and the punishment is

[smazza]

Grothe seeks pre-trial diversion program

USF quarterback Matt Grothe, facing a misdemeanor charge of serving alcohol to an underage person, will apply for a pre-trial intervention program for first-time offenders that could allow the charge to be dropped by the start of football season.

Grothe, 20, the Big East rookie of the year last fall, was arrested in April while while he worked behind the bar at the Bull Ring Sports Bar, accused of selling two beers to an 18-year-old who was working in conjunction with the state's Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco. His case was set for arraignment before a county court judge Monday morning.

If his application to the program is approved, Grothe would agree to probationary requirements, which typically amount to 16 hours of community service, payment of court fines, gaining familiarity with the relevant Florida Statutes and going without further incident for a minimum of about three months. Upon completion, the charge would be dropped.

Grothe's Lakeland-based attorney, Tony Dodds, did not return messages left Monday seeking comment. Grother's work at the Bull Ring was neither illegal nor in violation of any NCAA guidelines, and USF coach Jim Leavitt said the arrest will not result in any suspension from games.

Posted by Greg Auman at 10:24:00 PM on May 21, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

HCC's Klimovic heads north

One less name to worry about in the Stan Heath recruiting watch: Hillsborough Community College forward Milos Klimovic, who had expressed an interest in the Bulls and was released from a commitment to Houston, instead signed last week with Binghamton.

Klimovic, 6-foot-7 with solid outside range, had met informally with Heath the same weekend that recruits Kem Nweke and Vernon Carr made official visits. He'd shown an interest in staying in Tampa but USF's interest was never so much that he was given a scholarship offer. Nweke returned home to Texas without an offer and Carr opted to sign with Towson, citing a chance for greater playing time.

It's probably not a coincidence that one of Binghamton's assistant coaches is former USF assistant Julius Allen, who would have been aware of Klimovic from his time in Tampa. Two high school recruits who had been mentioned as possibilities for USF, guard Marcus Britt and forward Michael Sanchez, signed with Heath's old school, Arkansas, last week.

Heath has two scholarships still available this spring and said last week he'd like to use one more this spring and carry the other over to next season, giving him two for his 2007-08 recruiting class. If I had to profile the last target, I'd say it's a junior college combo guard, and Heath's best option is a player getting a release from a top-tier program due to a change in coaching, much the way USF was able to land guard Solomon Bozeman and forward Amu Saaka last spring.

On the coaching front, it's looking more like Darren Sorenson, who's been on Heath's staff in an unspecified capacity for more than a month, will be his third full-time assistant. Sorenson was Heath's director of basketball operations for all five seasons at Arkansas.

Here's why I think that: former Marshall assistant Josh Postorino, the former Clearwater High standout, had been working in Heath's office for much of the past month until he left last week to become director of basketball operations at Clemson, where Will Wade left to take a full-time position on Tommy Amaker's staff at Harvard. To me, if Postorino thought he had a shot at a full-time position in Tampa, he wouldn't be leaving to another state for an operations job, which generally pay about half what a full-time assistant makes. That tells me he was up for Heath's operations job, which would mean Sorensen would make sense as the final full-time assistant, with Dan Hipsher and Reggie Hanson. Hanson hasn't been announced by USF, by the way, but I think that should come with a new fiscal year starting next month. Just a theory, but one that makes sense to me ...

http://blogs.tampabay.com/usf/

[Mama_Bull]

The pre-trial diversion program is for misdemeanors, which is what Matt was charged with.  It usually lasts no longer than 6 months, and is under the supervision of the Salvation Army as opposed to the pre-trial intervention program that Stirrups was given.  Usually it is no more than 3 months.  That program is under the supervision of the Department of Corrections because his offense was a felony.  That supervision is generally for a period of 18 months and can be reduced to 9 months (or 1/2 of the supervision period).

Either way what these 2 programs do is give 1st time offenders (and I do hate that word) an opportunity to have no black mark against them upon successful completion of the program.

[E.T.]

And we know sMAZZA is such a big fan of USC's coach.

[crambone]

First time offenses are no big deal.

If he does this again, then and ONLY then can smazza make his sassy comments.