And what should Desko have said about this particular situation? If things are as we are led to believe then he can't really mention that. He could've dodged the question, mentioned previous NA players and indicated that SU will continue to recruit NA players. It's quite possible that the "no comment" response was the department's decision.
I really don't care as long as SU's program is better for the decisions Desko makes.
As I offered, he could have used the article as an opportunity to bolster SU's ground-breaking role and tradition in integrating native americans into the program. He could have mentioned SU's native american programs, led by the Crooked Arrows guy (I believe). He could have mentioned all the success the J Thompson had at Cuse. He could have listed all the great NA players. The Tadadaho played at Cuse. Etc, etc. That's all point A.
Point B, He could have said N/C to the Thompson situation. Or, he could have said it was a package deal and he didn't want a package deal.
Tierney pounced.
Bottom line, he made and the Thompson's made their choices. Kudos to Desko for taking the high road. However, that still doesn't mean he made the right decision(s) in terms of handling their recruitment. I'm not a fan of how the Thompsons present SU in this article. Nobody wins in this scenario, except Albany lacrosse.
All I want to know is when/if Desko was presented with the package deal, how did he react? Three possible responses:
- 3 for the price of 1! Great! Gosh, am I lucky!
- I really like Thompson A, but Thompson B is not a good fit. Can you work with me? No? Please? Still no? Sorry, let's all agree to move on. Acceptable, I can live with this. Bad talent evaluation, but mistakes happen.
- Or, what Lyle said happened.
All I know is my Facebook feed gets updates from Thompson Bros Lacrosse. Thompson Bros Lacrosse talks a lot about Thompson Bros Lacrosse, and their teams are an afterthought. That said, I would love to have had them in orange.