2 Illinois MBB Players Suspended indefinitely

Submitted by StephenRKass on

According to a brief news release in the Chicago Trib, 2 Illinois basketball players have been suspended indefinitely.

LINK:  Illinois guards Rice and Cosby suspended indefinitely

Ilinois guards Rayvonte Rice and Aaron Cosby are suspended indefinitely from the team, coach John Groce said in a statement Saturday. 

Groce said the players violated team rules but did not elaborate in the statement. Rice started the first 15 games before breaking his hand. He led the Illini with 17.2 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.

This is a devastating blow to the Illini. Losing not only their best player but a second starting guard is a hole they won't be able to dig out of. I feel bad for them, but there is at least one more probably game in the win column for Michigan, and a road game at that.

Dilithium Wings

January 31st, 2015 at 3:32 PM ^

Maybe because they're young men who made a mistake and now have to pay the consequences. These are college kids who are growing up. Mistakes happen. We don't know what happened but I'm guessing they didn't murder someone.



You can still have sympathy for people who make mistakes. You just sound like a dick, but that's just my opinion.

StephenRKass

January 31st, 2015 at 3:36 PM ^

Let me use examples when I have felt "bad."

  • I felt bad for Mitch McGary (and for Michigan) when he was punished by the NCAA for smoking weed last year.
  • I actually felt bad for Frank Clark, when for whatever reason, he lost his temper and struck his girlfriend last November.
  • I feel bad for all the fraternity and sorority members dealing with suspension, and possible expulsions from UofM.

In all three cases, the punishment is justfiable. In all three cases, they are getting what they deserved. In all three cases, they should have known better. And yet, I don't rejoice in their bad choices. Maybe, because I have made bad choices, I feel bad for those who do the same thing. Maybe, because I have three children who sometimes make bad choices, I feel bad for others who do the same thing.

For me, I rarely take joy or feel happy when someone screws up. And while I ALWAYS want Michigan to win, do I want them to win mostly because of the bad choices of others? Not really.

I don't feel that there should be no repercussions for bad choices. But I feel bad at the bad choices themselves, and the collateral damage for others affected, in this case, the coach and team.

EDIT:  On a completely snarky level, it is bad form to publicly rejoice at the misfortunes of others by which you receive benefit. There was a thread here several weeks ago on Izzo, and his candor on this same topic (skewering him for being honest that he was happy when it was easier for MSU to win.)

FauxMo

January 31st, 2015 at 7:11 PM ^

To your last point, it may be bad form to "publicly rejoice" in the misery of others, but that isn't what I did. I just refrained from "feeling bad" for anyone without any idea of the circumstances behind the suspension. If they did something awful, I feel bad for no one.

I felt bad for McGary too, because I think punishing players for doing something that a majority of Americans either think is harmless or do themselves is ridiculous.

Finally, sorry, but I did not feel bad for Frank Clark. Regardless of what happened and how, a 300 pound man doesn't punch ANYONE, let alone an (I assume) much, much smaller woman. That was ridiculous, and he deserved to be quickly released from the program.

In sum, I think you may have an overdeveloped sense of empathy. ;-)

StephenRKass

January 31st, 2015 at 9:35 PM ^

You're right: I probably do have an overdeveloped sense of empathy. It is what it is.

McGary, here's the deal. If the rules are made clear, and the punishment clear, you're getting what you deserve. Maybe the rules should be changed, but that's a different story.

Clark, I don't want to go too far with. I'll just say, he has had a really, really hard life, with really bad role models. No justification, of course he deserved to be quickly released, and he was. I still feel crummy (overdeveloped sense at work there,) because of his life circumstances.

We can agree to disagree, no hard feelings here.

FauxMo

January 31st, 2015 at 10:18 PM ^

No hard feelings at all. I think we're actually pretty similar, in fact.

I think Clark's life circumstances are unreal and awful. The story of his childhood is just terrible, as we all know. However, you, me, the law, the university, and society writ large cannot allow that to excuse his behavior when assaulting someone. Moreover, he had a "first strike" that should have made it very clear that his actions would have serious consequences. He screwed up nonetheless. So with all that, it is hard for me to feel bad for him. I do hope he puts it all back together and does great things.

 

superstringer

January 31st, 2015 at 3:18 PM ^

U of I is a historically proud and string hoops program. I think they have the most wins in CBB history for any school that has never won the championship. Sucks to see a good B1G program in such an extended period of, uh, dismality (to coina phrase).




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Yeoman

January 31st, 2015 at 4:27 PM ^

  1. Temple 1823
  2. St. John's 1774
  3. Notre Dame 1763
  4. Pennsylvania 1714
  5. Brigham Young 1713
  6. Illinois 1710
  7. Washington 1700
  8. Texas 1699
  9. Western Kentucky 1695
  10. Purdue 1673

The top two maybe don't really belong here. St. John's routinely turned down NCAA invitations to compete instead in the then-more-prestigious NIT and they won the NIT in '43 and '44. Temple won an NIT before there even was an NCAA tournament.

Tater

January 31st, 2015 at 3:30 PM ^

I would normally feel sorry for any team losing this many players.  However, Illinois is one of those schools that "hates" Michigan for no reason.  Having lived in Chicago for a couple of years during the short-lived Ben Wilson era, I heard plenty of Illinois fans spew hatred about Michigan.  I would ask why they hated Michigan so much, and the answer was usually either "Fuck you" or "Because they're Michigan."

Consequently, I can't really muster much compassion for them right now.  It's not like they are losing guys to "angry hating gods," injury or tragedy.  To me, it sounds like a couple of entitled players learning the meaning of consequences.  

Sorry, but I don't feel sorry...

MMB 82

January 31st, 2015 at 10:37 PM ^

I constantly heard "Muck Fichigan" and the like when I lived in Chicago, and many U of I people I knew in grad school or otherwise seemed to have a huge chip on their shoulder.

umchicago

January 31st, 2015 at 3:46 PM ^

easy to suspend rice when he is currently out with injury for another few weeks.  lets see what happens come march.  if he is done for the year, i will respect groce more (caveat to not knowing what the infractions are).

Team 101

January 31st, 2015 at 3:46 PM ^

I have to agree with Tater.  They spew hatred about Michigan.  The best of the spew is that they claim Bo sent Gary Moehler to Champaign to destroy their football program when he was head coach there.  Nothing irks them more than losing to us in the 1989 Final Four when they had what was probably their best team ever.

Not to wish ill on anyone but my general rule is that if they voted to send Ohio State to the Rose Bowl in 1973, there is no love lost.  That goes to Illinois, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Purdue and most of all STAEE.  No love lost for Ohio State either but I can't fault them for voting for themselves.  Also Northwestern and Purdue haven't done much since so it hard to get worked up over them.  So that leaves us with Ohio State, STAEE, Illinois and Wisconsin for no love lost.

ploeg

January 31st, 2015 at 6:37 PM ^

I live in a Chicago suburb, and have never understood the Illinois hatred for Michigan. It is really prevalent in this state. When I point out that Michigan was one of the few schools that supported Illinois during the Pete Elliot episode, I just get questioning looks. They still hate us.

In spite of this, I have always loved "The Chief".

Yeoman

January 31st, 2015 at 7:20 PM ^

Pete Elliott is ancient history and I'm not surprised by the blank looks; I think the hatred is of more recent vintage and I think it was largely focused on Bo and his visible contempt for their program, first because of their treatment of Moeller and then compounded by their shenanigans under Mike White. The only times I can remember Bo truly running up the score were against White--the great 70-21 win in '81 and the 69 we laid on them in '86. He was merciless and it was obvious he was enjoying their humiliation.