University of Wyoming power forward Leonard Washington has pleaded guilty to battery and criminal entry in an incident that took place April 15th in Laramie. The Cowboy big man has been placed on one year of probation and had 31 days of jail time suspended. On its own this situation is bad enough but remember Washington was already indefinitely suspended on April 4th for reasons only known by those in the basketball program. With the most likely reason for suspension being a violation of team rules and nothing criminal or school related. Going into someone’s house and playing Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out probably isn’t the best way to get back in the good graces with Coach Shyatt (who is aware of the situation) and we will have to wait and see how the situation plays out.

Pleading guilty to such charges can’t work in Washington’s favor and if he is dismissed from the team it would be quite the blow. He is currently the only experienced big man on the Cowboy roster and without him the Pokes could struggle mightily down low. I hope his ability as a basketball player isn’t a major factor in determining if he will remain on the team or not but it very well could be. Since Shyatt was aware of this situation before it became public yesterday, I would think if he was going to be dismissed it would have been done by now. Chances are Shyatt will give Washington a chance to make amends for his mistakes between now and the start of the basketball season. At least now we can’t say it has been a slow start of the summer in Laramie.

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