Michael Dixon Travels to Bahamas, Why Frank Haith Needs to Play Him

It hasn’t quite been the start that Michael Dixon envisioned for his senior season.

After Missouri Tigers‘ head coach Frank Haith announced on October 26 that Dixon–along with freshman guard Dominique Bull–was suspended, many Mizzou fans assumed that it would only be a matter of days before the formality ended, and Dixon was back with the team, chumming it up.

But 25 days and three missed regular season games later there is still no Dixon, and not even so much as a whisper about why disciplinary action was taken or when he’ll be back.

I do applaud Haith for being the kind of coach that is going to put his foot down. I applaud him for sending a message that the team is far more important than any given individual and their ego that goes with it. But at this point, I’d applaud him even more for saying that Dixon was going to be rejoining the team.

And I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t know the entire truth of the situation, so maybe his prolonged suspension is warranted. But this is another part of what is starting to become a problem; no one knows exactly what the issue is. Sure there have been rumors flying around, but nothing even close to concrete. Everything from a bad attitude to missing classes. But the longer this suspension drags out with the fans not knowing what’s happening, the more restless they’re becoming on the entire Dixon subject.

But here is the good news. As Missouri travels from St. Louis to Nassau today to gear up for the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas, Dixon is with the team. No word as of yet as to whether he will play or not, but this is certainly better news than if he had stayed in Columbia.

Could he simply be in a situation where he’s being pulled along to sit on the bench and scolded more like a kid in “timeout”? I sure hope not. I think we’ve seen enough of that at this point. Then again, if we knew even remotely what he did, this may not be a concern at all.

 Dan Irwin is a sports writer for Rant Sports.  Follow him on Twitter @ danirwin_rant or on Facebook at “facebook.com/danirwin.sports“.