As if things weren’t already hot enough in Texas this summer, something boiled over at UTEP yesterday as rising senior guard Myron Strong was dismissed from the basketball team by head coach Tim Floyd for, in Strong’s words, “violating dorm rules.”  When Strong communicated with the UTEP blog Miner Rush later on Thursday, though, he mentioned something else that might have had something to do with it:

The coaching in college isn’t fair to me. You know the coaches are gonna bring in who they want to bring in.  I only failed one drug test at UTEP. The first couple days Tim Floyd came to UTEP he tested our squad and the majority of the team failed.

The website pressed him on this issue, and Strong continued his harangue:

As far as the drug test, I’m not giving any names but if I got kicked out because of that, that’s just plain out wrong because I wasn’t the only person who failed. He wanted me out so he did anything in his power to do so. My senior year at that. I never wanted to leave UTEP and plus I failed a drug test months ago, so why am I now all of a sudden off the team? I don’t get Tim Floyd at all. He’s trying to basically ruin my image…

Floyd dismisses Strong, and has some holes to fill at the guard spot.

Strong, who averaged 2.9 PPG, 1.5 RPG and 2.0 APG in 13.3 minutes per game last season as a transfer from the University of San Francisco, continued to slam Floyd and the UTEP staff in that discussion, claiming that Arnett Moutrie and Derrick Caracter were pressured not to even consider testing the NBA waters or they “would not have a scholarship,” and that college coaches “preach to us to do the right thing but they’re the ones breaking all the rules.”  We don’t want to just repeat the whole story from Miner Rush, so go check out the link above after you’re done here.  The blog notes at the end that they’ve asked the UTEP athletic department for a comment but had received nothing.

Unfortunately, that’s not the end of this.  Taking a page out of J.R. Inman’s book, Strong brought up on his Facebook page the relationship between Floyd and former USC guard O.J. Mayo, writing (among other things), “I’m hearing [Floyd] had a fake charity event to pay OJ Mayo $100,000 to play for him. How did the ncaa [sic] let that slide?”

UTEP has been all but silent on the matter, offering little comment other than to say that Strong was dismissed.  But Memphis Commercial-Appeal writer Dan Wolken tweeted yesterday that he had spoken with Floyd, who confirmed that the dismissal was due to the failed drug test.

Strong will attempt to play next season at either Azusa Pacific University in suburban Los Angeles or Victory University in Memphis, according to his comments to Miner Rush.  A comparatively minor (no homophonic pun intended) contributor in the UTEP system, Strong’s ouster nevertheless leaves Tim Floyd with only two returning officially-listed guards who played more than three minutes a game last season, specifically scoring leader Culpepper (17.9 PPG in 33.3 minutes) and fellow senior Christian Polk (9.3 PPG in 24.6 minutes), though junior forward Julyan Stone (6.1 PPG in 30.8 minutes) spent some time at both guard and forward last year.  With Derrick Caracter now a Laker, Arnett Moultrie’s transfer, and now Strong’s removal, Tim Floyd has a team to rebuild, let alone an image that needed repair long before Strong took his complaints to various public forums.

[h/t: VBTN]

In the wake of Jerry Wainwright’s firing at DePaul, the Big East hot seat formally shifts to Rutgers University and the Scarlet Knights’ head man, Fred Hill.  Hill is in his fourth year at the school, and he is noted for his fiery personality and the occasional ability to get a hotshot recruit to stay close to home (see: Mike Rosario from Jersey City).  He isn’t particularly known for winning, however, as his RU teams have gone 41-66 (.383) overall and a horrid 8-47 (.145) in the very difficult Big East Conference over that period.  With recent news that injured forward Gregory Echinique will transfer to another school next year, and rumors that Rosario may not be far behind, former Hill player JR Inman (2005-09), now playing in Japan, took it upon himself to pile on Hill’s misfortune.  In a big, big way. 

Inman (seated, left) and Hill During More Pleasant Times

Initially we had concerns as to the authenticity of this information allegedly posted to Inman’s Facebook page today, but NJ.com believes it to be authentic, and it’s too alternatingly bizarre and hilarious for us not to excerpt it even if Inman didn’t actually pen it.  If you want to read the whole thing, as of now you have two options.  You can go here (which requires free registration), or you can read it on the Seton Hall message boards.  The message is sometimes grammatically painful, other times amusing, and a few times downright mean, but one thing can be inferred without logical modeling — Inman, who feels that the reason he’s playing in Japan rather than for the Knicks, is no fan of Fred Hill. 

On Hill in general:

What you guys don’t know is just how much of a scum bag this guy really is and guess who’s about to air his punk ass out. Me.3 years ago Fred Hill stole the Head Coaching Job from the Coach who recruited me to Rutgers Gary Waters. Since then the program has been in complete turmoil. Among many excuses Hill has been using to justify his lack of success, the biggest one was “Jr Inman”

The best line we’ve heard in some time, about anything, anywhere:

I feel bad for my fellow teammates that are still thier cause it is about to get really ugly.I don’t want to put all of Fred’s buisness out thier. I’m sure youll read about it in the Newspapers within the next couple of weeks but I just want the public to know one thing. “It took 3 years for Fred Hill to cook his steak of turmoil but the check for the dinner is coming due” 

And how he feels that Hill ruined his career:

I wish Fred would call my cellphone talkin [redacted]. If I was 30 years older, 10 inches shorter and a [redacted], I would go to the rac right now and punch Fred Right in his face. […] Initially I wanted to take Fred to court and sue for defamation of charecter. My senior year in college I took an employment in law class and we learned about that. During class I would sit there mesmorized realizing that everything we learned in class I have experienced first hand thanks to your boy Freddy. My close friends know how much I dreaded coming from practice because of Fred Hill. He literally turned me into a psycopathic disfunctional human being for my entire senior season.

Wow.  We haven’t seen a player throw his ex-coach under the bus like this since… ever?