CHICAGO -The rule is clear as day: A disqualifying foul merits an automatic one-game suspension to take effect immediately.
In this case, the disqualifying foul whistled on Fran Yu was inarguable.
I saw the replay of the incident a hundred times.
In the video, played in slow motion, a referee raises his left hand to call a foul, signalling a dead ball. Yu, who was walking toward the official, sees Mark Sangco falling toward him while trying to avoid another player sprawled on the floor. Yu then sticks an elbow on Sangco's chin.
It was a dirty play. Plain and simple.
Despite all of that, a report by Randolph Leongson of SPIN.ph revealed that Letran plans to appeal the suspension that bars Yu from playing in Game 3 of the NCAA Season 98 Finals this Sunday.
Apparently, Letran's desperation to win another championship has reached a point where it is willing to defy an established rule while appearing to condone their player's violent act.
AND FOR THIS TO COME FROM AN INSTITUTION OF HIGHER LEARNING RUN BY FRIARS IS HEARTBREAKINGLY DISAPPOINTING.
The grounds of filing an appeal usually include a factual error, unfair treatment, or the existence of evidence that does not support a judgement that was rendered.
Letran's planned appeal, according to Leongson's report, only mentions the school's intent to argue the severity of the penalty.
In other words, the Knights are jousting at straws here, pun intended.
I think this is nothing more than an appeal to the emotions of the Management Committee, which showed weakness in others cases it has adjudicated, including the failure to suspend Letran's Paolo Javillonar, who blatantly groped Will Gozum' butt in Game One.
Or, maybe, this is an appeal to let Letran's powerful backers intervene and impose whatever influence they reportedly have in the league.
Either way, it's bad, in form and in taste.
MISGUIDED POSITION
Letran missed a teachable moment here. Instead of setting an example that not even a Finals MVP is above the rules, the university is sending a signal that it worships in the altar of sacred cows.
As long as you are a star player, you can throw a malicious elbow and we will find ways for you to escape the consequences of your actions. That seems to be Letran's position here.
Like many of those who are romanticizing the narrative that this is Yu's last season and it shouldn't end in a suspension, I also felt sorry for him.
But whatever sympathy I had vanished when a picture surfaced showing Yu smiling in the locker room after his ejection.
Oh, the arrogance.
As far as I know, he made no attempt at an apology. Neither was an effort made to reach out if Sangco's jaws were still intact.
How do you appeal and appease that kind of behavior, Letran?
Tonichi Pujante is new to his job as NCAA Commissioner. In the infancy of his tenure, he is faced with the golden opportunity to assert himself as a leader with a backbone, impervious to outside pressures.
Are you that man, Mr. Pujante?
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
