Rush The Court

You may have missed it with all the news about Robbie Hummel’s torn ACL, but Corey Stokes of Villanova was cited earlier this morning for public urination. The 21 year-old junior who averages 9.1 PPG and 4 RPG for the Wildcats was cited (not arrested or fined) after he was found by police urinating between 2 parked cars outside a bar near the Villanova campus at 3 AM following the Wildcats win over USF. I’ll let you guess why he was in that situation and I doubt it was BPH or Lasix.

At this point we still are not sure if Stokes will play at Syracuse on Saturday (we are guessing he will get a 2-minute “suspension” at the beginning of the game) because the only response we have out of Villanova regarding the incident is Jay Wright’s generic PR response: ““This was a simple mistake by a college student. Corey regrets it and has apologized for it. We will now deal with it within our basketball family.” We are guessing that more than a few of the NCAA on-campus record 34,616 fans that will attend Saturday night’s game between Syracuse and Villanova at the Carrier Dome will be happy to remind Stokes, Wright, and the entire Wildcat squad about that “simple mistake” during the game.

Corey wants to know how Calvin gets away with it

For our money, Stokes still has a long way to go to catch Bill Walker for sheer brazenness while urinating in public.

Northern Iowa big man Jordan Eglseder has been suspended for three games as a result of his arrest in the early hours of Sunday morning for drunk driving.

According to a report at DesMoinesRegister.com, Panthers coach Ben Jacobson announced the suspension and his disappointment with Eglseder’s actions.  Eglseder himself released a statement noting, “I made a regretful decision last night,” and apologized to UNI basketball fans and indeed the entire university.

Not that there’s any good time for this kind of thing, but it’s especially bad for UNI right now.  They suffered their third loss of the season yesterday, a 68-59 defeat at the hands of Bradley, and are trying to build some momentum heading into the Missouri Valley conference tournament and the NCAA.  The Panthers have been to the NCAA Tournament five times, including last year’s 61-56 loss to Purdue in the first round as a 12-seed.  Their only victory came as a 14-seed in 1990, a 74-71 first round victory over Missouri, and have a very good chance of adding to that this year.  Eglseder leads UNI in rebounding at 7.6 RPG, is their second-leading scorer at 12.2 PPG, and is statistically the Panthers’ most efficient player.

Eglseder will miss home games against Creighton and Old Dominion, and a road trip to Evansville.  He should be back for the final regular season home game of his career on February 27th against Illinois State.

Aside from Eglseder, the only true center on the team is 6′10 redshirt freshman Austin Pehl, who has only appeared in five games for an average of 1.6 minutes.  Then it’s another freshman, 6′9 forward Jake Koch (2.1 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 11.6 MPG, played in all 25 games this year), the brother of senior Adam Koch, UNI’s leading scorer.  The Panthers will rely on both Koch brothers, as well as junior forwards Lucas O’Rear and Kerwin Dunham, for a few more minutes and a little more production in Eglseder’s absence; this is not a new concept for UNI, as Eglseder averages only about 22 minutes per game.

Former Oklahoma State coach Sean Sutton, son of famed coach Eddie Sutton, was arrested on Thursday for attempting to fraudulently possess controlled substances.  He was jailed in Stillwater, Oklahoma last night and the original report from Tulsa World did not specify a time for his arraignment.

Also from the report, an extra wrinkle to this is that Sutton used his cell phone as a means to obtaining the substances and had been receiving shipments from multiple states (New York and Washington are specified in the story) containing the drugs.  A parcel had arrived for Sutton in Stillwater on Thursday; when he went to pick it up, Oklahoma narcotics agents confronted Sutton, who eventually confessed that he was “addicted to painkillers” and had been ordering the controlled substances to feed the addiction.  There is also the question of Sutton having made multiple visits to physicians but not revealing to the individual doctors that he was doing so, as a means to obtain the drugs.

The package snagged by the Oklahoma agents reportedly contained “Adderall and clonazepam.”  Adderall is a brand name for a combination drug containing dextroamphetamine and amphetamine, substances that increase the amount of certain neurotransmitters in the brain.  It increases awareness and wakefulness, as  well as libido, and decreases appetite.  It’s usually used for treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but it has a very high potential for addiction.  The street value comes from the effects mentioned above, and it’s frequently abused a stimulant and a weight-loss drug.

