11/22 - Some Links, Some News

Just two quick newsworthy items:

• St. John's forward Anthony Mason Jr. is done for the year after tearing a tendon in his foot. Apparently he hurt it a while ago but played through the pain for the two games in the Pre-season NIT opening round. Mason is a senior, but he will apply for an extra year of eligibility.
• Classy Eric, real classy. From the Daily Orange:

  Kimberly Smith, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, told police she was stopped on the 900 block of Walnut Avenue around 3 a.m. when several people began yelling at her and kicking the 2007 Hyundai Elantra she was driving, Connellan said. SPD was called by SU's Department of Public Safety, and met Smith at the intersection of University Place and Comstock Avenue, he said.
  
  Smith told police that when she got out of her car, Eric Devendorf allegedly approached her with a closed fist and punched her in the face, Connellan said.
  
  Attempts to reach Smith Tuesday night were unsuccessful. There were dents in both the passenger and driver sides of the car, Connellan said. Smith told SPD she didn't recognize the other people in the group, but that she had been an acquaintance of Devendorf. She said she wanted Devendorf arrested, Connellan said. He said the charge would be for harassment in the second degree.

  Devendorf has not been arrested and no charges have been filed, but this isn't the first time a Syracuse player has been in the news for something other than basketball. Jonny Flynn, Scoop Jardine, and Rick Jackson had to go to court to testify at a Grand Jury hearing in August regarding a sexual assault accusation (charges were never filed). DeShaun Williams was suspended in 2002 for a bar fight that put a woman in the hospital. And remember Billy Edelin?
  
  I doubt that Devendorf will end up in trouble because, like the Flynn-Jardine-Jackson incident, it seems like a he-said, she-said kind of thing. And I don't want to speculate what happened, especially since the incident occurred at 3 am on a Saturday morning (I doubt anyone involved really knows what happened). I don't like judging players that make mistakes that typical college students make. But a college athlete punching a woman in the face? No matter how drunk you are that should not happen. As much as I hate Syracuse, I hope that it isn't true.