to additional discipline for any future failure to live up to his responsibilities to the program.’’

So here’s my take: If this doesn’t completely get everyone’s attention within the Indiana basketball program then nothing ever will.

If there is another drug or alcohol related incident involving a member of this basketball team moving forward then they should simply have their bags packed the next day.

The hammer came down hard Monday afternoon.

For those that want to argue that it was just possession of alcohol and that a “normal college student” would have barely been reprimanded if at all, I will continue to argue that these kids are not normal college students in any way, shape or form.

And considering the fish bowl like existence they currently occupy where their every move is being analyzed and re-analyzed what happened with Holt and Bryant simply cannot happen.

The sad thing for me is I find myself feeling bad for Holt. He’s a kid after all and yes he was at the wrong place at the wrong time but he’s still just a college sophomore. I’m guessing he’ll get a chance to pursue his dream someplace else and I’m sure he’ll flourish there but his Indiana dream has come to a screeching halt.

The big question is did he learn anything? Had he learned anything in the last week or so as we all awaited Crean to hand down his punishment? And will he learn anything moving forward.

I had an interesting discussion with someone within the IU athletic program last week who told me that they have noticed that anyone born after 1996 is a different breed. Some of it is a sense of entitlement but another part is just the attitude that these kinds of things happen to everyone else but they’ll never happen to me.

Well, guess what … it just happened to you.

For those of you scoring at home, that’s three IU basketball players dismissed from the program in a little over four months.

I remember thinking last fall that Indiana basketball couldn’t survive too many more of these types of incidents. I completely feel that way today.

Will today’s actions be enough to stop these guys from having something like this happen again in the future?

Only time will tell. I wish I could be more optimistic.