Clonazepam is the generic name for a drug more widely known as Klonopin, a drug most often used as treatment for seizure disorders like epilepsy, or as a treatment for anxiety.  Because it has an overall net “depressant” effect, it is often abused as a sedative or in conjunction with other drugs to enhance the first drug’s effect.

No other substances were named in the Tulsa World report.

(h/t: @TheBigLead)

It’s been that kind of a year for Jeff Capel’s Oklahoma Sooners.  As soon as things start looking up, there’s an equal but opposite reaction that brings his team back to reality.  Oklahoma has experienced plentiful growing pains this year in large part due to the difficulties that Capel has had getting through to his star player Willie Warren, but also undoubtedly because of their numerous talented freshmen he has had to rely on.  Gifted though the quartet of Tommy Mason-Griffin (13/3/5 APG), Tiny Gallon (10/8), Steven Pledger (7/2) and Andrew Fitzgerald (4/2) are, with freshmen comes spectacular ups and downs, and this crew is no different.  On and off the court. 

Tommy Mason-Griffin and the Other Frosh Stepped Up Saturday

On Saturday afternoon at 3pm local time, OU tipped it off against its bitter rival Texas, running out to a twenty-point halftime lead behind the stellar play of the aforementioned guard Mason-Griffin and wing Cade Davis.  The Sooners cooled off in the second half, but they were still able to utilize some great free throw defense (10-27 for UT) and some timely buckets down the stretch to hang on to win, 80-71.  The freshman four stepped up in this one, combining for half of the Sooners’ points and two-thirds of their assists.  It was without question the Sooners’ biggest victory of the season, and one that Sooner faithful hope would springboard OU back into the Big 12 picture and contention for a late run at the NCAA Tournament. 

Cause for celebration, right?  The game ended at around 5:30 pm.  Give a reasonable amount of time for players to shower, dress and venture home, and you figure most everybody is gone by 7 pm.  Surely some players went out to eat with their families; still others may have had a date with a girlfriend; and perhaps some just went home and chillaxed for a while.  Not freshmen Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald, though.  They went to the mall.  But not only did they go to the mall, they were so excited by the big win and their individual performances (Fitzgerald: started and contributed 3/2/1 asst in 19 minutes; Pledger: 9/4/1 in 24 minutes off the bench) that they decided to steal some shirts from a local Dillard’s.  Allegedly, of course.  At 8:50 pm, the two players were watched by store security as they placed two shirts inside a blue plastic bag with the clear intent to conceal them. 

Pledger & Fitzgerald Making Smart Decisions

Not even four hours after the biggest win of their entire lives, these two knuckleheads thought they were entitled to some free shirts.  Instead of receiving a conga line of well-wishers and fans back in the dorms like campus deities, they’re busy getting written up by some rent-a-cop for petty larceny.  We’re sure that they’ll learn from this mistake, but at what cost to Oklahoma?  Tomorrow night’s game against Texas Tech in Norman is a must-win, and Jeff Capel now needs to make the decision on what punishment he’ll hand down to these two clowns.  If he’s harsh and suspends them, he’ll be extremely shorthanded for that game; if he lets them play, then there’s an implication that stealing things from department stores is ok.  We’re not sure which way he’ll turn, but we do have one question in all of this…  was Royce White visiting from out of town? 

The first shoe dropped today in the Tennessee basketball players New Year’s Day fiasco, as star forward Tyler Smith was dismissed from the Tennessee basketball team in a statement released by Bruce Pearl:

We felt we had enough information at this time to dismiss Tyler Smith from the team.  I am deeply troubled and saddened. Playing basketball at the University of Tennessee is a privilege, and where conduct is displayed that is detrimental to the team and the university, this discipline is required. Tyler has accomplished a great deal and we are all disappointed his playing career at the University of Tennessee will end this way.

Disappointment, Thy Name is Tyler

The three other players involved in the incident — Melvin Goins, Brian Williams and Cameron Tatum — remain indefinitely suspended as #1 Kansas visits Knoxville this weekend.  The twitterati and message board chatter yesterday implied that this decision was coming, as allegedly Smith was found to be the owner of the two guns found in the rental car where the four players were riding. 

