State fans should've seen it coming

By By Stan Torgerson / sports columnist
April 15, 2003
The older the average sports fan becomes the more inclined he or she is to interchange the terms "kid" and "young man" when making reference to college age athletes.
But college students of 18, 19 or 20 are "Young men" or "young women" who, the majority of the time, make their own decisions, right or wrong, wise or unwise, with good cause or bad. If you have one that age in your house you know how difficult is to even tell them to clean up their room.
So why should anyone be surprised that Mario Austin said recently he would stay for his senior season at Mississippi State and then earlier this week said he was turning pro instead. Someone convinced him he was ready to be a first round choice in the NBA draft, be paid zillions of dollars and live happily ever after.
No matter if coach Rick Stansbury told him again and again he would benefit by sticking around State for another year, regardless of what the pro scouts might have said about his needing another year of college basketball to insure that first round status, he made his own decision.
Apparently that's what the two time All-SEC selection wanted to hear and he heard it. Yes, he did say he needed money to look after his mother and I believe that was likely a factor. But was simple economics the only reason or did someone convince him he was ready to hold his own against Jamal Mashburn, Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson and, yes, even Shaq himself and other NBA star he had certainly watched play on television many times?
The most talented basketball player Ole Miss ever had went down that road. Notice I didn't say the best player. I said the most talented. In 1971, Johnny Neumann as a sophomore at Ole Miss, received virtually every conference honor given.
He was UPI and AP SEC player of the year. He was named to the Coache's All-SEC team. He scored 923 points and his name still occupies the top four spots on the Rebel single game scoring chart with his 63 point game against LSU topping the list. In addition he was an Academic All American and an SEC Honor Roll member.
Smart? There's some question about that. At that time freshman couldn't play on the varsity so he had had only one year of collegiate competition when the fledgling American Basketball Association put a team in Memphis. Since Neumann was from Memphis, they were convinced he would be a major draw for the new team so they began sweet-talking the young man.
He bought it hook, line and sinker. Near the end of the season his per game scoring average was 40.1 per game. He was sold when the pro team suggested he would be even more attractive if they could advertise his 40 point plus per game college scoring average.
With three games left to play he told coach Cobb Jarvis his father was ill and needed him, then failed to show up again. He preserved his 40 point average all right, but left coach Jarvis and his teammates high and dry. The Rebels lost their last two games, one by two points and the other by one with their best player not even in the gym.
It is my understanding he never did get the big bucks contract he had been promised and had to settle for less. He played with the Memphis Tams for a couple of years, drifted to Indiana, Los Angeles and Utah but never achieved his dreams of professional basketball immortality.
We can only hope that Mario Austin does not suffer a similar disappointment.
A recent article by syndicated noted black columnist DeWayne Wicker concerned affirmative action. Wicker said the answer to the problem was to encourage more black students to attend historically black higher education institutions rather than majority white schools.
He said convincing black students to do that might be done through sports.
That, of course, is not going to happen. The Marion Austins, like the Johnny Neumanns before them, will do what they think is best for themselves.
That's the difference between being a young man or a kid. Right or wrong its the young man's call, as it should be. We only hope Mario Austin made the right one.