Illinois Apologizes, but Not to Eric Gordon

Here's the way the crowd in Champaign greeted Indiana guard Eric Gordon Thursday night:

It got worse from there, with some rowdiness and some profanity, and the University of Illinois has released the following statement from Athletic Director Ron Guenther and basketball coach Bruce Weber:

"There was a great college basketball game played Thursday night between the University of Illinois and Indiana University, but the game has been somewhat diminished by inappropriate behavior by a number of fans in attendance. We value the enthusiastic support of the sellout crowds at the Assembly Hall, but above all we take very seriously the reputation of our basketball program and the University of Illinois. The profanity and behavior by a small segment of fans Thursday night is disappointing and intolerable, and for that we apologize to fans of both teams."

That's all well and good, but apologizing "to fans of both teams" is the wrong approach. If someone deserves an apology, it's Gordon, the guard who first committed to Illinois and then changed his mind and went to Indiana. Illinois fans were enraged, and he received the lion's share of the "inappropriate behavior" referenced in the statement, so he's the one who should be named in the apology.

As for Gordon himself, a brief thought: Although honoring one's commitments is an admirable quality that Gordon apparently lacks, he's far from the only high school athlete who commits to one school and then attends another. The Illinois football program's stellar recruiting in recent years has been fueled in large part by such players. Illinois fans weren't booing those guys when they got the Illini to the Rose Bowl.