This is obviously a huge blow to the Tennessee team this year as well as to Bruce Pearl’s program in general.  Smith was generally viewed as a success story around the SEC, as the local kid had returned home from Iowa after his freshman year to be with his sick father and help Pearl rebuild the UT program.  He was all-SEC first team as a sophomore and junior, and helped lead UT to its second straight Sweet Sixteen in 2008 for the first time in program history.  Furthermore, the perception that Pearl only has loose control of his players is exacerbated by this situation, and it may ultimately impact his recruiting to Knoxville. 

Smith, to his credit, said in a statement that he’s only a dozen hours short of his degree and he intends on finishing it, but what on earth was he thinking here?  If he really feels such imminent danger on a daily basis that he needs to have not one, but two, weapons near him at all times, then it’s probably for the best that he’s no longer staining Tennessee athletics with whatever he’s involved in; but if he’s just trying to act hard by brandishing guns in a way that really isn’t necessary given his lifestyle and status as a star UT athlete, then he may want to give Gilbert Arenas a text to see how that’s working out for him these days. 

The hits keep on coming for the University of Tennessee athletic department.  Just seven weeks after three Vol football players were arrested for attempted armed robbery of a local convenience store, four hoopsters were arrested this morning (at 11:30 am) during a traffic stop where a baggy of marijuana and two guns were found in a rental car Cameron Tatum was driving.  From the police report:

According to the incident report, one KPD officer immediately requested backup and a K-9 officer after approaching the vehicle, driven by Tatum, and smelling a “strong odor of marijuana.”  The four players then were removed from the vehicle so it could be searched, and officers found two handguns, drugs and an open container of alcohol. One weapon was discovered under each of the front seats, and the one discovered under Smith’s passenger seat had an altered serial number, the report said. That led to felony charges at first, but all charges were misdemeanors later in the evening, according to multiple sources.

Smith, Tatum, Williams, Goins

These weren’t just any average players, either.  The arrested players were forward Tyler Smith, UT’s best all-around player, along with fellow starting forward Tatum, key reserve guard Melvin Goins and center Brian Williams — the four represent 41% of the team’s point production, 47% of the rebounds, 50% of the assists and 40% of the team’s minutes.In other words, this is a HUGE problem for Bruce Pearl.  As of Friday night, Pearl has indefinitely suspended all four players and will gather more details before making a decision as to their futures with the program.

Of particular concern are the guns found under the seats.  None of the four has taken credit for the ownership of these yet, and with good reason, as those weapons could be linked to other crimes.  But, it creates an interesting prisoner’s dilemma situation, where if any player realistically wants to have a chance to continue his career at UT, he should come clean about another player’s ownership of the guns to save himself; otherwise, all four players could be charged with possession of the firearms.  Will the code of the street/team take precedence over one’s self-interest and individual survival?  You would have to believe that one or more will finger the others in order to absolve themselves of responsibility for the whole mess.  But we ask again – WHY do players need to have guns lying around (see: Agent Zero and Javaris Crittenton)?  It just doesn’t make any sense.

It will be very interesting to see how this ultimately shakes out, but things are not looking very good at all in Knoxville, a mere 24 hours after UT took it to Memphis in a huge win over their rival in the FedEx Forum, and only a few days prior to big games at home against visiting Charlotte and #1 Kansas.  It appeared that Bruce Pearl’s team might have been turning the corner after some early struggles, but the only corner that may be in the future for much of his team at this point is looking more like something out of “The Wire” rather than at Thompson-Boling Arena.

From Zagsblog comes the news today that Seton Hall junior guard Keon Lawrence will be reinstated to the team within the next week, in time for the Pirates’ game against Long Island next Saturday.  This news comes twelve days after Lawrence’s November 9th arrest for driving the wrong way on the Garden State Parkway and causing a two-car accident.  At that time, he was charged with DWI and driving with a suspended license.  No blood test was performed at the scene, but two sets of blood tests — one done at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and another done later by the New Jersey State Police — revealed Lawrence’s blood-alcohol level to be below the legal limit of 0.08, despite initial reports of the contrary.

