The baffling silence still fills the Bryce Jordan Center and hovers over the Penn State campus, seeming louder than any cheering done for the women's basketball team this season. One week after reportedly dismissing sophomore guard Jen Harris and freshman guards Lisa Etienne and Amber Bland, Lady Lions coach Rene Portland remains tight-lipped regarding the incident. Though a four-sentence press release said Harris and Etienne requested and were granted a release to explore a transfer, Harris has made it abundantly clear she had no intention of doing so unprompted. Etienne said she would not publicly discuss her conversation with Portland and Bland has been unavailable for comment.

And Portland's only comment to The Daily Collegian came last Wednesday, not even directly from the coach. Through Erin Whiteside, Penn State's sports information director for women's basketball, Portland said that she would make a statement only if and when the players' status changed. It changed four days ago, with no comment from Portland.

When reached after Thursday's press release, Whiteside said Portland was unavailable for comment because she was "on vacation."

This silence is both irresponsible and an inexcusable condemnation of those three players. Currently, there exists a great number of rumors as to why these three athletes were asked to leave the team. The one person who could most capably and easily clarify the situation -- Portland -- has chosen not to do so in these pages. Meanwhile, Harris and Etienne are basketball pariahs who Penn State is painting as unhappy and, indirectly, liars. That is dishonest and unjustifiable. Portland was quoted in Friday's issues of the Centre Daily Times as saying, "We're taking the high road."

The road on which the Lady Lions travel right now appears to be anything but high and fair-minded.

And though Bland was not named in the release, Portland was quoted in Friday's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as saying Bland "is in limbo right now." That comment was followed later in the story by a statement apparently contradictory to the Lady Lions' position, which said, "The players who are here are dedicated and hard working. ... We have high expectations here at Penn State. We have standards. The majority of the kids here live up to them." That raises only more issues. What are those standards? Why didn't Harris and Etienne (and possibly Bland) live up to them? And, because they requested their own releases, shouldn't their reasons for leaving the team be their own?

And all of these problems come with one fact. We just don't know.