UPDATE: The season gets rockier on Rocky Top

UPDATE: I wanted to give this post a bump because there has been some news that came out regarding Renaldo Woolridge. First, Tennessee announced that they believe no violation occurred. They said that Woolridge did not shoot any video, he only scouted the location for a future shoot. They also said that Woolridge was not given any private access to the area and that UT student groups are allowed to use that area for free.

Well, it appears that Tennessee has once again tried to cover up a violation.

Multiple eyewitnesses, including Raed “Ryan” Zekry, who identified himself to a News Sentinel representative as an owner of the bar, said Woolridge spent an hour shooting a music video in a reserved portion of the two-story bar.

Zekry, who originally asked not to be identified because the publicity may hurt the bar, told the News Sentinel on Sunday that Woolridge "shot the video to support UT."

"It was given to him by the New Amsterdam for free because we do support him and UT sports in general," Zekry said.
...
Grant Ramey, a freelance reporter for the News Sentinel who was at the bar to cover the event, said the upstairs area where Woolridge and his friends were located was blocked off by two chairs and a man serving as a bouncer.

Katie Leone, a bartender who has worked at New Amsterdam for six years, also confirmed that the area was blocked off. Leone also is employed as a part-time copy editor at the News Sentinel.

Well, that is pretty damning.

I guess the Vols didn't learn their lesson. When you get caught, just come clean. Woolridge is injured right now, right? If I was Tennessee, I would have said that it was an honest mistake, a young man just trying to advance a career outside of basketball (which is 100% accurate), and that the Vols would sit him for three games. For what it is worth, Woolridge also has an injured ankle right now. He didn't play against UConn on Saturday.

Getting Swiperboy healthy while allowing him to "serve" his suspension sounds like a better option than seemingly trying to cover up yet another NCAA violation.

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Eventually Tennessee has to hit rock-bottom, right?

You'd think so.

Simply put, the past year has not been the easiest for the fine folks down in Knoxville. From the New Year's Day arrest a year ago that resulted in the suspension of Brian Williams, Cam Tatum, and Melvin Goins and Tyler Smith getting kicked off the team to the current soap opera that Bruce Pearl is starring in with the NCAA to the Vol's midseason collapse, the good news has been scarce.

I wish I could reverse that trend, but unfortunately I can't.

Freshman guard Jordan McRae didn't play with the Vols on Saturday in their loss to the UConn Huskies. In fact, he wasn't even at the game. Here's Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel:

A source on the team, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they lack the authorization to speak publicly on the specifics of the matter, said McRae’s suspension stemmed from a verbal altercation with a teammate on the team bus in Hartford.

He apparently used language that was unacceptable on the team's bus ride back from a visit of the ESPN studios on Friday. Bruce Pearl confirmed the report Monday at his press conference, and announced that McRae would not be practicing with the team this week as punishment.

Here is Pearl's statement from Saturday:

Jordan has exhibited some behavior recently that is unacceptable and a distraction to the team. We'll deal with this issue in-house, and my hope is that Jordan will use this as a learning and maturation opportunity. Jordan has coaches and teammates who all love and support him. We all want him to be an important member of the Tennessee basketball family. But that is a privilege, and he knows what’s expected of him.

Unfortunately, that isn't the only piece of bad news.

Renaldo Woolridge is being investigated by the NCAA as a result of a video shoot for a new song he has written. If you didn't know, Woolridge also goes by Swiperboy, and is a pretty good rapper and musician on the side.


Essentially, what happened is that on Saturday night after Tennessee returned from Connecticut, Woolridge was allowed to use a room at the Knoxville Bar The New Amsterdam to shoot is video. As I wrote over at Beyond The Arc, if the bar requires patrons to pay to reserve that section, allowing Woolridge to use that section would constitute an NCAA violation.

"Just heard about it ourselves, probably about the same time you guys (the media) did," Pearl said at his weekly press conference. "We're looking into it right now. We're going to visit with Renaldo and visit with compliance and find out if there was anything that was done that was in any way a violation of NCAA rules or extra benefits."

"This situation aside because we don't know the details of it, we're very supportive of Renaldo as a student and very supportive of him in his major and film and communications and particularly with a very unique talent. We encourage him to be the best he can be in both pursuits academically as well as through basketball (but) there's got to be a balance there."

I'll admit, its a bit ridiculous that Woolridge could face a suspension for this. But the issue is that the bar essentially gets a free promotion with the video (some of Swiperboy's youtube videos have over 100,000 views), which is, quite obviously, a no-no in the eyes of the NCAA. Don't be surprised to see a suspension get handed down.

That's exactly what Tennessee needed this season.

More distractions.