Reactions to the Renardo Sidney ruling from around the web

For better or worse, Renardo Sidney is a polarizing figure that certainly has been able to get the intertoobz talking. As you almost certainly know by now, Mississippi State announced yesterday that Sidney will be allowed to return to the Bulldogs for the start of SEC play while Elgin Bailey has been cleared to return but is instead opting to transfer.

You can find my take over at Beyond the Arc. Here is what everyone else had to say:

Pat Forde, ESPN.com: "To pay back the shameless enabling of his coach, Renardo Sidney's task the rest of this season is pretty simple: Average a triple-double, lead Mississippi State to a Southeastern Conference championship and NCAA tournament berth, get a 4.0 GPA and somehow play the next 2.5 months without any more bratty behavior. Sidney owes Rick Stansbury that much. The coach of the Bulldogs has turned this season into a mockery in an effort to mollycoddle his 6-foot-10 prep All-American."


Jeff Eisenberg, The Dagger: The strong message would have Stansbury admitting he erred taking Sidney in the first place and dismissing him from the program. Instead Stansbury's actions suggest that immaturity and embarrassing behavior will be tolerated if you're potentially an impact player (Sidney) but not if you're an expendable role player (Bailey). You can argue Bailey may have been the instigator or that others have committed worse offenses than a fist fight without facing severe punishment, but the pattern of behavior with Sidney is what's disturbing.


Matt Norlander, CBSSports: What message is Sidney receiving? That multiple chances for bad behavior, a defiant attitude and fighting with teammates is the normal, real-world end result for those actions? Sidney's pure basketball ability is the only thing that's kept him on a BCS conference team, a team that's a mess and probably had its season go down the drain already. Remember, if it wasn't for his attitude and reported lazy work ethic, Sidney would've already tried to give the NBA a shot. You know this drill. The one with more talent gets more chances. Stansbury had waited SO long to get Sidney on the court. So, if there was reasonable doubt, he wasn't going to kick the kid off the team. With enough evidenced piled up against Bailey, a separation needed to happen."


Jeff Goodman, FOXSports: "No matter who was at fault in the fight, Stansbury has way too much invested in Sidney – the highly touted and talented forward who was suspended by the NCAA for nearly a year and a half. Bailey may have been the team captain, but the bottom line is that the 6-foot-8 redshirt junior is expendable. He was averaging just 5.8 points and 4.3 rebounds – both career-highs in his four seasons in Starkville. Sidney – if he buys in and plays hard – is a difference-maker. Stansbury and the Bulldogs even tried to make it look like Bailey wanted to transfer. C'mon, Rick. How naïve do you think we all are?"


Rush The Court: "From here, we can only say…are you kidding with this? How was that message sent? Sidney gets to stay in school and can play immediately. Elgin Bailey gets to leave school and has no idea where he’ll play the rest of his college career. Stansbury seems to placing everything on the criterion of who started the brawl to determine where the fault lies and whom shall be punished. Interesting, since we don’t recall the "But s/he started it!" defense ever working with our parents and teachers when we were children getting into arguments and tussles with our siblings and friends. What we saw was two college-age men throwing punches at each other — actually, though we’re sure only part of the scuffle was shown on television, it was Sidney doing most of the punching, some of it while his opponent was already on the ground – and evidently it was all because one guy wouldn’t move his feet."