It's not often you see movements born, live, and die in a day, but the "Let Delvon Play" hashtag was just that. To the best of my recollection, here's how it happened, with Twitter embeds (shameless plug: are you following The Only Colors on Twitter? How about Facebook? OK, I'm done.)
1:05 PM Jay Bilas, ESPN Commentator and trill dude extraordinare, Tweets this:
So, Wisconsin can play a pro baseball player at QB, but wrong for MSU to play injured cager and actor on senior night? bit.ly/AvKgGs
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) March 1, 2012
Seeing that tweet, I thought back to Russell Wilson, and thought "hey, that's right!" I then thought about the Big Ten Championship Game, so I pushed the Badger out of my mind. Different college basketball writers discussed Delvon Roe's exclusion for a while, and I'm not sure who first created it, but Rob Dauster from Ballin' Is A Habit and our blog bros College Basketball Talk got the movement off the ground, so I'll credit him.
1:21 PM Rob Dauster tweets this:
File this under "not surprising": ow.ly/9onEu Its amazing. The NCAA just doesn't get it. Let's get #LetDelvonPlay trending.
— Rob Dauster (@RobDauster) March 1, 2012
1:38 PM If you doubted you could like Delvon more:
Lol I love my followers u all r great. It's not about me lets worry about wrappin up this big10 title OUTRIGHT!!N let the NCAA do there job.
— Delvon Roe (@DelvonRoe10) March 1, 2012
2:00-6:00 PM The movement takes off. I don't have any analytics on how many people tweeted the #LetDelvonPlay hashtag. However, can you prove it's NOT 100 million? For the sake of simplicity, let's call it 100 million and leave it at that. Also of note -- try and read this next tweet and not hear Dick Vitale's voice in your head. IMPOSSIBLE, I SAY.
Come on NCAA let Delvon play baby - sr night & what is it that they would deny this classy guy from joining @Money23Green & Spartans #Heart
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) March 1, 2012
6:10 PM Mark Hollis has the final say:
Delvon will be on the bench, take part in our senior recognition, and at some point have an opportunity to kiss center court at the Bres.
— Mark Hollis (@MSUAD) March 1, 2012
And that was that. For what's it worth, I don't think the NCAA would've allowed Delvon to play -- it's one thing for a student to do commercials, but when an athlete uses his fame to get jobs such as acting, well, it'd be easy for a Wildcat booster to give a cool million to Anthony Davis so he can star with Ashley Judd in "ALONG CAME A SPIDER PART 2 -- ALONG CAME A SPIDER HARDER".
That said, there's no reason why Delvon shouldn't be allowed to sit on the bench one last time, be there with his teammates, receive a framed jersey, and kiss center court. What I was most upset about today was a couple comments on Twitter that Delvon "quit" the team. Delvon never quit, only his knees did.
If you've made it this far, links! At least a few.
Post-practice essentials - LSJ Blogs: Hey, Joe In short: Trice's ankle has made a miraculous recovery and is 100% ready to play on Sunday. Derrick Nix is 100% as well, and although Austin Thornton sat out practice with a migraine he should be ready to go against Ohio State.
NFL.com news: QB Stock Report: Cousins, Jefferson improve draft grades Yet another pundit thinks Kirk Cousins will go in the second round.
Arnett update - LSJ Blogs: Hey, Joe Michigan State has sent in the hardship waiver for DeAnthony Arnett; we'll know if he can play in 2012 in one month. Arnett can play Spring ball no matter what the decision.