My goal is that Whatever Happened To . . . ? will become an irregular feature on TNIAAM. The idea is simple: find a former Orange athlete and ask them what they're up to. Along the way, uncover some back-story and history about the player that folks maybe didn't know, and of course hopefully entertain you, dear reader.

Our premiere installment takes us to Boise, Idaho, home of the Boise St. Broncos, who for the time being are expected to join the Big East in 2013 for football only. It's also home to former Orange offensive lineman Jonathan Meldrum.

Jonathan played for the Orange from 2007 through the Pittsburgh game, November 7, 2009. A left knee injury cost him the rest of that season, and unrelated right knee issues (plus the likelihood of similar complications to the left) forced his retirement from the game after the 2009 season. Jonathan played in 28 games, starting nine and earning Rivals.com Big East All - Freshmen Team honors in 2007. Jonathan shared the blocking responsibilities on two 1,000 yard rushing lines, for running backs Delone Carter in 2009 and Curtis Brinkley in 2008.

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I admit I was not paying attention to which shitty ref was calling the fouls on which players. But it almost seemed to me like the whole crapfest started in earnest after that confusing out of bounds in the first half where first it was their ball, then it was ours, then it was theirs again and the refs were kinda fighting over who had possession. So OSU got the ball, and then almost immediately on the other end a phantom foul was called (I think on Sullinger, maybe someone else) that sure looked a lot like a "make-up" call for the out of bounds. Then it almost felt like the other ref that had awarded OSU the ball made another make-up call for OSU on the other end and it just kept going back and forth like these assholes were trying to one up each other instead of actually watching the action and officiating what they saw. Maybe I'm nuts, (I'm sure I'm nuts) but damn I don't know what else they were doing. They sure as hell weren't officiating the game. Some of those phantom fouls were so far from anything that should er be called...

I'll admit that, like 100% of you followers of TNIAAM, I have a wee bit of preferential bias towards Mr. Carmelo Anthony. Yes, I know about G-Mac's big shot, and Hakim's big block, but we all know why we won the 2003 National Championship. Beyond that, Carmelo of course gave back to the school to the tune of something like $2 million to help build the Melo Center, which in turn helped us land guys like Dion and Rak and Coleman, etc. And I know all about the DUI, and the "snitches get stitches" cameo and the convenience store dust-up and all the other BS. I don't pretend that Carmelo Anthony is a saint. I do think he's overall a decent guy, and one of the best basketball players to ever play the game.

And now he is seen as the reason the Knicks suck. I know how tough it is for ball players in NY. That town will turn on you so fast. I know Melo is a volume shooter and a ball stopper. I also know that he is a perennial All-Star and a future Hall of Famer. What I don't know is how it is Carmelo's fault the Knicks suck. How is it Melo's fault that Jeremy Lin, an undrafted Ivy Leaguer from the NBDL simply CAN NOT go to his left and is a turnover machine? How is it Melo's fault that D'Antoni's style of offense is, "Ok, any one who is open feel free to jack up whatever lazy ass shot you want, especially early in the possession." How is it Melo's fault that this kind of mentality means that the true stars of the team (Melo and Amare' - and their $185 million in salary) can't seem to get the ball in their hands?

I won't pretend that Melo is a great defender or an all around great player, but there is no question he is one of the best scorers in history. Give him the ball once in a while Lin and get the hell out of the way and let him do his thing.

Maybe under a new coach the team will work something like how it should, with Melo and Amare' able to work together and the supporting cast, you know, supporting. It can't be any worse. I just hope that Melo is able to ride out the negativity and not let it get in his head.

Does this now invalidate the search warrant? Is this one of those Law & Order tactics where they'll use the drummed up 3rd victim to see what evidence there is, and then when it gets thrown out for the bad warrant use another method to uncover it (which of course wouldn't be possible without knowing what to look for which was learned illegally) and get it back in?

And how sociaopathic is Zach Tomaselli? did you listen to the Whitlock podcast? For an hour this dude goes all Keyser Soze and it is riveting. I was really blown away by it at the time, and I posted that if the kid was lying, he was a pro. Well, I guess he's got his Liars, Inc card because the DA all but confirmed that he turned over evidence to Fine's attorneys showing that Tomaselli was in school, was not on any hotel records, and that there was no other travel group from Syracuse to Pittsburgh for the game.

