Defending Fab Melo Off The Court: See Why His Bad Grades Aren’t Completely All His Fault

Fab Melo will miss the rest of the NCAA Tournament due to academic issues.

Yesterday afternoon as Syracuse University Men’s basketball team was headed to Pittsburgh for the first round of the NCAA Tournament reports broke that star center, Fab Melo was not aboard. The reasoning, no one knows completely as it’s just all speculation however, a close source told ESPN that it was due to Melo’s academics.

Now this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen Melo out of the Syracuse line-up as in late January of this year he missed three games that were against Notre Dame, Cincinnati, and West Virginia.

The Orange went 2-1 in that stretch, the loss coming from Notre Dame (67-58) which happened to be the Orange’s first loss of the season.

They averaged 60.3 points a game during that stretch, which was 14.2 points per game less than their overall average with Melo in the line-up (74.6). Though, that’s not all that decreased during the absence of Melo as both the Orange’s rebounding and blocks a game decreased drastically. Going from 35.3 rebounds a game to 26.7 rebounds a game and going from 7 blocks a game to just 3.3 a game.

Though while the reasoning for Melo’s suspension is realistically his fault, as it’s his grades and his academic problems, but does that really give fans the right to be angered by his poor grades? No it doesn’t. I mean looking at it from his eyes and not from the un-supportive Syracuse fans that they’re, how difficult do you really think it is for him?

I mean coming from another country (Brazil) and switching languages (Portuguese to English) and going to a school whose students’ average GPA is a 3.6 is very hard to do. Now I do understand that Melo went to a private school, Sagemont High School located in Weston, Florida, however he only went their for two years (playing for them just one year due to transfer rules).

So for people to say that he’s “dumb,” “stupid,” “an idiot,” or other degrading comments such as those, is just wrong. I’d like to see those people go to Brazil, or China, or any other country really and try to succeed in one of those College Systems, I bet they would struggle too.

Continuing with that, I bet some of the people that are saying the degrading comments aimed towards Melo probably wouldn’t even be able to handle Syracuse University despite knowing the English language and being a United States citizen. In addition to that keep in mind that Melo wasn’t just a student, but a student athlete as well.

So that person attending the University would have to handle both his grades and a division one sport which can take a toll on any athlete, let alone an athlete from another country.

So like the old saying goes, “Never judge a person until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.”

But before you go, can you tell me what this means? “Fab Melo suspenso por tempo indeterminado para o restante do torneio da NCAA.”

Now without using the internet, or your phone, or anything along those lines, being honest, did you have any clue what that meant? Its okay if you didn’t as you’re not alone as I asked five people the same question and they all gave me the same response, “no idea.”

Though, what about the language that the sentence is in, could you at least tell me that? It’s Portuguese.

Though now, in-case you’re still wondering what that sentence meant in English it meant, “Fab Melo suspended indefinitely for the remainder of the NCAA tournament.”

Easy right? Though, not easy if you don’t know the language.

The Truth Will Come Out: Bernie Fine Didn’t Molest Anyone

Bernie Fine has been at Syracuse University since 1963.

Bernie Fine started his coaching career with Syracuse University in 1963 as the team’s student manager. Fine would go onto graduate in 1967 with B.S. in personnel and industrial relations. Though that wouldn’t be the last of Syracuse as in 1976 when Jim Boeheim became the head coach he hired Fine as of his assistants. Fast forward 35 years later assistant head coach Bernie Fine is being accused of molesting two former ball boys and is on a leave of absence that was handed out by the University.

The two alleged victims are Bobby Davis, who’s now 39, and Mike Lang, now 45. Davis told Outside the Lines that Fine had been molesting him since 1984, on road trips, at Fine’s house, and hotel rooms. As for Lang he told Outside the Lines that Fine had been molesting him since he was in sixth grade.

This is the second incident revolving molestation charge from an NCAA coach within a week’s span, as news broke last week about Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky was accused of molesting several young boys. Which is why this really brings to the conclusion as if this allegation is really true or not? Because Davis told police officials in 2003 about the molestation incidents, however they ignored it as there wasn’t enough evidence. Though eight years later, Davis isn’t giving up as he now has a witness; his step brother, Mike Lang.

Despite adding another witness, the story just doesn’t fit, because why would Lang in 2003 come to the police officials and not bring Lang with him as well? Also too, why did they pick now to come out? Because it’s a perfect time; our society is still in shock from the whole Penn State incident and is still trying to recover from it. So now Davis comes out during this time and looks like another victim that was scared like the others and gets away with it too.

Lastly, in the interview with Outside the Lines both Davis and Lang took very long to respond to the simple questions about when it happened and where it happened. They paused several times in efforts to think and used several “ums” showing that they were nervous and pretty much lying. Let’s be honest if you suffered through such a “horrible experience” as they claim that they did, don’t you think that you would remember every single detail, every single second, the time that it happened, and how old you were?

Head coach Jim Boehim isn’t buying it either as he issued a statement stating, “I know this kid, but I never saw him in any rooms or anything,” Boeheim told ESPN. “It is a bunch of a thousand lies that he has told. You don’t think it is a little funny that his cousin (relative) is coming forward? He supplied four names to the University that would corroborate his story. None of them did…there is only one side to this story. He is lying.”

Duke, Only Remainning #1 Seed!

After Kansas fell early in the tournament in a series of unbelievable upsets, Syracuse later followed suit losing to Butler.  Kentucky was the latest victim losing to West Virginia.  Duke stands as the only #1 seed left in the tournament.  WVA is the only Big East team left in the tournament.  The Big East received the most tournament bids (7).  Louisville, Villanova, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Marquette have all lost.  The final 4 consists of MSU playing Butler and Duke playing WVU on April 3rd.  Championship game is set for April 5th.

NCAA Tournament #1 Seeds

The NCAA tournament brackets have been published.  Teams earning a #1 seed this year are Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, and Syracuse.  All 4 are solid picks to go to the final 4.  However, it is well known that the odds of all four #1 seeds making the final four are bad.  Actually, it has only happened once in tournament history.  For a little bit of added drama, Syracuse plays Vermont in the first round.  Vermont played Syracuse in the first round of the tournament in 2005.  Syracuse was expected to perform very well in the tournament that year.  Vermont pulled a huge upset for their only NCAA tournament win in school history.  The stage is set for some theatrics starting tomorrow night.  Don’t forget to tune in to CBS to watch 64 teams battle it out for the championship.