It’s not often that people on the internet are talking about Division III basketball. When they are, it’s usually because something amazing or something terrible happened.

Today, it’s the latter.

On Wednesday, Fitchburg State announced that Kewan Platt had been indefinitely suspended from the team *and* barred from campus after delivering a vicious elbow to the face of Nichols College’s Nate Tenaglia.

This is appalling – it’s not as if this was an “accidental” elbow in the middle of a play. Tenaglia finished his shot, and Platt walked over and elbowed him in the face. It was violent, it was deliberate, and it was downright disgusting.

Fitchburg’s response was quick and to the point.

Nichols College also released a statement, noting that Tenaglia was alright while somehow managing to not completely lose their shit on Platt.

“We’re very happy that the Nichols student-athlete involved in the incident, Nate Tenaglia, was unharmed and able to finish the contest,” the statement said. “We are proud of the way our student-athletes handled the incident and did not overreact, instead allowing the officials to intervene and diffuse the situation. We are confident that Fitchburg State will hand down any disciplinary actions they feel are warranted.”

The Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (or MASCAC) took the unbelievable step of actually stripping Platt of a previous player of the week honor while also condemning him in a statement.

“The MASCAC and Fitchburg State University take this incident very seriously,” MASCAC commissioner Angela Baumann said in a statement. We are appalled by the actions of the student-athlete. … His behavior goes against the MASCAC’s mission, which includes good sportsmanship. On behalf of the MASCAC and Fitchburg State, we apologize to the Nichols College student-athlete, the team and institution.”

I’m really going out on a limb here, but I think Platt’s time at Fitchburg State, and his basketball career as a whole, is over. I also wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if criminal charges were filed, and in this case, they absolutely would be warranted.

[ESPN]

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.

3 thoughts on “Fitchburg State basketball player indefinitely suspended, barred from campus after vicious elbow

    1. I lived in Fitchburg for a decade and asked myself the same thing when I read this originally. Also sad how many people there are circling the wagons for him, including a (very white) woman from Fitchburg claiming Tenaglia was calling him the n-word multiple times thru the game. All the other Nichols players are black, so I’m pretty sure that was a false claim, because a teammate would have whopped his ass otherwise.

  1. Is it true that Mike Krzyzewski of Duke has contacted Kewan Platt about transferring? Now that Grayson Allen has graduated Duke is short a douchebag.

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