An officer found them walking on Alderson Street and spotted a GPS unit sticking out of Johnson’s pocket, according to court documents. When asked if the GPS was his, Johnson told the officer it was not. Budinich agreed to talk to police and admitted that he and Johnson had entered two parked vehicles and had stolen items from inside them. They were both taken to the Gallatin County Detention Center and held on $1,820 bond each. They have since been released. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.Johnson was a starter and at times their best big man last season, leading the team in rebounding with 6.2 per game. Budinich was a three-point specialist big man off the bench, and provided a nice and different dynamic to their offense.
You have to wonder what was going on in their heads to be caught up in something like this. Both are juniors to be, so you can't really blame it on youth. It was just a dumb decision, and now they will pay the price for it.
For Brad Huse, he has to be wondering what else could possibly happen with this group of players. Last season, wing man Jamie Stewart was academically ineligible after the first semester. Antonio Biglow had academic issues crop up at his junior college, and missed all of last season. Xavier Blount was injured in a bar fight. Shawn Reid left the team after the season. The NCAA gave Mohamed Fall the shaft. This is just another instance of something going wrong off the court, and too many more of these incidents, and Huse can't really afford anything else to happen as he tries to win enough to keep his job.
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