This is what it is: a distraction, and already a prominent one for a team that is only beginning full-squad spring-training workouts on Monday.
The violence began as squads of troops and police officers, including many in plain clothes, used sticks to shred the tents in the square, ripping the cloth fabric so the tents could not be rebuilt.
The towel also gained an important supporting cast when Coach Sherrill's 12th man kick-off team squad began carrying them to motivate the student body in the stands.
The excellence of Aberdeen's squad was beginning to be recognised at a higher level, with international call-ups for Leighton, Miller, McLeish, Rougvie, Cooper, Strachan, Weir, and McGhee at various points of the season, along with places in under-21 parties for reserve keeper Bryan Gunn, Simpson, Bell, Black, and Hewitt.
Speaking to MUTV, the 26-year-old £59.7m club-record signing says the current squad is "beginning something new" under the Dutchman.
Once Bruyneel's move to Team RadioShack was confirmed, the squad began filling with transfers from the 2009 Astana team.
The Soviet hockey players were then the experienced, intimidating squad that whipped all comers, including a National Hockey League all-star team and, a week before the Olympics began, the very squad that Brooks assembled in an exhibition game.
Kyla Ross, a two-time junior national champion, will likely take Maroney's place on floor as the United States squad begins its effort at winning its first Olympic team gold medal since the Magnificent Seven won it at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
The government blamed "snipers"; opposition sources insist the only people seen shooting belonged to the pro-government colectivos some are now beginning to call death-squads.
Kerry will select his 16-woman line-up for the Olympics, plus two reserves, from a squad of 28, with an announcement expected on 18 May, but the injuries hampered his ability to begin finalising his squad.