Let’s get the most important aspect of this out of the way, first:  we think it’s a miracle and we’re incredibly happy that nobody was seriously injured in this thing.  Someone obviously could have been killed, and thank God that didn’t happen.  But that’s the point.  When this happened, there was evidently ample reason to charge Lawrence with DWI and take him to the hospital to draw blood, and for coach Bobby Gonzalez  to issue an immediate and indefinite suspension to Lawrence (admittedly, he had enough reason to suspend Lawrence just with the suspended license charge).  So we know alcohol was involved.  We don’t know anything about Lawrence’s constitution or his liver’s ability to process alcohol, but maybe he’s the kind of guy who’s blottoed at some level below the arbitrary 0.08.  That’s speculation on our part, but it barely matters.  What really matters is that Lawrence knew how many things he was doing wrong when he got in that car that night, which was also a mere four nights before playing his first game for SHU after transferring from Missouri and sitting out a whole year.  We don’t know Lawrence personally, and he might be a great kid.  But this was one bad decision after another, and someone, including Lawrence himself, could have paid the ultimate price.

That in mind, doesn’t three early-season games sound a little light as far as a suspension?  We’re all for second chances, here, and we pride ourselves in not being one of those sites that just goes out and finds reasons to pick on 18-to-22 year-old kids so we can pass judgment and appear clever.  But…decisions that break various laws and that could kill you or others = three games?

We’ll say this — if Lawrence has learned his lessons regarding this whole issue, that’s great.  That’s what matters in the end, that people learn from their mistakes and change their behavior accordingly.  That’s the object of any punishment.  We hope he learns to take full advantage of all the opportunities he’s been awarded.  But reinstating Lawrence after a mere three games after an incident like this makes it look like the Seton Hall program didn’t take this whole thing very seriously at all.

Marcus Jordan just proved to the world that blood is indeed thicker than shoe leather.  As you may recall, Marcus — son of Michael (and yes, Marcus, you’re stuck with that for life) — signed on to play at the University of Central Florida, a school that has a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract with Adidas.  Marcus wanted to wear Nike Air Jordans for pretty obvious reasons.  The school and Adidas were said to have been attempting to find a “workable solution.”

Here’s your solution.  Marcus wore a pair of white Air Jordans in an exhibition victory over Saint Leo on Wednesday night.  It isn’t clear whether or not Adidas waited to see in what shoes Marcus came out before they released this statement, but according to the story from ESPN.com, an Adidas rep sent an e-mail to the Associated Press reading, “The University of Central Florida has chosen not to deliver on their contractual commitment to Adidas.  As a result, we have chosen not to continue our relationship with them moving forward.”

Was this the right move by Adidas?  It’s easy to see their point.  We don’t know what kind of player Marcus will be, but even if the guy averages a Blutarsky (0.0 PPG) and does nothing but sit the bench for four years (he won’t), he’s still going to be the most visible player on that team just because he’s Michael’s son.  Marcus offered to wear Adidas products in every other aspect — uniform, sweatbands, whatever — but evidently this was not going to satisfy Adidas. 

Like everyone else involved, Adidas had to realize that this was a rather strange set of circumstances, but could they really ask a kid to sort of stick it to his dad like that?  Adidas could have taken the high road, acknowledged the bizarre situation, and let Marcus wear the Jordan kicks and otherwise Adidas gear.  That way, the rest of the team still wear Adidas products, the contract is left in place, and it’s only one single player in non-Adidas shoes.  Instead, with Adidas choosing to bow out, now it’s a whole team wearing another brand instead of just one player.  Adidas must be doing pretty well if they can just give up team contracts to other brands (especially, say, a certain company headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon)?  Some might say, “It’s Central Florida, not North Carolina.”  But, no matter the school, they could have made themselves look better here instead of just taking their contract and going home.

And that’s the most interesting part of this.  Adidas could have sued to make UCF honor the contract, and probably would have won, but they would have looked worse in the court of public opinion.  Seeing this, instead of keeping the contract in place except for Marcus Jordan’s feet, they just decided to quietly exit.  The only matter now is to see if the University of Central Florida basketball team will go from being called the Knights…to the Phil Knights?

We really shouldn’t be surprised by this stuff anymore, but we still allow ourselves to be from time to time. 

Rick Pitino said yesterday that two key contributors who were involved in an altercation with police over the weekend will not miss any game time due to their alleged transgressions.  Two expected starters, Terrence Jennings and Jerry Smith, were arrested on Saturday night for mixing it up with police at a homecoming alumni party in Jeffersonville, Indiana (across the Ohio River from Louisville).  In Jennings’ case, he was so resistant to the JPD that he was subjected to a taser – not once, but TWICE – before they finally subdued the 6′10, 230-lb forward.  Smith, a senior guard, allegedly came to his defense, refused to back off, and he too was subdued. 

