Kentucky Needs To Try Explaining Why One Of Its Basketball Players Needs an Armed Bodyguard

The main fact of this situation is that according to the Louisville Courier-Journal, Kentucky basketball player Tai Wynyard has been showing up to parties on campus accompanied by an armed bodyguard.

Naturally, this raises a lot of questions. Primarily: Why does a Kentucky basketball player feel he needs an armed bodyguard? Secondarily: Is this why Wynyard was indefinitely suspended on Tuesday?

Kentucky isn’t saying, but it should reconsider. This doesn’t appear to be a legal matter. No crime has apparently been committed, and there has been no civil action taken over this, either. It’s just sort of making people nervous, as armed body guards are wont to do.

" University of Kentucky fraternity and sorority members used a group messaging app to warn each other last month about a potentially dangerous student who carried a gun to a party to protect UK basketball player Tai Wynyard. Messages to the student, whom Courier Journal is not naming because no criminal charges were filed, were not immediately returned. Wynyard, a redshirt sophomore forward from New Zealand, has been suspended from all team activities for a violation of team rules, though UK associate media relations director Eric Lindsey would not confirm when the suspension was handed down or if it was connected to the allegation. "

It being the case that this is now a national news story, and a lot of Kentucky students are freaked out, Kentucky should be compelled to offer a more satisfying explanation for all this than what it has put up so far, which is nothing.

"“As a matter of policy, we do comment on student disciplinary matters,” the UK spokesperson said."

That’s weak. Kentucky can comment on this situation whenever it wants to, and it can make Tai Wynyard, 20, available to comment on this highly irregular behavior on his own behalf, which would be preferable.

Leaving these questions unanswered invites rumor, speculation, and fear, and it makes a villain out of a player who for all we know is afraid, himself.