COLUMN: Jarekious Bradley's avoidable absence costs Southeast men

Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Dickey Nutt spoke at length about his decision to suspend senior star Jarekious Bradley for Saturday night's game at UT Martin.

Then he did his best to move on and talk about the game his team had just lost to the Skyhawks.

But the two topics were almost impossible to separate.

"We needed Jarekious, honestly. We needed him," he said finally, trying to explain his team's struggles on offense.

Bradley, however, wasn't even in the gym Saturday night. He was back in Cape Girardeau because he failed to attend an 11 a.m. class on Thursday.

"Do we want to win every game? Absolutely," Nutt said. "Does that hurt us? Absolutely it does. He's our high scorer. But let me tell you something, I think I've got 13 players in there that believe in us and believe in this staff, and they understand whole-heartedly that you better get yourself to class or you won't make this trip. I don't care how good you are, and I'm sorry to say that. I hate that. I hate make that decision, but you know what? It's an easy one because I don't appreciate that.

"That's not fair to those students that are in that class, that's not fair most importantly to that professor. It's just not fair. Hey, I understand they're kids. I understand they're young. We make mistakes and sometimes we oversleep. I understand all of that. I'm a veteran. I understand all that."

He understands, but he didn't let any excuse sway him from his conviction that missing the class meant missing the game for Bradley. And Bradley's hardly a kid. His 24th birthday was last month.

"If you can't make an 11 o'clock class, something's wrong with that," Nutt said candidly. "I don't have that kind of program. I don't run that kind of program."

College students miss classes all the time. I think I may have skipped as many management classes as I attended my senior year. It was one of those unfortunate classes I think most college students take at some point. The professor was horrible, the notes were online and the tests were the ones the textbook company wrote. I had better things to do.

I rather doubt Bradley missed something that day that will cost him his education, but to focus on that would be to miss the point.

The point is that Bradley knew he was not allowed to miss a class, and he did it anyway -- letting his coaches and his team down in the process. Now they're 3-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference and fifth out of six teams in the West Division.

"Actually when we found out we were down for a minute, but there's [no point in] being down," junior Isiah Jones said. "We got in practice, and we all just worked hard just like he was there."

But, of course, he wasn't and it hurt a team that already struggles to score for long stretches of games on a regular basis.

This is the second time this season that a lack of accountability has cost Bradley, who was arrested in December for failing to appear in court following a minor car accident and a ticket for not having insurance. He was also ejected from a game after getting called for two technicals earlier this season and wasn't allowed to start the next game as a result.

It's getting old and there are just nine regular-season games left in his college career.

I applaud Nutt for not hesitating to issue what will hopefully serve as a wake-up call to Bradley.

"I let him know the next day in practice -- Friday afternoon," Nutt said. "Let him know real quick. I said, 'Hey, you didn't go to class? OK. We can do without you.' That's the way it goes. If he can get it together and decides he wants to be a student, then great. We'd love to have him. He's an outstanding player, and he's a great kid. But sometimes we makes mistakes. Sometimes you've got to be hit right between the eyes to wake up and say 'I'm not maybe all that afterall.' I don't regret that decision. I'd do it again tomorrow, and my guys in there, they love it. They love it. They absolutely love it. They were in there talking about it -- got to get it together, man. We're here to get a degree."

Bradley is a soft-spoken man who grew up facing difficulties the likes of me can hardly imagine. His teammates and his coach, on a night when they had a right to be angry with him, spoke of supporting him. He's not a bad person who walks around with a bad attitude, and any suggestion that he is would almost have to come from someone who's never met him.

Still, it's time for him to grow up and break the pattern of bad decisions in order to be accountable to the people who love him, in this case his teammates and coaches.

Yes, it will likely help the Redhawks win some games, but I think it's a lesson as important as any he would've learned in the class he missed.

"It burns me up. I shake upset about that because in the long run, he's my son. I love all may players. I want them to be great," said Nutt, recalling a visit he had with former star and current Turkish professional Tyler Stone.

"You wouldn't know the joy I had with Tyler Stone this week, visiting with him with that degree in his pocket and a bank account that's unbelievable playing basketball. And four years ago I had to do the same thing to him. You know what? If Jarekious Bradley, if he'll take this as a learning experience, then great, we welcome him and this will be done with it -- back to normal on Monday afternoon practice. ... But if you don't get yourself together and get a degree, get in that classroom, then we'll play without him. I hope you all can respect that."