Twitter scandal leads to women’s basketball employee quitting at ISU

Adam Urness, Iowa State women's basketball coordinator of player development, has resigned from his position after sending negative messages to a high school basketball player earlier in the week on social media.

Urness, who had been with Iowa State since October 2016, sent direct messages via Twitter to Clarion-Goldfield-Dows basketball player Rhett Garland, claiming that Garland didn't set the school record for points in a game, and that “he was on drugs,” as reported by the Iowa State Daily.

Garland scored 34 points against Southeast Valley on Tuesday, Jan. 9, setting the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows record. Urness direct messaged Garland later with a list of players who had scored more points than him in Clarion-Goldfield history (Dows had merged with Clarion-Goldfield in 2013, therefore making the records separate).

Below are a couple messages Urness sent to Garland:

In another tweet, Urness sent a message in reply to Darland: "Says the kid riding around getting pot and lying about records. Your reputation as an individual speaks for itself, trust me, THROUGHOUT the basketball coaching community. You are a disgrace to Clarion-Goldfield basketball."

Garland's older brother, Reese Morris, said the comments “hurt Darland because he has never done drugs, and has already committed to Waldorf University,” as reported by the Iowa State Daily. In the same report, it was stated Urness' younger brother, Sam (a teammate of Darland) had seen Urness at basketball games in the past.

As of Friday night, Adam Urness' Twitter account has been deleted.

An Iowa State women's basketball spokesman said on Wednesday that the school and team were aware of the situation and would handle it internally.

On Thursday, Urness apologized to the Darland family, expressing regret for his comments.

I have reached out and apologized to the Darland family for my comments. I made a mistake and I hope to move forward from this and use it as a learning opportunity.

— Adam Urness (@AdamUrness) January 11, 2018

On Friday, the Iowa State athletics department released a statement with a single quote from women's basketball head coach Bill Fennelly.

The quote read:

"Iowa State Coordinator of Player Development Adam Urness tendered his resignation this afternoon after practice and I have accepted his resignation.”