The fact that Davis talked so much to Tomaselli either means Tomaselli was just pumping him for info, like a talented grifter on Leverage or something, or Davis was actively assisting Tomaselli by providing corroborative details. The DA believes Davis. I am inclined to believe him as well, but there are so many red flags still that even if there were no statute limitations I believe the prosecution will have a hard time meeting the evidenciary requirements for criminal conviction based on what is known publicly at least.

I can see ESPN not airing the tape. I don't understand not giving it to authorities. And I don't understand why someone over at ESPN didn't quietly give coach a call and say "Hey, Jim, you should listen to this." I know that no one owed it to him or anything, but if you can't air it, and for whatever reason you aren't going to turn it over to the cops, why not mention it on the down low to the guy that could probably act on it in some way? I imagine that something might have happened in 2003 or at least in 2005 if SU and or Boeheim knew about the tape.

I just can't understand how the executives at ESPN can with a straight face claim they are any less morally culpable for possible abuse than Paterno is. Inaction was JoePa's sin but the same kind of inaction is ok for ESPN?

Sorry to shout, but everyone is just ignoring that like it doesn't matter...how can that phone call be believed in light of the fact that the corroborating witness was cheating on the accused with the alleged victim? The tape means nothing to me. I WAS mortified, reading the transcript this morning - until I (finally) got to the part where ESPN bothers to mention the fact that the two were sleeping together. I know that ESPN WANTS everyone to overlook this, as evidenced by how far down the story it went, so much that other places are leaving this detail out of their coverage entirely, but aren't we smart enough to see this for what it POTENTIALLY could be? MAYBE it is damning evidence of a long term abuse - maybe it is a jilted wife banging the former ball boy (and a kid that basically grew up in her house - gross) and making a tape to protect them both in the future if Bernie finds out and gets pissed. WE DON'T KNOW.

3rd accuser - same type of issues. BEFORE talking to police and even though they had no prior relationship the 3rd accuser talks to Bobby Davis on the telephone numerous times (AGAIN reported at the bottom of the story so we'll not pay it any attention). WHY? Maybe for moral support before he comes forward. BUT, MAYBE it was to get a detailed description of the interior of the Fine residence. The story claims that this 3rd victim had a detailed description to give, and uses that to corroborate his claims of being molested at the home during an overnight stay - WHICH THE VICTIM'S FATHER SWEARS NEVER HAPPENED. MAYBE #3 is another victim and Bernie Fine is a monster. MAYBE he made the whole thing up knowing what a hard-on Fitzpatrick has for this case and hoping he can leverage this on his behalf somewhere down the line on his own case. WE DON'T KNOW - and none of this is conclusive evidence. I WANT REAL (untainted)  EVIDENCE. WHERE IS IT?

According to both the accuser and SU Davis claims to have contacted SPD in 2003 and spoken to a detective. This is why the DA is involved now. If there had been an allegation in 2003 even if the statute of limitations had expired for the alleged crimes against Davis, an investigation should have been opened because Fine was in the same position and capacity to possibly be repeating the abuse on other victims. SPD has not indicated whether there is any evidence they were contacted in 2003. ESPN makes a point to mention that the SPD Chief was a former SU player. The implication is that SPD or at the very least one SPD detective are complicit. Surely SU, when told by a former ballboy that police had been contacted and this is what they said,  would have contacted the police to see what their investigation yielded. Surely a responsible reporter covering the story would contact SPD to ask questions about a report or a conversation with a detective and Davis. I am all but certain that BS&K would have contacted SPD during their investigation into the matter. So the key is 2003. If Davis did indeed contact a SPD detective, then at least one person in the SPD did not follow through on how child sex abuse cases are meant to be handled. If it can be proven that there was no contact with police prior to yesterday, then this is all what many people are concluding and the accusers could be in a lot of trouble. This is the key. If SPD is found complicit in any way, even through indifference, this is every bit PSU in comparison. If there was no 2003 police call then Bernie Fine is the victim.

We need to know from SPD what happened (or didn't happen) in 2003. We need to see the report from BS&K in 2005. We need to know if Davis and Lang are being truthful, and this is where to start.

