Venoy Overton Suspension About Growth And The Learning Process

On Tuesday, Venoy Overton was charged with providing alcohol to a minor, resulting in a suspension to last the duration of the Pac-10 Tournament. Lorenzo Romar has been the target of ire on Wednesday as reactions about the suspension come rolling in. On talk radio and in columns, Seattle residents are weighing in, disappointed Overton is still on the team after placing himself in a poor position, allegedly buying alcohol for minors and engaging in sexual acts.

SB Nation Seattle's Nate Parham examined the incident, and the punishment handed out, concluding it's about more than basketball. Instead of wiping his hands of Overton and sending him on his way -- at the end of Oveton's Washington career -- Romar is placing the onus on his senior guard, forcing him to live up to the values of the program. After all, Romar knows his players better than anyone else, and knows which buttons to push to get the message across and encourage growth, both on the court and as a person off the court.

You have to trust that Romar had some sense of what this consequence would mean to his player and at simultaneously sent a message to him by acting so deliberately and a message to the public by acting swiftly.

Nevertheless, learning does require deliberate action on the part of the learner as well. And in not merely imposing the harshest consequence possible, Romar is placing an enormous amount of faith in his player. Certainly, he's done his best to establish conditions for learning by showing that he cares for his player and putting him in position to respond to the consequences instead reacting for the intensified public scrutiny that might have come from penalizing him twice

Kicking Overton off the team and shunning him doesn't foster growth. Instead, Romar has set a bar for Overton and told him to meet the established standards. 

To read more, check out Nate Parham's feature on Venoy Overton. For more on the suspension, check out the rest of our StoryStream and connect with Washington fans at UW Dawg Pound.

Venoy Overton Suspended For The 2011 Pac-10 Tournament

After months of investigation, Washington Huskies guard Isaiah Thomas thought the controversy about a previously unnamed player's encounter with a minor were behind the team.

"I kind of thought it was over," said Isaiah Thomas when asked if he ever wondered when the day would come that Overton would get charged. "I mean I don't know how the law works and things like that, but once they said he wasn't charged for [the sexual assault allegation] I thought it was over. But obviously it's not."

However, with the announcement that Washington Huskies guard Venoy Overton would be charged with providing alcohol to a minor, coach Lorenzo Romar has suspended him for the entirety of the Pac-10 Tournament, as written by Seattle Times reporters Percy Allen and Jennifer Sullivan.

Huskies | UW basketball standout Overton charged with furnishing alcohol to minor | Seattle Times Newspaper
The Huskies played the past three months while a player was under investigation.

Shortly after Venoy Overton was charged Tuesday with furnishing alcohol to a minor, coach Lorenzo Romar suspended the senior guard from this week's Pac-10 Conference tournament.

Overton, UW's most experienced player and a defensive standout, will travel with the Huskies to Los Angeles, but he'll watch from the sidelines when No. 3 Washington faces sixth-seed Washington State at Staples Center 8:40 p.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals of the single-elimination tournament.

Although Overton was not made available for comment today, Romar did indicate that the senior "could possibly" release a statement at some point.

Romar also said during today's press conference that in addition to the suspension Overton had already been disciplined internally and will be available should they make the NCAA tournament, but for now this decision was about something bigger than basketball and the fact that it was made swiftly is an indication of how seriously Romar took it.

"I don't know if the decision was as tough as- you're more disappointed," said Romar when asked if this is the toughest decision he's had to make about a player. "It's tough, but we all have to learn."

As indicated by the Seattle Times article, by no means were basketball considerations the primary topic of discussion at the press conference but Romar said that his team will now have to come together in order to move forward with the Pac-10 tournament - and a third meeting against Washington State - looming.

"I know guys love their teammate and they know they're going to go to battle without him on the floor," said Romar. "That'll make it tough, but we have to go on."

Venoy Overton Charged With Providing Alcohol To A Minor

Washington guard Venoy Overton was charged with furnishing alcohol to a minor on Tuesday after a lengthy investigation into sexual assault allegations stemming from an incident involving a 16-year-old girl. Citing insufficient evidence, the King Count Prosecutor’s office declined to charge Overton with any sexual assault related crime, but found he did provide alcohol to the female in question. The news comes as Washington prepares for the Pac-10 Tournament in Los Angeles with a bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line.

The Seattle PI’s Gerry Spratt reported the news, just a short time before Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar meets with the media for his typical Tuesday press conference.

According to the charging document, Overton is accused of providing alcohol to a minor on Jan. 8, a gross misdemeanor. If found guilty, Overton likely will do community service

Overton will head to court on April 1 to answer to the charge. There’s been no word on what kind of punishment Overton faces from Romar and the team, though a suspension is possible.

For the latest, including Romar’s reaction and news from his press conference, stay tuned to this StoryStream. For more on the Huskies, check out SB Nation’s UW Dawg Pound.

UW Basketball Player Not Charged After Sexual Assault Allegation

When news first surfaced of the sexual assault allegations against a Washington Huskies basketball player, coach Lorenzo Romar told the media that there wasn't enough information for the program to determine what was going to be done, although they were taking it seriously.

Understandably, that answer might have seemed evasive to the 16-year-old girl involved in the case and her family.

However, Romar's initial comment was pretty much the same conclusion reached by the Seattle Police Department and King County Prosecutor's Office as announced in a release today reported by the Seattle PI: insufficient evidence for a charge.

UW basketball player won't be charged in sexual assault case
Police investigated whether the girl gave her consent and concluded there was insufficient evidence to support criminal charges.

"The King County Prosecutor's Office has conducted its own review and has reached the same conclusion," a statement from Satterberg's office said. "The decision to decline to file felony charges is based on the review of witness statements taken by Seattle Police, including statements from a 16-year old friend of the complaining witness, and two other men who were present in the basketball player's apartment."

Most unclear from the redacted police report - and a complex issue in any case of this nature - was the matter of consent. In the state of Washington the legal age of consent is 16 and a charge of sexual misconduct with a minor could only have been brought if the player was more than 60 months (5 years) older than the girl. Thus the fact that the two investigations found insufficient evidence for lacking consent is what ultimately determined this outcome.

The PI also reports that the player could still be charged furnishing alcohol to a minor by the City Attorney's office. The basketball player's name has not been released, which is appropriate given that no felony charges for the sexual assault claim have been brought against him.

The girl's father already took to the airwaves today to express his displeasure with the decision and we can probably expect to hear more in the intervening days up until and likely after Romar makes a statement in response to the charges. It's worth noting, that the legal conclusion to the case does not make things any easier for the family of the girl who filed the initial complaint - lacking legal evidence by no means diminishes whatever emotional stress the girl experienced throughout this ordeal or the pain it has caused her family.