12/9 - Some Links, Some News

Just some quick hitters you should know about:

-This Eric Devendorf issue isn't going away. In case you don't remember or haven't heard about it, a female Syracuse student drove up to a frat party at 3 am, where a crowd of 10-15 people, including Justin Thomas, Paul Harris, and Rick Jackson, started kicking her car. The woman says Devendorf came up to her, called her a slut, and hit her in the face. Devendorf says that he accidentally hit her defending himself from her swings.

These text messages don't bode well for Devendorf's story, however. From Syracuse.com:

Kimberly Smith, the Syracuse University student who accused SU basketball player Eric Devendorf of hitting her in the face, received three text messages from one of Devendorf's teammates pleading for her to drop the charges.

One message included basketball coach Jim Boeheim's cell phone number in case Smith or her family wanted to contact him, according to the text message sent by Justin Thomas the day after the incident is alleged to have occurred.

Another said, "i hope u can find it in ur heart to forgive my teammates thanks."

This could get pretty ugly for Syracuse. I've already touched on it, but the 'Cuse has had long standing issues with their players assaulting women. Here's to hoping for (UConn blinders on) Devendorf to get kicked out of school (UConn blinders off) a quick and amicable resolution for all parties.

-Goran Suton is out for 2-3 weeks after knee surgery.

-San Diego's senior guard and leading scorer Brandon Johnson is done for the year after rupturing his achilles in the first half against San Diego State. My heart goes out to the kid, who is a tremendous player and the heart and soul of that team, that he is going to end is college career like that. Something you never want to see. The bigger story is that after a magical season in his first year at the helm of the Torero's, Bill Grier is earning his paychecks this year. Seven players had already missed at least one game heading into SDSU.

-Don't know if this is real, but it sure is funny.

-What if there was no NCAA tourney, a la the BCS? The record books would look a little different.

-Iowa freshman guard Anthony Tucker, the Hawkeyes leading scorer, has been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules.

-Oklahoma State forward Ibrahima Thomas has been kicked off the team. For a team that looked so promising, their season has really fallen off a cliff. Already very small (starting power forward Obi Muonelo is 6'4"), Thomas (6'11") was the only player that saw significant minutes over 6'6".

-How has the change in the three-point line affected the game? Seth Davis says it has been negligible. Rush The Court disagrees.