In his Sunday column entitled “Monday Morning Knee-Jerk: Too much yappin’ lately” CBSSportsline.com college basketball columnist Gregg Doyel praised Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt for cursing at a couple of N.C. State students, who were making fun of Tech’s Theodis Tarver for his recent academic struggles.

“Bravo: To Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt, who verbally scalded the handful of North Carolina State fans taunting Tech’s Theodis Tarver for having his academic eligibility dismissed, then restored,” Doyel wrote.

The next line of Doyel’s column — which is a collection of quasi-headlines followed by one or two sentences — took a shot at the academic integrity of the University.

“Safety school: Hard to believe those idiots taunted Tarver about academic anything. Um, hello? He goes to Georgia Tech. You go to N.C. State,” the column read.

Doyel is a graduate of the University of Florida and former employee of The Charlotte Observer.

As much as I would love to try and call Doyel a poor journalist because he’s got no idea what he’s talking about, I can’t. I can’t because it was a column — just some guy’s opinion.

I can, however, try to clarify what happened Saturday to the best of my ability.

John Elias, a freshman in communication, was the fan who Hewitt “verbally scalded.”

“We were getting on to Tarver the whole game,” Elias said. “We were heckling him about stuff that had to do with his academic situation. During the last timeout, I yelled ‘Hey Paul, do you think Tarver even understood those drawings?’ “

“That’s when coach Hewitt turned around, pointed at me and said, “Hey F*** you. That’s just classless.”

I agree. It absolutely was classless. But if Elias is telling the truth, perhaps the coach should have tried to get his point across with a little more … class.

We all have our demons to face in life, and fans of any sport shouldn’t deride a player or coach over those demons — unless they’re free throws or interceptions or a goofy haircut or something like that.

State’s own Gavin Grant has gone through some very tough times this season, and I know I’d be offended if a Georgia Tech fan insulted him on the court.

OK, back to Doyel.

He suggests State is a “safety school,” which means it’s a backup school for kids coming out of high school. It’s the safety valve for students who can’t get in anywhere else.

Hmmm.

A few numbers from this year’s freshman class profile at State: average high school GPA — 4.07; average rank in high school class — 16th percentile; average SAT — 1185; average ACT — 25.

Come on man, you’re a professional, do some research.

We may not be the beloved University of Florida, but we are no backup school.

I’m a young sports writer, but I just hope that Doyel isn’t really the pinnacle of this profession. There’s got to be something more to sports writing than sitting on a pedestal and making uneducated assumptions about people and their lives. There’s got to be more than that.

If Sheriff Doyel wants to police college basketball fans across the country, he better get some deputies because it happens everywhere. It may not be right, but it happens all over the place.

Maybe Officer Doyel can make it to our Duke game tonight to keep those rabid “Cameron Crazies” from insulting my players or my coach. He can hire some rent-a-cops to carry around those plastic handcuffs and tear gas — just in case things get too out of hand.

Don’t pick a battle you can’t win, Constable. Elias was out of line for saying what he said, but why would you praise a grown man for cursing at some beside-the-point freshman fan?

Which leads me to the end, I don’t want to pick a fight with this Doyel character. He’s not a very important person to me.

OK, good talk.

Tanner can be reached at sports@technicianonline.com