FREDERICTON (CUP) — Owen Klassen, star basketball player for the Acadia Axemen, was charged with two counts of assault causing bodily harm, in relation to incidents occurring on January 28, at a home, and February 19, at a Wolfville bar, the Anvil.

The morality of this situation is that Klassen was suspended a mere two games, and those two games were the final two of the regular season against a team that finished 1-19 in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) Men's Basketball standings. Klassen was back in uniform the following weekend for the AUS playoffs.

The Acadia brass will say that he is innocent until proven guilty, which is an understandable argument.

Klassen is a basketball star, participating in the World University Games, Canada's national development team, the Canadian Pan Am Games team, as well as training with the national senior men's team this past summer.

So, you can understand why Kevin Dickie, Acadia's athletic director, and head coach Steve Baur, want — check that, need — Klassen in their lineup. Suspending Klassen for meaningful games means you give up a CIS second Team All-Canadian and the reigning AUS Defensive Player of the Year. How can you give that up?

That's an easy question to answer: By swallowing your pride and doing the right thing. Acadia had an opportunity to set an example of how athletes are not above the law, but being suspended one game for each count of assault? To me, that is an embarrassment. Way to sacrifice, Acadia.

This all begs the question, if that had been a player coming off the bench, and not Klassen, would the repercussions have been the same? I am going to go out on a limb and say the expendable player would have been done for the season, if not the rest of his days at Acadia.

It will be interesting to see how Dickie and Baur move forward following Klassen's trial, which is set for February 19, just before AUS playoffs.