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Post by panammaniac on Feb 16, 2023 14:37:57 GMT -8
NMSU has handled the situation swiftly and professionally. Coach Heiar is gone after less than one full season. Terminated for cause, although it's likely that Heiar won't go quietly and there will be some sort of settlement. They haven't released the names of the assailants or victims yet due to privacy concerns and an ongoing investigation, but from all accounts there is a very high likelihood that criminal charges will be filed - if not by the victim(s) then by the DA.
One thing I kindly ask of the people of this board - please take anything you read in the national media about the NMSU situation with a huge grain of salt, particularly if the source is from an Albuquerque based journalist. NMSU is in the situation, as we often find ourselves in, of having very limited ability to hit back. The Albuquerque media is heavily favorable to UNM and loves to twist facts to fit their narrative of throwing NMSU under the bus. Colin Deaver in particular is one prominent journalist up there who's licking his chops at the opportunity to sling mud. In the Mike Peake incident on the UNM campus last November, the Albuquerque media conveniently fails to mention the fact that three UNM students are facing criminal charges for instigating the incident, while zero people connected to NMSU have been charged and likely will not be. Not that the NMSU players weren't at some level of fault, but the Albuquerque media is doing everything they can, as they often do, to avoid any accountability for UNM.
Las Cruces has no real media of its own. No TV stations other than the campus based PBS, only a few radio stations, and a nearly worthless fish wrapper of a newspaper that doesn't even currently have a beat reporter covering Aggie basketball. Our "major" media comes out of Albuquerque and El Paso. Albuquerque flat out hates Las Cruces and NMSU. El Paso is slightly more friendly to NMSU, but it's also a rival city. But that's the predicament we're in, with no major media outlets to hit back with. Unfortunately the Albuquerque chatter is what ultimately makes its way through AP and to the national outlets.
NMSU basketball will be fine. There is nothing wrong with our culture, and there is no lack of institutional control going on. This was a very unfortunate bump in the road caused by a coach who was clearly in over his head running a D1 program, combined with bringing some players with him from the JUCO ranks who probably had no business roaming a D1 campus.
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