So, as I've been watching this coverage and constantly updating my twitter and following 6 different thread's comment sections I keep seeing and posting things about ESPN's Mark Schwarz. I don't know Mark Schwarz. But even if he is an asshole of some sort, he's probably pretty good at sports journalism to have made it to the mother ship. I hope to God these accusations turn out to be false, but Mark Schwarz sure thinks they are true. He's been on this story for 8 years. And presumably he's found Davis to be credible, for whatever reasons. And now, after 8 years, he got the step-brother, possibly one of the 4 children named by Davis initially who was interviewed by the University in 2003 and refused to confirm the accusations, to corroborate. With corroboration, however dubious we choose to believe it to be, and in the climate of the Sandusky horror, especially given the vague similarities - Long time, iconoclastic head coach, long time assistant, abuse at the home, offices and facilities, travel to exotic game locations - Schwarz finally got his boss's ok to run with this story - and he's going all out. If he's wrong, and once again, I cannot tell you how much I hope he is, it will be a blow to his reputation for sure. Might cost him his job. Even if he's wrong it might cost Bernie his, this is one of those few guilty by accusation crimes after all, guilty or innocent I wouldn't be surprised to see Bernie step down from the program soon.

I guess my point is, as inappropriate as the almost gleeful tone of his reporting may be, Schwarz wouldn't be laying himself out there if he thought this was false. And his producers wouldn't have given the go ahead if they didn't believe there was at least a modicum of credibility. I hope if Bernie is exonerated that ESPN does address things somehow, but I doubt they will.

Late in the 4th quarter Rutgers had the ball deep in our end and was trying to tie the game.  Am I the only one wondering where the hell was the crowd noise as this was happening? It looked like a lot of people were in the Dome, so why the fuck were they sitting on their hands as the opponent was (slowly, methodically) inching closer and closer to the goal line? The place should have been deafening. And why weren't our defensive leaders egging the crowd on by doign that wavy arm thing to get them riled up? (Not that they should need to)... was everyone so occupied playing with their fucking car keys? (Which is the biggest waste of time I've ever seen)... Dome I am disappoint... why bother putting a lot of bodies in the seats if they don't make any god damned noise anyway?  I have no more words..

So after avidly following the coverage of the impending move to the ACC for SU and Pitt, I've grown disgusted with the World Wide Leader like many of you. I decided to do next to nothing about it. I tracked down the comment submission form for the new ESPN "Ombudsman" the Poynter Institute. Below the jump is the content of my letter.

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Tonight's game is on ESPN U, which I do not have. Does anyone have a link to stream the game? I had a link that used to work, (espa.tv) but it is offline...

For your filler pleasure, I bring you the words of our hero, James Arthur Boeheim: I don't think there's time, really, for reflection when you're involved in coaching on a daily basis. If you're not coaching, there's three little kids at home and there's always stuff there. I just don't think you have time. I've never been a great believer in reflection.

Mookie is in Buffalo with his Hudson Valley squad. Play began yesterday, 7/22, and Hudson Valley took out NYC 90-74. Mookie lead all scorers with 27.  In today's game Mookie only got 9 points, but Hudson Valley won again, 77-65 over Adirondack. I havn't seen a lot of coverage for the ESG. I hope they come back to what they used to be...

http://www.empirestategames.org/summer/results/SportResults.asp?year=2010&sport=BA&division=O&clean=0

Hawks assistant general manager Dave Pendergraft returned to Atlanta after spending the last two weeks in Chicago at the pre-draft combine and in Minneapolis to watch 42 prospects work out. The Hawks own the No. 24 pick in the first round and Pendergraft isn't sure they'll get a player who can contribute right away.

"Now, as things start to dwindle down, I'm really not so sure about that," Pendergraft told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"I think we will get a piece," Pendergraft added. "I don't think we will necessarily get a rotational piece. We can get a player who after some seasoning can stay in the NBA for a while, that can make a career out of it. If we can keep our roster intact I don't see a lot of playing time. It will be a situation where we take advantage of our D-League affiliate."

The Hawks will need a shooting guard if Joe Johnson leaves via free agency, but it doesn't sound like there's much available at No. 24.

"No," Pendergraft said. "That's the [freakin'] problem. There are bunch of guards but not a lot of shooters. There are some good players but they can't make shots. And the better shooters can't play a lick of defense."

Would Andy Rautins be one of those shooters that can't play a lick of defense?

Notes from the McDonald's All-America land show Fab Melo performing well and in great physical shape. He is touted as the #1 or #2 center prospect in the country.


Question for SB Nation - is Fab Melo likely a one-and-doner? If so, what should our expectations for the Orange realistically be for his season? Can a rotation of Fab Melo, Rick Jackson, Kris Joseph, Scoop Jardine, Brandon Triche, Mookie Jones, James Southerland/DaShonte Riley advance further than this year's squad?