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March 24, 2011 in Sports
Blanchette: Doobious decision not high point
The beat goes on for Team Spliff.
Washington State’s athletic department drew its line in the sand with the Pullman police Wednesday, and at the same time muddied its own code of conduct.
DeAngelo Casto, peeping-tommed by cops who alleged he was rolling a doob in his apartment in the wee hours Tuesday morning, quite properly lawyered up and contested the charge on Wednesday – and then, not so properly, was summarily unsuspended and started the Cougars’ NIT quarterfinal win over Northwestern that night.
Now the Cougars board a plane to New York for the JV tournament’s semis. On the plus side, they won’t have to go through customs when they land.
Or they could drive. Is Ken Kesey’s old “Further” bus available?
In the traveling party will be three players – Casto, Klay Thompson and Reggie Moore – who have been cited within the last three months for some form of possession of marijuana, in police actions ranging from routine to dubious to “Are you kidding me, Mr. Junior G-man?” That’s 60 percent of the starting lineup for you stat geeks.
No wonder the Cougars are such a good passing team. If you don’t bogart off the court, the theory must go, you won’t bogart on it.
And now they even pass on their established standards.
From the school’s official statement Tuesday: Casto was “suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules” by coach Ken Bone, who was quoted as being “disappointed in DeAngelo as he let himself and his teammates down.”
Then, on Wednesday, a miracle! No violation!
In clearing Casto to play, athletic director Bill Moos, again in a school-issued statement, referenced “new information” and “unique circumstances.”
He didn’t specify the new and unique stuff, but it’s pretty obvious: the bust was a Buford T. Justice job. A screen missing from Casto’s window in an area hit by recent burglaries was Deputy Peepers’ idea of probable cause to espy the, uh, smoking gun. Casto was asked to give up his goody bag and complied. No search warrant was issued or served.
You know what they say about safe sex – no glove, no love? Be warned, Wazzu students: no drapes, no dope.
Moos explained Wednesday that “the team rule we thought (Casto) violated, he contested. I think he’s got some meat to that. I like to get out in front of these things and probably in retrospect we should have let it play out.”
Hold on. The legalities notwithstanding, the police report said what Casto handed over was marijuana and not pocket lint. Still sounds like a violation of a team rule. Or is it a team rule only if the arrest is by the numbers?
According to Moos’ statement, “The appropriate avenue to take is to allow the legal system to run its course.”
Hmm. Let’s jump to a pertinent passage from WSU’s Student-Athlete Handbook:
“In the case of behavioral problems which involve formal criminal charges by a law enforcement agency, the involved student-athlete will be placed on suspension by the Department of Athletics until the facts of the incident are reviewed.”
So, in effect, Cougar athletics has no code of conduct – or an elastic one.
“I don’t like to take a firm stand on a bowl of Jell-O,” Moos said. “I would say because of the information we got today, it puts the whole thing in a different perspective.”
The perspective here is that reinstating Casto was as situationally sketchy as the bust. But let’s move on to two bigger questions that Moos squared up to address:
• Does Cougar athletics, or at least the basketball team, have a drug problem?
“There’s a drug problem on this campus,” he said. “I know the president is concerned about it.”
Regarding his own playpen, Moos was blunt: “I’m not sure we have a championship mentality here. We have to instill in our student-athletes a mentality that Saturday’s game is more important than tonight’s party. We’re in a location that has a lot of positives, but Pullman is also extremely visible and our young people need to be aware of that.”
He also admitted, “We have to get our disciplinary act together.”
• Are Wazzu athletes being targeted by the Pullman police?
“I have a concern about that,” Moos said. “College Hill is not the collegial, fun, exciting place I remember as a student-athlete, or even working here 25 years ago. It’s become, in my observation, in the minds of the authorities in Pullman the ‘bad part of town.’ I don’t think that’s serving anyone very well.”
The sorts of piddly arrests and citations that make the news in Pullman would be pour-out-your-beer and flush-your-stash warnings in larger cities. But this might be just the sort of enforcement previous WSU administrations sought to tame a campus culture – and it may still be what full-time residents prefer. Might be time for some public forums on that issue.
Oddly enough, Moos met with Pullman police chief Gary Jenkins Tuesday – arranged long ago – to discuss the dynamic. The Casto affair is likely to be the wedge needed to keep that exchange going.
“But we still need to address the drug issue in this department,” Moos said. “In a perfect world, if the Pullman police or campus police wanted to target our athletes, there would be nothing to target.”
Blanchette: GU track lifts off with Thomas 
PhiltheBibliophil on March 24 at 8:36 a.m.
At this “point in the game”, this article seems hypocritical. What Moos and Bone did is no different than what any other money digging school with all the Budget cuts has and will continue to do as education is defunded! About the same thing as the Drug Dealer who sells this Crap to our kids in the first place. If the Police want to make some real money, they need to go EWU/Cheney and enforce “these standards” there. Go Cougars!
Al_Loysius on March 24 at 9:08 a.m.
Great column. John Blanchette is one of the reasons to keep buying the S-R.
I applaud Bill Moos’ candor about a general substance abuse problem at Wazzu, but I wonder if Wazzu President Elson Floyd is cringing a bit to see that in print.
Dino38 on March 24 at 9:20 a.m.
Yes the humor Mr. Blanchette finds in the difficult mistake of a 21 year old kid really shows his true colors. As long as we can make clever quips it’s good reading I suppose?
Excellent journalism.
spokey on March 24 at 10:23 a.m.
