Kostelac Possibly Transferring

[zippy5]

 

[LZIp]

He gone. Too bad it didn't work out for him here. Still feel he has potential.

[Let'sGoZips94]

That opens a scholarship. Very unfortunate circumstances though.

[Akronfan111]

Disappointing. Another black eye for Groce.

[Phootss]

He was never going to see much playing time here - if it is true.  Shame because of what just happened with him.

 

[NWAkron]

Maybe there is more to story than what was in ABJ.

[Let'sGoZips94]

@Akronfan111 Unless we find out Groce errored in the handling of this, this is no way shape or form a black eye for Groce. Purely based on talent, Mark was a fringe DI athlete to begin with and clearly couldn't quite get up to the speed of the MAC, despite showing flashes.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Let'sGoZips94

[clarkwgriswold]

Seemed like a good kid. I wish him luck.  I will always wonder how and why he drove himself to the hospital.  Depending on the circumstances, that would get me to put my kid in the transfer portal.

[clarkwgriswold]

To expand on my prior thoughts, I wonder:

1)  How the situation ever escalated to violence without someone intervening;

2)  How he got pummeled that badly without it being broken up; and 

3)  How and why he drove himself to the hospital, a hospital in Cuyahoga County no less.

[ewbrooman1]

I saw him in the JAR lobby after the game talking to some adults.

[roopride]

Saw him too ar half. Said he was transferring. Was pleasant though. 

[Akronfan111]

1 hour ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

@Akronfan111 Unless we find out Groce errored in the handling of this, this is no way shape or form a black eye for Groce. Purely based on talent, Mark was a friend DI athlete to begin with and clearly couldn't quite get up to the speed of the MAC, despite showing flashes.

I don’t see it like that. Has nothing to do with opinions on his play. Bottom line, under Groce at his practice a UA MBB athlete was assaulted in front of coaches by another UA MBB athlete and then drove himself to the hospital with multiple injuries. Should have never happened - any of it. 

[NWAkron]

14 minutes ago, Akronfan111 said:

I don’t see it like that. Has nothing to do with opinions on his play. Bottom line, under Groce at his practice a UA MBB athlete was assaulted in front of coaches by another UA MBB athlete and then drove himself to the hospital with multiple injuries. Should have never happened - any of it. 

Were you there?  There is limited information available.  Transferring fault to the coaching staff from what we know is a stretch.  

[72 Roo]

2 hours ago, clarkwgriswold said:

To expand on my prior thoughts, I wonder:

1)  How the situation ever escalated to violence without someone intervening;

2)  How he got pummeled that badly without it being broken up; and 

3)  How and why he drove himself to the hospital, a hospital in Cuyahoga County no less.

These thoughts ought to be troubling for anyone who cares about our athletic programs and the athletes in them. If I was K-lac's dad I'd be demanding answers and/or an investigation. You can bet your sweet ass that if this happened to my kid a lawyer would be involved. How can a young man be beaten unconscious with all the coaches, GA's, trainers, managers, strength & conditioning coaches, and onlookers present? Why didn't his teammates intervene? Was it a mugging away from them? Perhaps, who knows. K-Lac's family deserves answers first and the public deserves them second. This is a huge black mark on U of A sports as it currently stands. Transparency is the best and only answer. Perhaps the incident was handled perfectly. If so reveal what was done and let the public judge for themselves. All reports can, and should, be made public. That will not jeopardize the pending court case.

[NWAkron]

8 minutes ago, 72 Roo said:

These thoughts ought to be troubling for anyone who cares about our athletic programs and the athletes in them. If I was K-lac's dad I'd be demanding answers and/or an investigation. You can bet your sweet ass that if this happened to my kid a lawyer would be involved. How can a young man be beaten unconscious with all the coaches, GA's, trainers, managers, strength & conditioning coaches, and onlookers present? Why didn't his teammates intervene? Was it a mugging away from them? Perhaps, who knows. K-Lac's family deserves answers first and the public deserves them second. This is a huge black mark on U of A sports as it currently stands. Transparency is the best and only answer. Perhaps the incident was handled perfectly. If so reveal what was done and let the public judge for themselves. All reports can, and should, be made public. That will not jeopardize the pending court case.

Huge black mark?  Like when the star point guard is a drug dealer?  These guys are adults not two little leaugers.

