The call came unexpectedly.
"I'm betting everybody's probably questioning what happened at the end of the year," Deven Simms said a week ago. "My numbers were good, but I didn't finish out the season.
"Nobody wants to be a guy who's not a good character, not coachable, not a good teammate. That's not who I am. That's not how I am defined. I'm praying someone will take a chance on me and overlook some of those things."
The former leading scorer for Arkansas State University men's basketball team continued.
"I wanted to set the record: Me and Coach don't have any problems," Simms said. "He did the best thing for the team and ended up dismissing me from the team."
The questions first arose Feb. 10, when ASU first-year head Coach Mike Balado announced Simms, a senior guard averaging 17.1 points per game, was dismissed from the team because he "was unable to adhere" to team standards.
That could have meant anything.
And when Simms graduated from ASU in May and signed with his agent, Kenge Stevenson, members of professional organizations each asked the same question: "Why did he get dismissed from the team?"
They didn't believe the answer they received.
"They thought I was biased," Stevenson said. "A lot of times, when someone gets dismissed, people assume it's drugs. This has nothing to do with that."
It was a similar situation to what happened the same week at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, when former head coach Wes Flanigan dismissed sophomore guard Andre Jones for "conduct detrimental to the program" a day after Jones was ejected from a game.
Sometimes the full story is never known.
"I would love for [Simms] to tell his story," Balado said. "Everybody's path is different. Guys need to see that. Because people make mistakes. As long as we learn from it."
With full knowledge, "the inability to adhere to team standards" is a sufficient explanation.
There is no isolated action that can be easily summed up in a short news release, just a series of actions that led to what both Balado and Simms identified as the breaking point.
On the night of Feb. 8, the Red Wolves had just lost at Troy 89-83 in overtime. It was ASU's 16th loss of what would be a program-low 11-21 season.
Simms recorded his fourth double-double of the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds, and he tied a career-high with 4 steals.
Simms said he entered the locker room and "chewed some of" his teammates out, criticizing both them and himself.
"The whole year, it wasn't looking good for us, I know you've seen the record," he said. "Let my emotions get the best of me, really."
The next morning, the team was reviewing the Troy film for its Feb. 10 game at South Alabama.
The tape came to a moment where ASU was in a timeout, and everyone was huddled on the court except Simms.
Simms said Balado "chewed" him "out on that," and they began to argue.
"[Balado] said, 'Say another word, say another word, and you're off the team,' " Simms said. "I was like, 'OK, coach,' and he dismissed me from there."
Balado said there were "a lot of other reasons" that led to that breaking point.
"It was something we tried to talk about," Balado said. "Kind of change his approach to be part of the team and understanding his emotions. It's something that he struggled with at first. It just came to a point I had to make a decision at that time I thought was best."
Simms said that afterward, he had a lot of teammates and family members tell him he should talk to Balado.
But he didn't.
"I was just like, my mind was in a whole other state," he said. "I was hurt, and I felt like everything was going to come to an end. I got put off the team. I was at the room doing schoolwork, not being around the guys, love being around me. I even didn't want to talk to nobody. Didn't want to have to explain it."
Two months passed, and Simms was about to graduate with a degree in sports management.
He still needed closure.
"I was doing schoolwork one day, and I was just sitting there thinking, 'Maybe if I go talk to him, everything will feel better,' " he said. "I called him, went over to his office, and maybe talked to him maybe an hour. Really got past the situation."
"At the end of the day, we had a great man-to-man conversation before his graduation," Balado said. "I think it's something that unfortunately needed to be done. It's really made him understand what the real world is about.
"I think he's in a great place. I will always love him. He played hard for me. At the same time, it's a situation that had to happen."
Simms said he recently has been traveling back and forth from Arkansas to St. Louis, practicing in gyms and trying to "stay in the best possible shape I can, so if i get a call, anything will happen."
Stevenson said Simms will compete in an international combine in Las Vegas from July 8-10, where he may get a chance to sign with an international league.
"He'll be successful, and I believe that talent-wise he's as talented as anyone I've ever coached," Balado said. "I'm fully hopeful that someone gives him any opportunity to play."
'Gunslinger' showdown
The Gunslinger returned to Pine Bluff on Sept. 4, 2004.
It was another memorable day in our review of Golden Lion Stadium's 18-year history, while the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff continues its $2.5 million renovation of its football and baseball facilities.
Archie "The Gunslinger" Cooley had earned his nickname running his no-huddle offense as the head coach at Mississippi Valley State from 1980-1986.
The Gunslinger's offense produced a young receiver by the name of Jerry Rice, who was named a first team Division I-AA All-American in 1983.
Cooley coached UAPB from 1987 until 1990, and according to Arkansas Democrat-Gazette archives, "he was an unmistakable presence around town with his signature white cowboy hat and creme-colored Mercedes with a license plate that read 'Cool-2.' "
Cooley resigned after the NAIA sentenced the program to the "death penalty," finding it guilty of 41 rules infractions that, according to UPI archives, included "players competing after exhausting their four years of eligibility" and "players competing while under suspension."
The Golden Lions did not play in 1991, and they didn't play in 1992 for "financial reasons."
More than a decade later, The Gunslinger was the head coach at Division II Paul Quinn College in Dallas, and he'd agreed to play UAPB as a late substitute for the University of Central Arkansas, which had a scheduling conflict.
The Wednesday before the game, Cooley told the Democrat-Gazette that he had "nothing to say about the situation. I love the people who love me there but I despise the ones who don't. That's all I got to say."
His offense fired as it always had; Paul Quinn led 26-7 in the second quarter.
Then UAPB, led by first-year head Coach Maurice Forte, outscored the Tigers 41-8 the rest of the game in a 48-34 victory.
Sports on 07/01/2018