Missouri‘s chances of replicating the (regular season) magic it had last year took a big hit this afternoon when it was revealed that senior guard Michael Dixon would no longer be part of the team. We still aren’t sure if Dixon or the school made the decision or if it was the always popular “mutual decision,” but Dixon, who has been battling an allegation of sexual assault, reportedly texted a friend the following message:
Yea I’m done here bro I’m not gonna be here anymore another girl my freshman year pulled this … on me now it’s coming out and everyone is gonna think it’s real so I’m thru bro I appreciate you tho just let as many (people) as u can know
Dixon followed that with this message:
I have never harmed anyone
Dixon is apparently referencing not only a current investigation by the school’s student council into a sexual assault charge that local prosecutors determined did not have enough evidence to press charges against him, but also apparently an accusation of forcible rape against him from January 2010. The other incident is explained in fairly graphic detail in the story at the link above, but the woman from 2010 reportedly did not press charges because she did not want her family to know about it and didn’t want to deal with the public fallout of accusing a basketball player of rape. According to an anonymous source (are there any other kind?), former Missouri coach Mike Anderson was aware of the accusation and suspended Dixon for “first few games because it wasn’t in the real season, and they needed him to play during the actual games.”
Dixon, who averaged 13.5 points per game in 26.7 minutes last year while sharing time with a bevy of talented perimeter players, was expected to carry a bigger share of the scoring burden for the Tigers this season and with Phil Pressey was expected to form arguably the best backcourt in the nation. Now Frank Haith will have to try to pull his team together and rally after losing the player who was expected to be their senior leader.
Obviously, this is only one side of the story and we would be interested in hearing Dixon’s account of both incidents (from Dixon himself and not his former teammates), but it does appear to reflect poorly on the basketball program and the athletic department even if Anderson is no longer there. We are not naive enough to believe that this type of behavior is that rare with college athletes or any other seemingly entitled individuals, but it is still disappointing to hear.