1. It did not take Oklahoma State very long to decide to cut its losses with Stevie Clark as they dismissed him from the team following his arrest for urinating out of the window of a car. It appears that Clark’s latest arrest was the proverbial third strike that led Travis Ford to dismiss Clark. The timing could not be worse for a reeling Cowboy team that has lost three straight including back-to-back games at home. The Cowboys have already lost Michael Cobbins for the season to an injury so they are now essentially at a six-man rotation as only six available players on the roster had averaged more than seven minutes per game entering Monday night.
2. We are not exactly sure what changed for Arkansas between Monday morning and the early afternoon, but whatever it was they decided to reinstate Alandaise Harris and Michael Qualls. As we mentioned in yesterday’s Morning Five despite their indefinite suspensions the pair might not be out for a long period of time. What we did not expect was for Mike Anderson to reiterate on the SEC Conference Call that the two were still suspended indefinitely before announcing a few hours later that they were back on the team. Whatever the explanation the Razorbacks could certainly use the pair back as they have fallen from being a team with NCAA Tournament aspirations to one that is near the bottom of the SEC.
3. Georgia Tech dismissed sophomore guard Solomon Poole from the team for “conduct and accountability issues”. Poole, who was averaging 6.4 points and 2 assists per game, last played for the Yellow Jackets on January 7 against Duke and had been initially held out due to a migraine headache and what were described as medical issues related to migraines. According to the school, those medical issues and his absence as the result of them are completely separate from his dismissal. Poole is expected to finish the semester at the school before looking to transfer elsewhere.
4. Wyoming was already looking at a difficult game on Wednesday with a trip to New Mexico. Now they must do so without Josh Adams, who was suspended for one game by the Mountain West Conference for punching Utah State’s Spencer Butterfield on Saturday. Adams is second on the team in scoring at 12.1 points per game and leads the team with 3 assists per game. The Cowboys will likely try to replace Adams’ output with a three-man committee of Jerron Granberry, Charles Hankerson Jr,  and Trey Washington but it is more likely that other regular contributors like Larry Nance Jr. and Riley Grabau will need to just step up their production.
5. Athletic apparel/shoe contracts have been in the news a lot more than usual lately, but the one that Tennessee signed with Nike recently caught our eye because of one specific provision: a compliance provision that penalizes the school if the football or basketball program receive a TV or postseason ban. Such a ban in football would reduce the school’s pay for each year of the ban by $450,000 or 500,000 (half of the base compensation) while in basketball it would cost the school $45,000 or $50,000 (10% of the base compensation). As John Infante points out this is unusual for such contacts, but we would not be surprised to see more of it going forward.

nvr1983 (1398 Posts)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 4th, 2014 at 7:00 am by nvr1983 and is filed under morning 5, Regular Features. Tagged: alandise harris, josh adams, michael qualls, Solomon Poole, stevie clark, tennessee. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.