Patrick Reusse: White's baggage arrived unchecked

The starting lineups were being introduced before Friday night's season opener at Williams Arena. There was a corridor of teammates for the Gophers' starters to move through, including freshman Justin Cobbs at the end of the line.

Cobbs had a unique greeting for each starter, and the routine for the second player introduced was unfortunate. Cobbs pantomimed frisking him.

This is not the time to offer such hilarity, considering freshman Royce White, the suspended in-state recruit, stands accused of theft in one incident and as a suspect in another, with both occurring in a period of 25 days.

White was not on the bench in civilian clothes, seated next to two other inactive players, Devron Bostick and Trevor Mbakwe. This got rumors flying that White's indefinite suspension had become something more severe.

There was a report on Fox 9 television that White had been expelled from the university. That information was premature, at best, since expulsion would require action by the Office for Student Conduct and Academic Integrity.

A failure in the second of those areas was what got White booted out of DeLaSalle High School as a junior in 2008, and now flaws in the first area could get him tossed less than a semester into his free education at our great state university.

Coach Tubby Smith blundered by not making it a firm, seasonlong suspension when he first heard of White's misdeeds at the Mall of America. And this isn't the first time the Gophers coach has messed up in his dealings with White.

Players don't make such announcements without getting a nod from the coach.

Smith sent this message to White by accepting this early commitment: "Thank you for doing us the favor of coming to play basketball for the Gophers in the fall of 2009."

The message Smith should have offered White was this: "There's no commitment because there's no scholarship on the table. You have a lot of off-the-court improvement to do before we're going to offer the privilege of playing for the Gophers."

Idealistic?

In most cases, yes, but with White and a track record for defiance earned in high school, Tubby should have humbled this kid from the get-go.

The popular defense granted to Smith is that he had no choice but to aggressively pursue White -- as both a local kid and the 19th-rated recruit among 2009 seniors.

The theory is that if you don't do everything to get a player like this, then you are somehow taking a slap at Minnesota's coaches and basketball development, and at the fans that fill Williams Arena.

Hogwash, hogwash and more hogwash.

White's talent was clear to anyone with a hoops interest, and so were his behavioral blotches.

Plus: Once he was drummed out of DeLaSalle, White chose to show up at Hopkins and sign on for a sweat-free ride to a state title with the already-loaded Royals.

The fact is that Smith didn't need White. The coach showed off two platoons of good players Friday night, and that was with Bostick and Mbakwe decked out in sweaters and slacks. Smith has a top-four team in the Big Ten without White and the headache he brings.

And who needs White when you have Cooper's Rodney Williams to elicit all the cheers necessary for a hometown freshman?

Rodney draws the howls with his leaping but also can shoot and drive, and Tubby will teach him to play defense. And there's also this:

A coach of a Cooper rival was watching Friday's game and said of Williams: "He's a good kid. When he walks in the gym, he's respectful of everyone."

What a concept.