Both players were arrested and the accompanying police report recommended that each be charged with multiple counts of resisting arrest and battery.   Steven Stewart, the Clark County (IN) prosecuting attorney, had other ideas as last night he stated that they would instead each face a single misdemeanour charge of resisting arrest.  He stated:

People don’t understand that police make a recommendation in the report, but the prosecutor makes the decision what charges will be filed.

This is assuredly true, and something that many people don’t understand.  But it would have been nice if Mr. Stewart had provided a little more by way of explanation as to what mitigating factors he considered in making that decision.  In most cases, police don’t wantonly taser people to the ground (there are exceptions, of course).  And when they do it once, they usually don’t have to do it again.  Yet in the heat of the moment here, the cops felt that Jennings was so completely out of control that he needed to be subjected to extremely strong (sometimes lethal!) jolts of electricity twice.  So why would Stewart reduce the charges against someone whom the police thought was extraordinarily out of line on that night?  What on earth could it be?

We haven’t even gotten into Mr. Best Year of His Life’s sentencing techniques.  It’s understandable to a certain degree that someone in a political position such as Stewart’s must carefully navigate high-profile crimes in full view of his constituents, but what’s Pitino’s deal?  In one statement he says that “anytime you defy a police officer, it’s serious,” and in another he defends Smith’s actions by saying that “he saw a teammate [on the ground] taking some pretty good blows and tried to help.”

Speaking of serious, is Pitino serious with this hedge?  Defying a police officer is failing to move out of the way when he asks you to clear some space.  It is NOT taking haymakers at officers wearing clearly marked ”POLICE” jackets, instigating a fight and causing them to use the taser on you twice (in Jennings’ case).  Furthermore, this isn’t a basketball court environment where you’re taught to defend your teammates — this is the real world.  If the cops are busily tasing your friend/teammate, you should be upset (in Smith’s case); but you should also realize that you didn’t see what led to that incident and the cops must believe it’s fairly serious (rightly or wrongly).  The smart move is to keep your head so that you can learn about what is happening and try to negotiate the heated situation - the wrong move is to refuse to back off and make the scene worse for everyone.

Well, at least they’re running lots of sprints (probably as we speak, right?).  That’ll teach ‘em, Coach!

Let this be a lesson to all eager-beaver ADs who rush to hire a hot new coach before taking the appropriate amount of time to ensure that the contract they want has all the Is dotted and the Ts crossed.

We all know the story by now.  Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart hired then-Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie to a seven-year deal at over $2.3M per year one day after he interviewed for the position in early April 2007.  To make things official, Gillispie signed a three-page ‘memorandum of understanding’ that outlined his salary and general expectations to that effect, with the caveat that the two parties would come to a final agreement on terms and conditions within sixty days.

Barnhart Blew This One

Well, that sixty days turned into nearly 700 days, as Gillispie never signed a contract with UK in the two years he coached there.  Over time, as Gillispie repeatedly refused to come to an agreement with Kentucky that would clearly define expectations, it was clear that he was relying on the vague language in the MOU to protect him as he increasingly came under fire for bizarre off-court behavior and questionable game decisionmaking.   When he sued the school for a $6M buyout soon after his firing in spring 2009, it was obvious to most observers that UK would have to make some kind of payment to Gillispie.  The only question was how much would he get?  We got our answer today, as UK announced the results of a mediation with Gillispie:

In a statement, the university said the lawsuits were settled through mediation. The agreement, signed Tuesday, said Gillispie would receive a little more than $2.98 million. About $260,000 will be paid by the university for attorney’s fees, as well as about $5,600 in mediation fees.

It’s very instructive that when Kentucky signed new coach John Calipari in March 2009 to a $32M, 8-year deal, the contract was written in standard boilerplate  legal language and was twenty pages in length.  Looks like Barnhart learned his lesson this time around, but his amateurish mistake in 2007 will end up costing the school an extra $3M, money that could have been better spent paying those high-priced UK attorneys to send over the template a little sooner.

