I feel sorry for my friends who are LSU fans. Truly, I do. Anyone who knows me is clearly aware that I am no LSU fan in any way, shape or form. But I also recognize that my friends love pulling for the Tigers and they were enjoying a fairly rare basketball season. After some lean years, this has been one to be enjoyed. It was shaping up to be a great one. Actually, it probably already qualified as that. Then the other adidas fell last week and everyone is left looking for answers and they don’t even know the question.

I don’t feel sorry for Will Wade. LSU either knew, of should have known, what they were getting into when he was hired. Yes, he was young and energetic and more importantly, he wasn’t Johnny Jones. But he was also not free of some whispers and behind the scenes talk about his rise through the college basketball ranks. Watching him coach, his immaturity can get the best of him. He got a technical foul last year in the final minute when he team had the ball. You can’t do that. Ask some Louisiana-Lafayette people about his actions last year. And don’t try to tell me it’s because he’s young. No doubt, he has brought LSU basketball back to a place it hasn’t been in quite awhile. But he has not helped himself at all in the last week with what has gone on off the court. He keeps digging a deeper hole.

I feel sorry for players such as Skylar Mays, a junior on the LSU team. By all accounts, this is a top-notch guy. He’s a star in the classroom (second team Academic All-American) and, even though he wasn’t thought to be one of the top contributors when this season started, has turned himself into one. To me, it looks like he’s what an LSU basketball player should be all about. Maybe he will rise above all of this controversy, but you have to believe that this isn’t exactly how he was planning on this year playing out.

I don’t feel sorry for Javonte Smart, the Baton Rouge native who has been the focal point of the FBI wire tap in which Wade was heard talking about his frustration in failing to finalize “the offer” to get Smart in an LSU uniform. No, there’s no proof that he received anything improper. But ask yourself this question — what do you think happened?

I don’t feel sorry for these purple-and-gold irrational fans who keep trying to come up with reasons why there “is no proof.” Maybe he was talking about (Texas coach) Shaka Smart! Thankfully, I think there are less of them than there were a week ago, because common sense has started to win out. I don’t know how these people can defend Will Wade, but they do. But let’s not kid ourselves; if LSU were 5-26 instead of 26-5, they’d be standing in line to get rid of Wade.

I don’t feel sorry for the LSU administration. Well, not totally. This whole thing didn’t get sprung on them with a phone call late last week. It’s been out there for quite awhile and they chose to not do anything about it until they were forced to. Or they just put their head in the sand. And the track record involving LSU coaching issues isn’t exactly stellar (see Miles, Les). On the other hand, they have recognized their responsibility is to protect the university, not Will Wade. If forced to choose one or the other (which is what has happened), they made an easy call. In the middle of the fire, it’s easy to say you shouldn’t be playing with matches, but there’s a bigger issue at play.

I feel sorry for Kent Lowe, LSU’s sports information director for basketball, Shreveport native and F.O.D.W. (Friend of Designated Writers). On a good day, his is a thankless job. Instead of worrying about game notes and media seating, he’s having to deal with this excrement storm that is completely out of his control.

Most of all, I feel sorry for college basketball. No, given what the sport has evolved into, this isn’t a shocker. But it’s not exactly One Shining Moment, as CBS will try to tell us when this season is finally over.