The Minnesota Golden Gophers have chosen not to suspend their leading scorer and rebounder, forward Trevor Mbakwe, after he was found to have violated a restraining order that had been filed against him.
↵St. Paul police arrested Mbakwe on Monday after he sent a message via Facebook to a woman that he used to date. Mbakwe sat out last season because of legal problems, and had agreed to cease contact with an ex-girlfriend back in August of 2009. The woman in question cited repeated, unwanted phone calls and unwanted communication with her.
↵According to a University of Minnesota release, the FaceBook message read thusly:
↵↵↵I know we haven't talked in forever and trust me I'm not trying to start any drama with nobody in your life or anything. I just wanted to wish u the best with everything and I hope all has been well with you and your family. I am still disappointed how everything played out and I do wish that in the future we could be cool again. Idk how u r going to take this msg hopefully its not bad but I just wanted to wish u a happy new year and send out a congrats for graduating. I've been well I'm finally playin bball again in everything down in miami finally got taken care of thank god. Well idk if u will respond or not but best wishes for 2011.
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Yeah, the message is innocent and all, I guess. But, a restraining order is a restraining order, and Mbakwe violated it. It does sort of boggle the mind that Mbakwe would be contacting this woman via FaceBook or any other means after knowingly saying that he would have no further contact with her. After all, the day after the restraining order was filed by the woman, he allegedly filed one against her as well.
↵Tubby Smith called the incident a "lapse in judgment" on behalf of Mbakwe. Well, yeah, I should say so.
↵Mbakwe's Twitter account has also been suspended. . .that's probably for the best.
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