I have a lot of pet peeves when it comes to college basketball.
I don’t like the amount of roster turnover every year. I hate that there is no block/charge circle. Can someone change the recruiting rules that focus on the insignificant while doing nothing about the flagrant cheating? Is John Calipari really going to land every single recruit he sets his sights on?
But you know what really grinds my gears?
Early season suspensions. Specifically, the early season suspensions where a coach announces a player will miss X number of games, only for us to find out that includes one or two exhibition games. And we all know how little exhibition games matter, right Matt?
The latest example comes from Michigan State. Korie Lucious got a DUI over the summer, a charge that was reduced to, essentially, reckless driving. Lucious deserves to be suspended, if nothing else to drive home the point that drinking and then getting behind the wheel of a car is unacceptable regardless of how low your BAC is.
Izzo announced the suspension this week. Two games. But what you don’t realize when reading that title that one of those games was the exhibition the Spartans played last night against Saginaw Valley State. He will also miss the season opener, and just the season opener, meaning that he will be out of action for one exhibition and one real game.
Can we please just refer to this as a one game suspension from now on? Or a one game and one exhibition suspension? Calling this a two game suspension is misleading and, I would argue, incorrect.
(For what its worth, I don’t necessarily disagree with the length of the Lucious suspension. I think a one game suspension for getting a DUI where you blow .09 is fair, and I’m willing to bet that Lucious would have sat out another two games to avoid the cardiovascular punishment he’s likely facing at the end of practices. Hey, at least he will be in shape, right?)
Izzo’s use of this play on words is far from the worse this offseason.
Preston Knowles got into a scuffle with his girlfriend’s stepfather this summer. He was arrested. His punishment? Rick Pitino announced that it would be a two game suspension. Read deeper, and he will miss two exhibition games, but will likely be reinstated once the regular season starts. Tre’Von Willis allegedly choked his girlfriend. The charges were reduced, but he still received a 90 day suspended sentence and 100 hours of community service. His punishment from Kruger? Three games, which includes two exhibition games. Which means Willis only will miss one real game.
But the headlines will read that Willis got a three game suspension, which is a more severe punishment than a one game suspension. Can we end this practice? Like, now?
Fudging the numbers makes Kruger and Izzo and Pitino look like they are laying down the law.
You’re not fooling me, fellas.