Reaction to the Duquesne Shooting

By now I'm sure everyone has heard about the incident at Duquesne University this weekend. At the risk of publishing untrue facts (oxymoronic) as many members of the media have done in the past couple of days, I'll review briefly.

Two men, one of whom has been detained while the other remains at large, allegedly shot at five Duquesne basketball players outside of their dorm room. Apparently the shooting was a reaction to a dispute involving a female at a black student union dance. One of the players, Sam Ashaolu, remains in critical condition and is apparently "fighting for his life" according to first year coach Ron Everhart. Two others, Stuard Baldonado and Kojo Mensah remain hospitalized but seem to be healing fine.

First off, my prayers go out to Ashaolu and his family. From every article I've read there seems to be a very supportive atmosphere on the Duquesne campus, who have put basketball on the backburner despite there being less than a month until the season.

But, I think it's sad that incidents like this happen all over the country in Division I athletics. Granted, this one is a little bit more serious than others, but to me it just seems like the players make themselves too accessible to the public. I'm not saying that basketball, football, or tennis players should stay in their dorm rooms all night and study, but I do think they make themselves targets for incidents like this.

Before fleeing to Towson, I was a University of Maryland student twice-removed (literally; they removed me twice). While there I saw Maryland basketball players at every single function, girls dangling from their arms and liquor on their breath even if they were underage. I've seen girls get into physical altercations just because they wanted to go home with the 12th man (I'll call him #21). These guys literally thought they were Gods. In fact, one of them (I'll call him #13) even tried to hit on my girlfriend while I was standing right in front of him.

And, these weren't like swanky parties. Hell, they couldn't have been if I was there. These were public settings. Guys partied like rock stars, and every girl wanted to be a video vixen.

The media hypes these kids up so much that they develop God complexes, but at times we forget that these are just college kids. Occasionally college kids get in trouble.

All this being said, nobody deserves to get shot, especially over something as petty as a lust interest. I really do hope that those kids heal so that everybody in the Duquesne community can move on.