"Disgraced" (2017 release; 101 min.) is a documentary about what happened in the summer of 2003 at Baylor University. As the movie opens, Coach David Bliss has been hired to turn the fortunes of the men's basketball team around. He brings in several blue chip recruits, including Patrick Dennehy, a transfer from New Maxico, and Carlton Dotson, a freshman from Maryland. These two get along great. When Harvey Thomas, a JUCO transfer, arrives on campus in early June, things get out of hand pretty quickly, and on June 13, Patrick Hennehy goes missing... At this point we are a good 10 min. into the movie.

Couple of comments: this documentary is from awarrd winning director Pat Kondelis. Here he looks back at the shocing events of Summer, 2003 when a Baylor basketball player shot and killed another Baylor basketball player, and how the university handled the situation. And let's just say it: it ain't a pretty picture. But did anyone else really expect anything different, when a big time university hires a basketball coach who intends to win at any and all cost. I have to admit that I didn't recall any of the details before watching this fascinating documentary, and things get so bizarre that the saying :facts are stranger than fiction" comes to mmind again. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. Even though this is a sports documentary, you don't have to care about sports one bit in order to appreciate the documentary for what it is, a drama of human relationships. How Dave Bliss sleeps at night with himself is a question that begs to be answered. (He apparently seems to have little trouble with it.)

"Disgraced" premiered on Showtime in March, 2017 (in time for the NCAA tournament, of course),and is now available on SHO On Demand and other streaming services. Please note that "Disgraced" went on to win an Emmy Award for Best Documentary that year, for for good reason. If you have any interest in documentaries or in college sports, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Disgraced was well-received in its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. The film explains the complex issues around the tragic disappearance and ultimate death of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy. The events that led to the arrest and conviction of one of his teammates – Carlton Dotson - are complex and remain confusing since there was little explanation of that player's motivation. The director and his team did an excellent job of laying out the details of that multi-layered investigation.

The web events that played out was complicated and ultimately led to a NCAA investigation of rules violations by Coach Dave Bliss and others. These included extensive allegations that Bliss – likely backed by boosters – paid player tuition and expenses. The director does an excellent job of dissecting this complicated true crime investigation. It reveals a pattern of extensive corruption at the heart of the world's largest Baptist University (which has continued recently with the cover-up of a massive sexual assault scandal). It is clear that Baylor University put winning ahead of the rules of amateur college athletics. As someone who has taught college athletes in Texas, I have to wonder if Baylor was worse than other college or just more careless so that they got caught? I suspect that Baylor may merely be one of the worst offenders in a deeply corrupt system. This is powerful film that asks may important questions about these tragic events and more broadly about the nature of college athletics. It has been picked up by Showtime so it should be widely seen by a wide audience and hopefully adds to a wide debate over college athletics. Oh, by the way, Baylor is #3 seed in the NCAA tournament announced this week.

In 2013, I saw a critically acclaimed documentary called "The Gatekeepers," which was an Israeli-made film about the Shin Bet - the Israeli version of America's FBI. However, the film was basically just a series of people looking into the camera and talking. This "talking heads" approach was boring, and I had to struggle to stay awake, even stopping it in the middle and watching it again the following day.

So watching "Disgraced," I felt that same way. I came into this picture wanting to learn more about this news story that happened less than 15 years ago, and left knowing little more, and barely able to keep my eyes open. In addition to the boring "talking heads" approach, it is fascinating that the filmmakers chose on their own volition at the end of the movie to indicate who did NOT participate in this movie, and that includes Baylor University, most of the players on the team that year, and most of the attorneys who worked the case. It could have been so much better if there was more buy-in from these other groups.

Also, I will admit that the most interesting part of the documentary was Dave Bliss's comments which he thought were off-the-record without the camera running. But I've also read that showing these comments was questionably ethical on the part of the filmmakers.

Finally, it's clear who the filmmakers want the audience to believe "really" did it, or at the very least, what needs to be explored much more thoroughly by law enforcement. However, I'm sure legally they had to be very careful about what they could say without being sued, so this potentially powerful statement was extremely watered down.