[kreed5120]

We don't know how many punches were thrown nor the proximity of the other players/coaches were to intervene. The guy throwing the punches was a 7 footer who actively hits the weight room. He wouldn't need to land many blows to do damage. I'm under the impression the coaching staff and the other 15 or so players did what they could to break it up as fast as they could. It's an unfortunate incidence, but let's just not jump to conclusions.

Edited January 16, 2019 by kreed5120

[Let'sGoZips94]

There are some massive assumptions being made, and those assumptions are turning into unproven judgement and accusations. 

 

For all we know, Mark could have made a comment to Gueye that either isn't being reported or nobody heard, that led to an altercation (not trying to justify Gueye's actions). There are some extremely odd and troubling questions to come from this, but until the facts are out and we have absolute proof of fault, assumptions shouldn't be made. Has Gueye been officially dismissed from the team (I apologize if I've missed this in an earlier post)? I think it's odd there doesn't seem to be any defense of Kostelac from the team or coach. You would think if a guy were 100% innocent in a situation, there would be more of a public attempt to defend and apologize to the guy. 

[1981 grad]

Basically, we are all guessing what happened.  I wish him good luck and hope that he recovers fully and finds the right basketball situation.  I know that he spent a year in Florida to improve his game and was of Groce's first recruits.  He had some good moments last year.  I hope the good memories of his playing time in Akron outweigh the recent incident.

[Akronfan111]

I agree some transparency would eliminate the speculation. I heard, the whole thing was caught on video so I guess we will find out the details eventually. We don’t need a kid who under any circumstances assaults another players when he’s not looking. Period.  Has Khadiem has been officially removed from the team or is he on indefinite suspension?

[Hilltopper]

1 hour ago, Akronfan111 said:

I agree some transparency would eliminate the speculation. I heard, the whole thing was caught on video so I guess we will find out the details eventually. We don’t need a kid who under any circumstances assaults another players when he’s not looking. Period.  Has Khadiem has been officially removed from the team or is he on indefinite suspension?

There is due process that must be followed. Not a good situation for all parties involved. 

[Hilltopper]

8 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

There are some massive assumptions being made, and those assumptions are turning into unproven judgement and accusations. 

 

For all we know, Mark could have made a comment to Gueye that either isn't being reported or nobody heard, that led to an altercation (not trying to justify Gueye's actions). There are some extremely odd and troubling questions to come from this, but until the facts are out and we have absolute proof of fault, assumptions shouldn't be made. Has Gueye been officially dismissed from the team (I apologize if I've missed this in an earlier post)? I think it's odd there doesn't seem to be any defense of Kostelac from the team or coach. You would think if a guy were 100% innocent in a situation, there would be more of a public attempt to defend and apologize to the guy. 

Quit trying to make up excuses for a violent assualt. Anybody who knows Mark would laugh at the suggestion.

[Let'sGoZips94]

25 minutes ago, Hilltopper said:

Quit trying to make up excuses for a violent assualt. Anybody who knows Mark would laugh at the suggestion.

 

Hence the "not trying to justify Gueye's actions" statement I used in my comment. I'm not making excuses for Gueye's actions. My point was more an example to show there may be more to this story than we know. I don't know Mark off the court, but on the court, I've seen him get under plenty of opposing players' skin. Again, zero justification for Gueye's actions, but the tone being implied in some posts is this came out of nowhere which is really, really odd. 

Edited January 16, 2019 by Let'sGoZips94

[clarkwgriswold]

I think we can all agree that this is an ugly situation and an inexcusable act of violence that can't be tolerated under any circumstances.  Akronfan111's reference to transparency is well taken.  Until there's more information, we're left with nothing more than speculation and unanswered questions.  Certainly, there are potential answers to those questions that could cast a bad light on the UA basketball program.  As a UA fan and alum, I certainly hope that's not the case, but if it is my faith in the program will be significantly tainted.  All we can do at his juncture is wait and see.

[jjackson123]

Give his scholarship to Walter. Would like to see him stick around for four years. 

[tboned]

t’s quite obvious there is a racial component to this.  I think Groce should  be relieved  of  Head coaching responsibility  until the entire  issue  is resolved  in court.   At that time a determination can be made on Groce’s future.