In a total shocker out of Blacksburg, reserve basketball player Jesus Rodriguez, who rarely saw playing time last year, was arrested Friday and charged with three counts of felony grand larceny and three counts of misdemeanor petit larceny.

Rodriguez is charged with stealing at least $3,000 in jewelry and other items from six fellow Virginia Tech students, all of whom acted stunned by the idea that it might be Jesus who stole from them.  The victims include Tech basketball player Shawn Browne (who had a - gulp! - $2,000 necklace stolen from his locker), Jesus's next door neighbors at Terrace View apartments (hundreds of dollars in bracelets and necklaces), and the inhabitants of two dorm rooms in Cochran Hall (a watch and $475 in compact discs).  For the complete story as reported in The Roanoke Times, see the link to  Tech basketball player accused of stealing from his teammates.

If you're a Tech fan, one of the first questions that comes to mind, after you get over the original shock of hearing about the charges, is what is going to happen to Jesus under Tech's "Comprehensive Action Plan."  The CAP, of course, was drafted in response to the football team's off-field troubles in 1996 and outlines standards of behavior for Tech athletes, and punishments should they get into trouble.

Well, the short answer is, nothing is going to happen to Jesus under the provisions of the Comprehensive Action Plan ... because he's not on the basketball team anymore.  In another bit of news that took me (almost) completely by surprise, Jesus had apparently asked for a transfer at the end of this past basketball season, so he isn't even on the team anymore, and of course he will not be disciplined by Tech with regards to his athletic standing.

The fact that Jesus was going to transfer wasn't a big surprise to me, because it was heavily rumored for quite a while.  What did surprise me, however, is that he actually did it, and it was not reported in the newspapers, on the message board, or even to me via email.  These days, with the instant connectivity of the Internet, it's rare for the news of an athlete's transfer to be such a total surprise, particularly on the men's basketball team, where scholarships are prized possessions that are monitored closely by fans and the press.  When Tech signed JUCO transfer Jermaine Kimbrough recently, it was thought that no more scholarships were available.  It's a surprise to find out that we were wrong.

But beyond all the scholarship counting and thoughts of the Comprehensive Action Plan, this is, of course, a story about a human being.  Jesus is apparently well-liked by friends and teammates, so it's disturbing to hear that he is on suicide watch at the Montgomery County Jail, because he threatened to kill himself (details in the Roanoke Times link above).

Interestingly enough, this story was not big news.  It was buried on page 6 of the "Virginia" section of the print edition of The Roanoke Times, and I almost missed it.  Had this been a story about Rolan Roberts, or John Engelberger, or Al Clark, it would have been "front page" material.  And even I personally will admit to having a certain degree of "clinical," detached interest in the story of Jesus's arrest, rather than the emotional interest I would have if it were about one of those marquee players that I listed, instead.

That's kind of sad, but it's the state of athletics today.  The interest on the part of the fans and the media diminishes when the player is not a star, and the crime is an isolated, non-violent incident.  This is probably the last most of us will ever hear about Jesus, who never really did occupy our minds from his spot on the end of the bench.  The only time we did think much about him was when the rumor started flying that he might leave the team, and we thought that a scholarship might be open for a "better" player.

I don't really know what I think about all of that, because I've almost become desensitized to stories of athletes getting in trouble.  But in the end, we need to realize that he is another person, another Tech athlete, and another story, just as important as all the rest.  And it's always disappointing when things don't work out well for someone who was part of our Tech family, no matter how small his part was.

Baseball rained out ... and rained out ... and rained out:  Tech was supposed to play in the four-team Atlantic 10 baseball tournament in Boyertown, PA, this past weekend, but rain halted all three days of the tournament (Friday-Sunday).   The teams are still lounging around in PA, and Justin Ditmore of Channel 10 in Roanoke reported that the games will now start on Tuesday, "at the earliest."   I would imagine that by now, everyone involved is about to go stir-crazy from sitting around in Boyertown.

Well, that's nice:  kudos to Bob Lipper of The Richmond Times-Dispatch for his positive and totally unprompted column this weekend, Hokies Adding to Schedule - Not Padding It.  Bob talks in complimentary fashion about Jim Weaver's accomplishments in upgrading the Virginia Tech football schedule ... and the teams we're still talking to.

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