By Michael Kelley ’14 & Mick Kowaleski ’14

Two high school football players in Steubenville, OH have recently been convicted of raping an intoxicated 16-year old girl at a party.

Kowaleski: American small-town football culture may be one of the most disturbing secrets the USA is keeping under wraps nowadays.

Let’s not concentrate on the rapists’ “bright futures” or “wasted football potential.” We shouldn’t spend a second lamenting their ruined lives. They deserve everything that’s coming to them.

Steubenville football coach Reno Saccoccia is a legend, a 300-game winning coach for a football powerhouse in an economically rotting town. When a Steubenville student recorded and released a video joking about the rape, Saccoccia caught wind. How did this “molder of men” react?

“Delete [the video].”

Photos of the unconscious   girl circulated through the school. A bevy of texts exchanged on August 13 revealed that the rapists weren’t worried about being convicted. “IDGAF,” Anthony Craig texted. “I got Reno.”

It was only last year when Joe Paterno was ousted for covering up the Sandusky-Penn State scandal. I’m often one to romanticize football and its importance in American culture, but this is a twisted perversion of that concept. Small town football is turning out to be a breeding ground for corruption.

As of this writing, Soccoccia still has his job. I’m getting sick of this bull.

Kelley: Disclaimer: the Mike’d UP boys do not relish the opportunity to discuss these sports related scandals that are seemingly never ending.

But once again, I will use the words “truly sickening” to describe the culture you speak of Mick, one that continues to defend the perpetrators.

Two girls, who are apparently major supporters of the Steubenville High School football team and perhaps of the delinquents themselves, took to Twitter and Facebook to harass the victim, threatening her with homicide and bodily harm.

Both girls were shortly thereafter arrested and taken to juvenile detention facilities.

But one of the many problems with this whole story is the way the national media is covering it. Almost all of the articles or write-ups I’ve read on the case have revolved around the perpetrators and the lasting legacy that the convictions will have on them. There is little to no attention placed on how the victim will recover from this international exposure.

Obviously a different situation, but this reminds me of how the Newtown shootings were covered by the media. I’d guess that almost 95 percent of the reporting focused in on the shooter, not the families of the victims that will now suffer in despair for the rest of their lives.

There is obviously so much wrong with this story, but the way the media chooses to cover it just adds to the reckoning and destruction it has already caused.

The 2013 NCAA Tournament is kicking into full gear. The guys give picks for Cinderella story, upset lock, and their national champion.

Kowaleski: Cinderella story: Ole Miss. The Rebels’ Marshall Henderson has the annual “scrappy, hateable white guy” award locked up. Previous winners of the “hateable white guy” award go to Eric Devendorf, Tyler Hansborough and the entire Duke program. The difference here is that Henderson has a “me against the world” twist.       Upset Lock: Take Pitt over Gonzaga any day of the week and twice on Sunday. The Zags have the weakest resume of any No. 1 seed that I’ve ever seen, and Pitt is better than their 8-seed. I haven’t seen any reason to take Gonzaga in this one.

Champion: Kansas. In a year full of ups-and-downs and a deficiency of elite, runaway teams, take the closest thing to consistency that you can. That’s Bill Self’s squad, overlooked as usual despite playing a fantastic season. If they can get past VCU, expect the boys in blue to take the cake. Louisville might not get out of the Midwest.

Kelley: For the love of God, please let my picks hold up until at least Friday when this hits the print and the eyes of our beloved readers.

Cinderella story: Minnesota. The Golden Gophers beat Michigan State, Indiana, Memphis and Wisconsin this season—all six seeds or higher heading into the Madness that is March. A good rebounding team with strong guard play, Minnesota starts off against a disappointing UCLA squad that just lost in the Pac-12 title game against Oregon.

Upset Lock: Bucknell over Butler. For three straight years, I have traveled to Lewisburg to watch Lafayette play the Bison. And for three straight years, I have left Sojka Pavilion nothing short of impressed. Bucknell is a very good basketball team and will show it to the country in this year’s tourney. Player to watch is Mike Muscala.

Champion: Backing off your Indiana pick from our beginning of the season predictions? Of course, I can’t say much because I picked Kentucky… yea, it’s been rough.

So I’ll steal your preseason pick and choose the Hoosiers to cut down the nets come April 8 in Atlanta. Zeller and Oladipo headline an extremely talented squad.