Standards, Part Deux

 And in the further adventures of the smash new basketball series "Clueless In 'Loosa," our heroes continue to be Clueless, while finding it shocking, somehow, that Stuff Happens.

In this week's further adventures ...

* Alabama's freshman star Brandon Miller -- off the hook for delivering a gun to a former teammate, who then handed it to a buddy, who then allegedly committed capital murder with it -- scored a freshman-record 41 points the other night, including the winning shot in overtime as No. 2 'Bama staved off an upset bid at South Carolina.

In a spectacular self-awareness fail, Alabama fans were reportedly enraged when South Carolina fans chanted "Lock him up, lock him up" at Miller. This was of course entirely predictable, and it was entirely Alabama's fault because it painted a target on Miller by allowing him to play in the first place. 

Way to throw the kid to the wolves, guys! Gold stars all around.

* Conventional wisdom says the first rule of getting out of a hole is to stop digging. But fie on conventional wisdom, says Alabama coach Nate Oats. Nobody wins in March without being bold, and Oats (and Alabama) are all about winning in March.

And so, after saying Miller had done nothing wrong the other day, and then clarifying it with a statement that essentially said the same thing, what did Oats do?

He kept talking!

This time he said he and the university had been taking the whole Miller thing "very seriously from Day 1." Then he said they all feel they've "done the right thing in this case."

Well ... it's obvious they're taking something very seriously down there in Tuscaloosa.

Like, you know, March. The Big Dance. Alabama's best shot at cutting down the nets on the first Monday in April since, well, forever.

Two things, Coach Oats:

1. Stop talking.

2. Don't get all indignant when rival schools use your self-serving inaction against you. In an increasingly vicious fight for talent, coaches exploit any opening they can. And Alabama has given them an opening you could drive Jupiter through.

No coach with any recruiting chops, after all, is going to think twice about sitting down with Mom and Dad, pointing toward Tuscaloosa and saying "You really want your son to go to a program where they let players fool around with guns?"

It's almost too easy. Because, see, these things have consequences, and this will surely be one of them.

 Consequences. What a concept.