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http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2010/sep/13/woods-suspended-wfu-basketball-team/sports-college/
First, clearly this is a bad situation for him, for the girlfriend, and especially for the child. It’s impact on our basketball team will be significant, but in the greater scheme is not nearly as important. Second, innocent until proven guilty. This is a very serious charge so people should not be especially careful not to jump to conclusions. There are multiple ways in which he might not be guilty, despite the injuries involved. Quite frankly, I don’t think it is productive to discuss the possibility of his innocence (or of his guilt) until the court makes its finding. Third, I have every confidence that the WFU administration will act appropriately, suspending him from the team until a verdict is made and removing him if found guilty. It is also important to note that at the same time this is going through the NC court system it is also going through the WFU judicial system, which presumably has lesser evidentiary requirements. If found guilty there he will likely be suspended from school for at least a year, if not expelled altogether. The judicial board has never hesitated to take severe action against other athletes, including football players, so special treatment there is quite unlikely. Fourth, this could be absolutely devastating to our basketball team’s performance. Without Tony Woods our options at center are Ty Walker, who has played probably 30 minutes over 2 years, and freshman Carson Desrosiers. We had big expectations for Tony based on the flashes he showed last year and us finally having a someone over 6′ tall to coach him (Mark Pope of the 1996 UK team that took out Duncan and company in the Elite 8). Regardless, as previously noted, this a mere side note relative to the impact this could have on the girl friend and child.
At the very least we are all disappointed that Tony Woods allowed himself to be in a situation where such charges were possible, whether or not they are true.
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