I am not going to get into the whole sordid story of that Baylor player being "Dunn" for assaulting his girlfriend, nor the return of Sean Sutton to the game after his guilty plea this summer of illegally obtaining prescription drugs . . . though I do think it appropriate that a man addicted to popping pills shows up at
Oral Roberts.
But there are two other stories of note I shall report:
The Univ. of Connecticut has admitted its men's basketball program committed major NCAA recruiting violations, and has imposed on itself sanctions which include two year's probation and a loss of one scholarship for the next two seasons. Yet they deny the evidence that coach Jim Calhoun "failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance". This assertion comes after an investigation which began 'way back in March of 2009, with this being the first official response by the school. The 700-page response, much of which was "redacted" in this public release, was delayed numerous time at the request of the university. As for Calhoun's personal response, if you do not count his throwing of assistant Beau Archibald and director of basketball operations Patrick Sellers under the bus months ago, he defended himself (and his new contract) by questioning why he was singled out by investigators when neither athletic director Jeff Hathaway nor the UConn compliance staff was either referenced or charged by the NCAA, while he was. Seems to me he's looking for another passing bus, my friends. As for the NCAA, they will hold a hearing next week to decide if they will accept UConn's sanctions or impose others of their own.
And for those of you who think I am a helpless "homer", I report that the University of North Carolina has dismissed fifth-year senion Will Graves from the basketball team. Roy Williams said Graves did not comply with team rules, but further stated that the dismissal had nothing to do with "any NCAA matters on campus", which of course refers to investigations currently in progress regarding questions about some members of the football program there. Although no details were released, it may be important to note that Graves was also suspended from the team 2 seasons ago for not complying with team standards (Personal conduct? Academics? He and Roy know, but I don't.), and was sidelined during their 2009 national championship run.