Washington State has plenty of trouble getting quality recruits to go to Pullman. A bunch of punk white cops who seem to be targeting black athletes’ is not going to help. If a 20 year old white student gets caught with a beer and a bong what happens to them? How many times have you heard a WSU Grad brag about all the partying they did there? Since most of the students are under 21, most of the partying is illegal even if there is just alcohol involved.
How many other windows have these jerks been peeking in. If your daughter goes to WSU be sure to warn her to shut her curtains.
retmgr on March 24 at 11:01 a.m.
I’m unsure what the purpose of defending WSU’s decision. Casto was in the wrong according to the rules and thats just fact.
It looks like WSU should be looking for some ethical leadership at the top in sports and administration as they don’t seem able to fathom the nature of the job.
No, winning isn’t the only reason for sports, rememberthe word sportsmanship? It dosn’t seem that WSU does.
A problem with drugs, hmmm 3 out of 5 starters? an issue?
Not the police’s problem, it’s WSU’s and the recuiters. End of story.
GoCougs2011 on March 24 at 11:05 a.m.
What kind of awful, biased news article is this? This is from someone who isn’t even in Pullman, who doesn’t know what Pullman is about and what goes on in Pullman. This article is biased and is poorly written, only relying on stupid witty comments aimed at individuals rather than reporting actual news events. Nobody wants your biased opinion, and the Spokesman Review should be ashamed of itself for publishing an article like this. Half of the story doesn’t apply to any situations currently going on, and the other half is unfactual-based opinions anyway. Keep your high school level thoughts to yourself and go write for a high school paper if you’re going to publish poor stuff like this.
terrymr on March 24 at 12:21 p.m.
I don’t think we want to encourage the police to be peeking in through people’s windows so the question of punishment really has to stop there.
Megrove on March 24 at 2:03 p.m.
It’s not rocket science people…..don’t do drugs and u can’t get caught! It’s no ones fault but theirs and if they r not representing themselves as they should be, as role models for our children, then they should not be aloud to play. The WSU administration should be putting honor, discipline and repect before a game. They r not teaching any good lessons by allowing these students to play.
JeffMRC on March 24 at 2:07 p.m.
This editorial is right on target. The problem is very clear now, there is a significant lapse of leadership in both Moos and Bone and they both should be canned and the three offenders booted from the team and their scholarships terminated. This doesn’t have anything to do with WSU, or Pullman, or the police, or campus drug problems, but the lack of accountability in the athletic department that is being perpetuated. Biggest disciplinary action IF you are caught? One game suspension. Big deal. Maybe they can use that line in their recruiting materials. Now every kid on the team or that will be on the team or is thinking about WSU knows there won’t be any penalty, they won’t be held accountable. Apparently character, integrity, sportsmanship, accountability, values, et al mean nothing.
Coug1081 on March 24 at 3:36 p.m.
So all of you would be fine if the Spokane Police decided to peek in your bedroom windows every now and then around 1:30am? Because what you do in the privacy of your house is not just for you.. right?
Come on.. I love all this “Drug Problem” talk.. like they were busted with Garbage bags of weed and in the back room had a bunch of guys working for them cutting up nice little dime bags.
College is a time to learn a little about yourself and also learn a few hard lessons. Im not saying smoking pot is right or wrong, but some of these comments are taking shots at these kids like they are Division Street Junkies…
In California all of these instances would of just been ignored as from what is reported the findings regarding quantity of the substance was very minimal.
I’m pretty sure all these kids have learned a lesson with these experiences and they will grow to be better men because of it..
Isn’t that what growing up and college is all about.
BTW - Blanchette have you ever even been to Pullman?
greenlibertarian on March 24 at 6:02 p.m.
“In the case of behavioral problems which involve formal criminal charges by a law enforcement agency, the involved student-athlete will be placed on suspension by the Department of Athletics until the facts of the incident are reviewed.”
So, in effect, Cougar athletics has no code of conduct – or an elastic one.
Exactly as I pointed out yesterday, I looked through all the student conduct stuff, and student/athlete conduct stuff, and couldn’t find ONE clear example where what happened with this player was directly covered. Those claiming an open and shut case were utterly wrong.
Megrove on March 24 at 8:17 p.m.
If the police thought something might be wrong at my house and they where checking it out….i don’t have a problem AT ALL with them looking in my house! I don’t break the law, therefore I have nothing to worry about. Again, it’s not rocket science people!!! And if I did, break the law, I should have to pay the piper, as should the basketball players, which includes NOT being able to play!
montana_wildcat on March 24 at 8:18 p.m.
Fine column, John. Spot on.
As a side note, I was at the game as part of the tiny contingent of Northwestern alums rooting for the Wildcats. I truly have mixed feelings about this episode. If Castro’s suspension had held and if we had won, I’d have been elated about going to the Garden while at the same wondering if we won against the Cougars’ best. Tough call.
I honestly don’t know how our athletic department would have handled a similar situation. However, I maintain that Northwestern puts principles above short-term gains and would not have handed down a meaningless suspension as this was.
I don’t know for sure, but I think this would have been the case for NU based on other things. For example, we’ve won three Big 10 football championships (and went to the Rose Bowl after the 1995 season) and gone to three straight bowl games (2008, 2009, 2010) while graduating 90-plus percent of our football players. And those degrees positioned people for meaningful careers. Meanwhile, a number of NU players are playing on NFL rosters.
So, if you want to find out if it’s possible to have it both ways - play by the rules and uphold high ethics while achieving athletic success - take a look at Northwestern University. That’s the Wildcats’ way.