Villanova has released their statement on JayVaughn Pinkston, their talented freshman forward who was involved in an altercation at a party last weekend:
On
Saturday night, November 6, an incident involving Villanova men’s
basketball player JayVaughn Pinkston and several other students
occurred at an off-campus location. The University has been informed
that the Upper Merion Township Police are charging JayVaughn Pinkston
with two counts of simple assault and harassment. Earlier this week,
Villanova opened its own internal review to determine whether Code of
Student Conduct violations had occurred in this matter. The University
is moving forward with this review as quickly and diligently as
possible in order to assure fairness to everyone. Until a decision is
reached, JayVaughn will not play in games, but will be allowed to
participate in other team activities.
So there you have it.
Pinkston will be suspended pending the conclusion of the University’s
investigation. I don’t think anyone expected any less. There is also a report that Pinkston has been charged with two counts of simple assault and harassment.
Villanova kicks off the season tonight at 8:00 pm against Bucknell.
Pinkston isn’t the only player in trouble heading into the weekend.
Devoe
Joseph averaged 9.4 ppg as a sophomore at Minnesota last season while
helping lead the Gophers to the final of the Big Ten Tournament. But
after missing Minnesota’s exhibition game against Winona State, Tubby
Smith announced that Joseph would be suspended indefinitely from the team.
“He
had some off-the-court issues and some other things we had to deal
with,” Smith said to Myron Medcalfe of the Star Tribune. “And he’s
working his way through it. Hopefully he’ll do all the things required
of him to get back in good grace. He’ll be practicing, but he won’t be
traveling. I don’t want to get into all the particulars, but there are
some things he’s got to address. He’s committing to doing it. We’re
certainly going to miss him, especially for the foreseeable future. And
hopefully he gets what he has to get done so he can get back on the
board at some point in time during season. And at this stage, I’m not
sure when that will be.”
One thing Tubby is sure of? Joseph will not be traveling with the team to the Puerto Rico Tip Off Tournament next week.
This is a big loss for Minnesota, who kick off the season tonight against a very good Wofford team.
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @ballinisahabit.