Mario Little is not allowed to be dramatic
by Nick Fasulo on Mar 21, 2010 11:44 AM EDT
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Following Kansas' shocking loss to Northern Iowa, it was pretty grim looking at all the Jayhawk players stand in shock as a true heavyweight went down. It's odd the odds-on favorite will not even be part of the second weekend of the tournament. The most inconsolable player though was not senior Sherron Collins, a player who poured his heart and soul into this game, this program, like no other. Collins was of course upset, but he wasn't sobbing with his head buried into the court like Mario Little. A redshirt junior who only averaged 12 minutes of play last season, Little looked as though his family had just suddenly passed. Was he wagering bets on his team? Are made men following him?
I have no problem with college kids crying after realizing the best time of their life has abruptly ended - Adam Morrison being the exception - but Little looked downright selfish for someone who comfortably sat on the end of the bench all season. Had it been Collins being pulled off the floor so BYU and Kansas State could take warmups, I would completely understand. But Mario Little is not Sherron Collins. His college career isn't over. He will be back. He needs to cool it with the crying.
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Nick shouldn't be allowed to make sweeping and baseless assumptions
I found your post while looking for a picture of Mario Little in front of the Kansas bench. The picture spoke to me differently than it did to you. I ended up using it in this article: http://www.jasonsouthern.info/2010/03/the-agony-of-defeat/. You have the right to your opinion, but you arrived at an incorrect interpretation because you don’t know the facts about Mario Little.
First, you assume that Mario Little wishes for the spotlight to be on him because he’s selfish. He did not “ride the bench” all year because he could not perform on the court. He was on the bench because he redshirted. He redshirted primarily because he was still recovering from a stress fracture to his leg and secondarily to make room for Xavier Henry. If he was selfish, he would have declined a redshirt to be active for what was shaping up to be a great season (of course I am assuming that Self would not have rescinded his scholarship and I don’t think that I’m assuming too much here).
Second, you assume he’s a bench warmer because he lacks skill using his minute average from the 2008-2009 season as proof. He averaged 12 minutes last season because he didn’t play the first half of the season due to the same stress fracture injury. He nearly took a medical redshirt midway through last season, but elected to play because he felt it would help the team. He was one of the top JUCO players in 2007-2008. His Chipola CC team lost in the finals of the 2007 NJCAA tournament. He was heavily recruited out of Chipola. The kid is talented and next year he may be able to perform as he did in 2007.
He felt and emoted the pain of the loss because he’s a member of the team and he cares. It’s altogether human and its part of what makes college basketball more compelling than the NBA.
Jason
j-south
first of all thank you for informing america about mario little, we’re forever indebted to you. couple of the things i was thinking while i watched Mario …1) its prayer time and somehow from inside the arena he knew which direction mecca was. 2) he’s trying to set the record for most tv coverage of a redshirt junior ever on CBS . 3) his lower back was tight from sitting all year so he was getting one good long last stretch in before heading to the jayhawks locker room.
well now we know that mario just decided to lose all sense of time and place and simply let himself be overtaken by the griefmonster on national tv, while the rest of his much more accomplished teammates somehow had the strength to keep their collective cools and take it on back to the locker room before they unleashed the sadness.
listen, i don’t care who you are, pull it together man. i’ve never seen somebody with virtually nothing on the line make such a scene. The kid is coming back next year! He’ll be healthy! If he’s as filthy as Jason says he is he’ll play! Kansas will make the tournament and be a 1 or 2 seed again next year!
anyway, in closing, a quick thank you to mario for providing the opportunity for this argument, and for creating one of the single most awkward moments in National Collegiate Athletic Association history.
by Second Jumpability on Mar 22, 2010 11:34 AM EDT up reply actions
stereotyping
Nick—Whatever your feelings about KU basketball or how men who play sports should behave, you have to step back for a minute and think about your article. Let me inform you about the player/team you are discussing. This year’s KU team has a record of 33-3. Mario Little is a member of the KU Jayhawk basketball team, and he has been for 2 years. He will no longer play basketball with 2-3 of the starters on the 2010 team. Those players have been like brothers to him. He red-shirted this season partially due to injury and partially because he wanted to help the team. At the end of a rough season of competing in practice and cheering on his teammates (while he could not play), he was disappointed, sad, and shocked. I seriously doubt that he was worried about pandering to the t.v. cameras or about pleasing your stereotypical sensibilities. For you to suggest that he should just allow himself to be swept away to the locker room or to fake his emotions is (at the least) absurd and (at the most) old-fashioned. If this is the best example of your brand of journalism, I am worried for your future.
journalism?
look that word up before you begin to approach this blog as journalism. this isn’t journalism, nor is it my career.
i think you’re getting far too offended by my opinion on the situation. i am more than allowed to poke fun at the guy crying with his warmups on. carry on if you think i suck.
by Nick Fasulo on Mar 22, 2010 10:36 PM EDT up reply actions
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