When the news broke this weekend about the arrests of Terrence Jennings and Jerry Smith, we assumed that they would face minimal charges especially when the Louisville boosters decided to make a few donations for the 2010 elections in Jeffersonville. It turns out that it may be more serious with the addition of battery and disorderly conduct charges particularly for Jennings. According to reports, Jennings was involved in an altercation outside Kye’s. When two off-duty officers (both wearing shirts with the word “POLICE” on it) tried to break up the fight Jennings resisted before being wrestled to the ground. Jennings continued to struggle and the police ended up using a Taser on him twice in order to subdue him. Meanwhile, Smith (the ever-vigilant co-captain) refused to move away from the officers after they had handcuffed Jennings and resisted attempts by the officers to get him to back away. To make matters worse for Jennings, after he was arrested the officers administered a breathalyzer, which showed a blood alcohol level of approximately 0.022. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal as Jennings wasn’t driving and the legal limit in Indiana is 0.08 anyways, but young Mr. Jennings is a little less than a month shy of his 21st birthday, which is the “drinking age” in Indiana. To read the official police report of the incident, click here.

A Not So Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Credit: StJoeChannel.com)

We’re still awaiting official word from Rick Pitino about the incident and what (if any) punishment will be administered, but we can only hope that he doesn’t invoke 9/11 (again) or applaud Smith for standing up for his teammate. In the meantime, we will leave you with the most recent Tweet from Jerry Smith, who re-Tweeted “Rev Run” of RUN-D.M.C. fame quoting Mister Rogers (my head is about to explode):

RT @RevRunWisdom: Little by Little we are confronted with situations that give us more & more clues that we arent perfect – (Mister Rogers)

Purdue announced today that it would suspend guard Lewis Jackson for 3 games as a result of his April arrest and playing in an unsanctioned event without approval from Purdue. Jackson, who averaged 5.9 PPG and a team-leading 3.3 APG while starting 30 games as a freshman, is expected to anchor the Boilermakers backcourt this season. Interestingly, Jackson will be suspended for 2 exhibition games (Purdue’s decision) for the incident in April where he was speeding near his hometown and charged with “unlawful consumption of alcohol, unlawful possession of alcohol, unlawful possession of marijuana (less than 2.5 grams) and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia” and 1 regular season game against Cal State Northridge (NCAA’s decision) for playing in the unsanctioned event. So for those of you keeping track at home, according to NCAA math:

• Arrest for speeding + unlawful consumption/possession of alcohol + unlawful possession of marijuana = 2  exhibition games
• Playing in an unsanctioned game = 1 real game

After falling behind Binghamton and Kansas last week for the program making the most negative news this off-season, Louisville is making a strong bid to catch up with the Jayhawks (let’s be realistic: nobody is going to catch Binghamton in this category).  Unlike the other two programs, the Cardinals had been led by their head coach Rick Pitino who has done all the heavy lifting of keeping the program in the news. Wanting to take some of the pressure of their coach’s personal problems, which have made him more delusional than usual, Terrence Jennings and Jerry Smith (one of the Cardinals co-captains this season) were arrested for resisting law enforcement after Jennings was involved in a fight around 1 AM this morning. The altercation happened at a Louisville alumni homecoming party at Kye’s (“THE place for your special event”) in Jeffersonville, Indiana. [Ed. Note: I guess Porcini's isn't a popular spot for Louisville parties any more.] Pitino told a local television station that “we are aware of the situation and will be handling it internally”. Details on the incident are hard to find at this point, but after looking at Louisville’s schedule, we are guessing that their punishment will be a maximum of 2 (exhibition) games so they will be ready just in time for Arkansas and Pitino’s former player John Pelphrey.

We are eagerly awaiting Smith’s next tweet as his latest update happened just 12 hours before his arrest:

Start ya day off tellin yourself 5 reasons why lifes great… Haven’t had a bad day since I heard that.. That man knows what he talkin bout

Smith’s next tweet probably won’t be quite so cheery.

I thought I had heard the last of these two teams for a while (ok, I figured I would hear something about Kansas being pretty good this year),  but it turns out I was wrong.

By now you have all heard about how Binghamton has been reduced to holding open tryouts. Unfortunately, the Bearcats had to cancel the tryout because it may have violated NCAA rules by having too many players involved for a session this early although the specific bylaw is somewhat vague as to the number of players that can be involved in a practice this early in the year. In other Binghamton news, retired New York Chief Judge Judith Kaye will be in charge of the independent counsel investigating the Binghamton athletic program. For more on Kaye, check out the brief profile The New Yorker did on her last year (or her official bio).

