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Matt Pilgrim can’t stay out of trouble

The great thing about twitter is that is can put you in contact with anyone. Anywhere.

Eventually, athletes are going to realize this. When that time comes, maybe they will stop sending idiotic tweets.

The latest twi-ffender is Oklahoma State forward Matt Pilgrim, who hasn’t exactly kept his nose clean during the offseason. Over the summer, Pilgrim had an emergency protective order filed against by a woman that had accused him of rape, and he was only allowed back onto the team on November 1st after being suspended for the first two weeks of practice by Travis Ford for a lack of dedication.

First some background. On Monday night, an OSU student was shot in the leg during a robbery attempt (Ed. Note: Not to make light of the situation, but you need to go here and scroll down to the last paragraph. I’d say the victim has a pretty fantastic outlook on life.) and took off towards campus. The school locked down the dorms and the Greek houses. When Pilgrim got word of this, he fired off a couple of tweets that offended some of his followers:

“So there (is) a shooter on OSU campus aka Stillwater,” Pilgrim initially wrote on Twitter. “Hate to (say) it, but I can see why LOL.”

The post was eventually removed, but not until creating a stir and an exchange of tweets.

“If you don’t like (what) I say, stop following me...,” Pilgrim posted.

He also posted: “My heart goes out to anyone who got hurt during this shooting on campus.. sorry it happened but it happens.. to the ones judging love u too.”

As you might imagine, this caused a bit of twit-rage. Pilgrim eventually deleted the tweets, and later
posted the following apology:

“I would like to apologize if I offended any followers. My comment last night was not well thought through.”

“I was referring to how Stillwater is so boring for some people that it can turn you crazy.”

“Being from the big city (Cincinnati), I’ve dealt with things I’ve never had to deal with until I came here.”

“Everyone who came into contact with me knows that I’m a respectful person and don’t mean to hurt anyone.”

“I wish the best for everyone and hope to see you at the games and graduation.”

Given his past issues with the team -- Pilgrim was also suspended for a game last season as the result of a curfew violation -- I don’t think anyone would be surprised to see Pilgrim face some sort of disciplinary action from head coach Travis Ford. Keep in mind, on September 30th, an Oklahoma Wide Receiver was suspended for two games for “insensitive tweets” involving a shooter on the Texas campus, so there is precedence for a suspension in this situation.

Pilgrim will be the Cowboy’s best interior player this season if he can keep himself on the team. His loss would be a huge blow to a group that is already going to have a difficult time making it back to the NCAA Tournament.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @ballinisahabit.