<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa -- Pierre Pierce lives in a four-man, dorm-like room, perhaps not unlike the one he resided in at the University of Iowa. He still plays basketball, although Pierce won't be making the trip with the Hawkeyes to Indianapolis for the Big Ten tournament, which opens today. Pierce only can sit and struggle with what might have been, whether it was continuing a stellar career at Iowa or opting for the NBA after his junior season last year, as he had planned. Those broken dreams likely conspire to form their own version of March madness for Pierce. His current campus is 40 miles south of Iowa City on the grounds of the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility. It's a three-story, red-brick facility that houses 1,000 men and 100 women -- 30 percent over its official capacity. "We are surrounded by a 20-foot, electrical, high-voltage steel fence topped with wound razor wire,'' said superintendent Rusty Rogerson, who described the facility as "a high-to-medium-security prison.'' Pierce, 22, is serving a two-year sentence after pleading guilty last year to third-degree burglary, a felony; and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, false imprisonment and fourth-degree criminal mischief, all misdemeanors. The victim was a former girlfriend. Pierce, who starred at Westmont High School, is eligible to be released with good behavior in October after just 11 months. If he had gone to trial and was convicted, he could have received a 56-year prison sentence. But his lawyers and those representing his victim, a graduate honor student studying to become a doctor, allowed him to plea bargain to lesser charges. It wasn't the first time Pierce caught a break with the legal system. He was allowed to plead to a lesser charge in 2002 when he was initially charged with sexual assault. Pierce not only avoided a trial on a Class C felony charge of third-degree sexual assault, he was allowed to stay on campus and keep his scholarship. "I just wish the authorities had pursued the matter the first time when his previous victim came public after he assaulted her,'' his latest victim said. "If they had done so, [the second incident] probably never would have happened because he would have been made to be accountable. He had been abusive to me on previous occasions. That's why I decided to stop associating with him. But he refused to respect my decision. "While I don't totally agree with [the light sentence] that he received, I have to accept it and understand that this is simply the reality of much of the legal process. Not everything was up to the judge. I just hope that [Pierce] can finally accept accountability for his actions and get the treatment he needs.'' He apparently is in the right place. "We are also a treatment center with programs geared to get our inmates well,'' Rogerson said. "We are the only prison in Iowa, however, that offers a sex-offender treatment program [in which Pierce is enrolled]. Treatment in that program can run from 12 to 18 months.'' PROS AND CON Pierce, who refused several interview requests, plays in the prison's state-of-the-art recreational facilities. "He wants to put all this behind him, and he still dreams of playing in the NBA,'' said Pierre's father, Maurice Pierce. "He's working out regularly in the facility's fitness center, and he's playing basketball with other guys in the gym.'' Pierce still might get a shot at the NBA. "He was on a lot of NBA teams' radar screen,'' said Chicago-based agent Mark Bartelstein, executive director of Priority Sports Entertainment, which represents 35 NBA players. "I've seen him play, and he had the talent to play in this league. "It's hard to say whether he would have been a first-round pick. But he would have been drafted.'' Alfredo Parish, Pierce's attorney, said several NBA teams, including the Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors, had expressed interest in having Pierce work out for them. Chicago-based trainer Tim Grover, whose 75 NBA clients over the years have included Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dwyane Wade, also got a chance to see Pierce scrimmage with NBA players in his gym at the West Loop Athletic Club last spring after Pierce had left school and was awaiting trial. "Although he never was a client of mine,'' Grover said, "he definitely showed me he has NBA potential. "He's what they call a 'tweener' with his [6-4] size [between shooting guard and small forward]. It's a shame he's not in the NBA. But he's simply another example of a long list of guys who are not there because they failed to distinguish themselves off the court as well as they did on the court. "That's why our program addresses the total individual.'' Grover doesn't dismiss the possibility of Pierce eventually playing professionally. "Pierre could still recover, get his life back together and play in the NBA,'' Grover said. "There's no question about his talent. "But during the year or so [that he spends behind bars], I don't know what conditioning programs he'll have access to. He's still young. There's not a lot of miles on his body. It just will depend upon whether he has learned from his mistakes, has become a better person and can convince a team that he'll play trouble-free basketball.''</div> Source