Meanwhile on the other end of the college basketball spectrum, Kansas coach Bill Self might want to consider getting his team chauffeurs (see Brady Morningstar) as Markieff Morris (yeah, the same guy who was involved in the Tyshawn Taylor fiasco) was involved in a two-car accident last month. Normally the accident wouldn’t have been a story except that the police report stated that the car was registered under former Jayhawk “star” Scot Pollard. Given the recent indiscretions of the Jayhawk basketball program this had the potential to turn into another media frenzy (and might actually draw some attention from the NCAA), but that quickly died down when Pollard and Kansas athletic department issued statements saying that Morris had borrowed the car from Taylor who bought the car from Pollard a month before in a sale that was approved by the school’s compliance department.

Once again we will ask the question: When do the games start?

The Torrington (CT) Police Department had a busy day impacting the college basketball landscape in the last 24 hours.  The first blurb of news was that Duquesne sophomore guard BJ Monteiro, a backup expected to play a bigger role this season, was charged with larceny of $1400 worth of goods, including an Ipod, a laptop and some cash.  Monteiro is originally from the area, having attended Crosby HS in nearby Waterbury.  Soon after this news hit, the Torrington PD was at it again, this time announcing that it was dropping assault and breach of the peace charges against Maryland freshman forward, Jordan Williams.  This incident stemmed from a fight between Williams’ girlfriend and another girl, but police said nobody was injured and all parties were willing to let things slide.  Torrington is Williams’ hometown.  So does Torrington have a reputation for troublemakers or is this just a really odd coincidence?  We’re going with the latter. 

Well, things continue to improve in Lawrence.

In yet another showing of extremely poor judgment by Kansas players, news just hit the wires that backup guard Brady Morningstar (7/3/3 assts in 30 mpg last year) was arrested for DWI last night, and has been suspended for the first semester as a result.  According to reports, Morningstar was arrested and booked at 3:42 am at the Douglas (KS) County Jail, and released on a $250 bond at 6:01 am the same morning.  Can you imagine Bill Self waking up to that call?  Self, to his credit, immediately suspended Morningstar for the remainder of the semester.  From the Lawrence Journal World & News:

“We are aware of the situation,” Self said. “We are also still fact finding. Regardless of the details that concern the reason for him being stopped, he broke team rules that have been much more stringent since last week. Brady was in serious violation of curfew. Because of that and his extremely poor judgment last night, I have decided to suspend him for the first semester from all competition and travel. Brady will remain a member of our team and will participate in all other team functions. We will support him through this, but needless to say I am very disappointed in the sequence of events that took place last night.”

There’s no word yet whether Morningstar updated his Facebook status page while he was being arrested, but we’re sure those details are coming soon.

Seriously, though, Bill Self must be pulling his hair out right now.  The Lawrence police just announced yesterday that they were looking into filing disorderly conduct charges based on last week’s fights between his team and the football Jayhawks, and now one of his key backups is allegedly driving drunk on the interstate in the middle of the night.  Self says that rules are more stringent in the KU program as a result of those fights, but clearly more needs to be done to sent a message.  Maybe this incident will get the attention of his team?

This Kansas thing just gets uglier.  A report yesterday from the Lawrence Journal World & News associates two other criminal matters with the fights between KU football and basketball players on Sept. 22 and 23.  Officials were quick to say that these crimes do not involve Jayhawk athletes, but from a public relations standpoint, the company you keep can be just as revealing as your own behavior (FB updates for all the world to read).  It’s not fair, but it’s real.  Footage released yesterday showed what appears to be a large crowd of people standing around outside the now-infamous Jayhawker Towers watching something go down (see full video report here), but the angle and quality of the video is not good enough to pick out particular parties who were involved. 

What we do know is that the mother of Mario Chalmers’ child, Andrea Johnson, was cited over the summer for battery in another dispute at the Towers, and she apparently was also somehow mixed up in the mess at KU last week along with another woman who may or may not be the flash point for all of this machismo.  According to court records, Guy Lipscomb, a Lawrence resident who is not a KU student, threatened to shoot Johnson and that woman in the parking lot outside the Towers shortly after the first Sept. 22 melee (pictured above).   

Now, we don’t know about how heated your arguments get with people, but we think it’s safe to say that, as a general rule, if you’re pissing someone off enough for them to seriously threaten to SHOOT you, then there’s probably a decent reason (or two) why that person is angry with you.  Clearly, RTC doesn’t condone assault or battery of any kind, and the police did their sworn and rightful duty to take Lipscomb off the street and away from a potentially deadly situation.  But what’s going on with these two women to make everyone so flippin’ mad? 

