The agony of post-game drug testing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/24/06
It's become an LSU basketball tradition, win or lose, to pull the trigger on whatever's happened and move on. The Tigers did it Thursday, after upsetting Duke.
"It's a piggy bank, but it's shaped like a little toilet, and it has a flusher," said LSU freshman Tasmin Mitchell. "[Athletics director] Skip Bertman gave it to us, and he said when he used to coach he'd tell his [baseball] team, 'If you make an error, flush it down the toilet.'
"[The toy toilet] goes everywhere with us. Right after the [Duke] game, [coach John Brady] said, 'Flush that game, and let's talk about the next one.' "
LSU and Texas players don't always find it so easy to use the bathroom. When pulled for random drug-testing, they have to play again before a spectator — it's mandatory that a NCAA drug-testing crew member of the same gender witness the act.
No LSU or Texas players interviewed Friday said they were drug-tested after Thursday's games, but after Texas beat Penn in the first round last week, "I had to do the drug test and it took me a couple of times to actually go," said Texas guard Daniel Gibson.
"They actually go into the stall, and I was like, 'Oh, you're going to [watch]?' He actually was right there next to me, and that didn't help very much."
NCAA student-athletes are randomly tested at practice or after games for stimulants, anabolic steroids, alchohol (and beta blockers for riflery), diuretics, street drugs like heroin, marijuana and THC, peptide hormones, urine manipulators and masking agents.
If the test is positive (information on the NCAA's Web site said between one and two percent are), first-time offenders meet with the AD and the coach, parents or guardians are usually notified, they're then subject to regular testing and counseling becomes mandatory. Suspension is possible.
A second positive test results in a one-year suspension, and revocation of athletic scholarship. A third results in the permanent loss of eligibility and scholarship.
Texas coach Rick Barnes doesn't have a problem with drug-testing. Yet he's not keen on the fact that some guys struggle to pull the trigger at the end of a long day. A school may request a delay of drug-testing until the next morning if a contest begins after 9 p.m., like some tournament games.
Once an athlete is tabbed for testing, though, he or she is not allowed to leave until a sufficient sample is drawn, even if it means that player and a school administrator must remain behind as the team returns to campus (schools can request reimbursement from the NCAA for related expenses).
"I think what is hard about that's just dehydration," Barnes said. "I think we all understand that . . . what they really should do probably is do it prior to the game. Everybody is a little jumpy. They'd get all the urine samples they need."
LSU guard Darrel Mitchell said, "My first drug test took me a while. I drank like three Powerades."
Texas forward Brad Buckman laughed. Nervously.
"They come right up to you and you're like, 'Oh, no,' so you're sitting down chugging Gatorade trying to go," he said. "It's a nerve-racking deal even though you're clean. You're obviously thinking about it and you might get that stage fright. It's a little weird."
Gibson finally let loose after the Penn game. "Actually, one of my teammates, Craig [Winder], had been in there maybe 20 or 30 minutes before I got in there," he said. "We ended up leaving at the same time so that means he was in there for about an hour."
Tasmin Mitchell, who said both his drug tests came on LSU practice days, can beat that.
"Oh yeah. My first drug test . . . took me like three hours," he said. "I drank a whole bunch, but I couldn't use the restroom because someone is watching. I couldn't do nothing about it. My teammates tease me."
It's not always a laughing matter.
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