We say it again.  Despite what Mark Mangino does, Bill Self has to get in front of this situation.  The more things come out like this, the worse his program and players look in terms of public relations and perception.  And perception impacts recruiting.  He needs to impose sanctions on the involved parties and do so immediately.  And if he cannot figure out exactly who was involved (or the players won’t talk), then he needs to punish the entire team until they do.  This would send a loud and clear directive that he will not tolerate behavior that results in people threatening to shoot each other on his campus.  And remember, despite what anyone else says, KU is Bill Self’s campus.  He’s the national title coach at one of the biggest basketball schools in the country.  His actions and words are the most important on that campus, and his paycheck reflects that reality. 

Maybe I should have waited a few more hours before I put up my “Bad Behavior” post because it looks like we have a new leader in the clubhouse: Binghamton point guard Emanuel Mayben, who was arrested yesterday night with possession and the intent to sell cocaine. Mayben, who was according to some news sources was once the #1 recruit in his age group (I could only find a 4-star rating for him) and orally committed to play at Syracuse before changing his mind (looks like Jim Boeheim dodged one there), had spent time at 2 other colleges (UMass and Hudson Valley Community College) before winding up at Binghamton. Last season, he put up solid numbers (11.5 PPG, 4.1 RPG, and a school-record 4.6 APG) helping lead the school to its first NCAA tournament appearance last year.

Recently the Binghamton basketball program has come under fire with The New York Post referring to it as “UNLV East” with the most famous examples being Miladin Kovacevic, a Serbian recruit who allegedly beat another student into a coma and fled the country after posting bail, and Malik Alvin, who was arrested trying to steal condoms from a Wal-Mart. Although we’re not sure how much lower you can go than having a player flee the country after posting bail, Mayben’s arrest is yet another black eye for a Binghamton program that had just started to make people like Tony Kornheiser proud for their play on the court.

Yep, we’re officially moving into shark-jumping territory on Twitter now, as this is our second post of the day relating to the micro-blogging site (#rushthecourt, btw).  You’ve undoubtedly heard by now that a few days ago several Arkansas players were accused of sexual assault by a freshman woman who at the time belied her story by reportedly telling a bystander who happened upon the lascivious incident that she and her new friends “didn’t do anything wrong.”  Prosecutors declined to pursue the case citing a lack of evidence, but it appears that John Pelphrey will not rest until somebody pays for all this negative publicity.  Well, guess what – even though he was not one of the accused, Arkansas PG Courtney Fortson made reference to the rape allegations on Monday in a tweet (later deleted but available through Tweleted) and he is now facing discipline from the school for his “crass” comment (see tweet below).  We’re not even quite sure what Fortson is trying to say here, actually.  Is he getting blown during a workout?  Or is he making some cryptic reference to one of the accused who has a reputation for working out hard?  It’s pretty much indecipherable to our eyes.  Or maybe he was simply trying to be creative.  If that’s the case, Fortson clearly needs to work on his metaphors, so maybe Pelphrey should force him to take a creative writing class.  If he’s lucky, maybe the “do no wrong” gal will be sitting there next to him.

Lexington media is reporting — downright shouting, to be sure — that this morning Billy Gillispie got hosed for another DUI.  Like we didn’t see that one coming right down I-75…

Credit: lex18.com

Even though Gillispie was collared at 2:45am, he told the cop that he and his passenger had been golfing.  I’ll be interested to see if there’s an additional charge of night putting…you know, putting at night (does anyone get that??).  Actually, we’re still in a recession and it IS the day after Ted Kennedy died, so using Rick Pitino’s logic, nobody should be covering this.  But I’ll bet he doesn’t mind so much.

If you click the link above, there’s video coverage by the Lexington affiliate, just click the camera beside the title.  From our friends at KentuckySportsRadio.com, here’s the mugshot:

More on this later.  It’ll be interesting to see if this affects his current legal dispute with the University of Kentucky.  Right now John Calipari has to be kicking back in a comfy chair, laughing like crazy and thinking, “And the world thinks that I have a past??!?”  Given the events of the past couple of days, we’ll be watching, say, guys like Murray State’s Billy Kennedy and Western Kentucky’s Ken McDonald to see if they happen to lose their minds and do something to raise the bar in the craziness competition that has evidently broken out among basketball coaches in the Bluegrass State.