Suspension should benefit Kansas in long run
Morningstar's semester-long hiatus shows Self not afraid of harsh discipline
 Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images Brady Morningstar started for Kansas last year, but his semester-long suspension creates a nice situation for Bill Self to assert control of his basketball team, writes Mike DeCourcy. |
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1. Another Kansas player makes headlines for the wrong reasons—Brady Morningstar's DWI arrest. How much will this tumultuous offseason affect the Jayhawks?
DeCourcy: Morningstar's arrest became the defining moment in a sloppy period for KU basketball, but it did allow Self the opportunity to put his foot down without it landing on a star.
Morningstar is a role player. He is a very fine role player who gave KU 30 minutes a game last season, but he won't need to play that much now that freshman wing Xavier Henry is a Jayhawk. When Morningstar was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated so soon after several more gifted team members were involved in scuffles with KU football players, Self was able to use that occasion to impose discipline that could send a message both to his players and his public.
With Morningstar suspended from first semester games, the KU players were able to see any further misbehavior will not be tolerated, and those following the program could assure themselves their Jayhawks are not "out of control."
It's been pointed out Memphis still made it to the 2008 NCAA championship game after some of its players were involved in an offseason altercation at a Beale Street nightclub. But the Tigers didn't win that game. Discipline does matter.
2. Do you agree the NCAA phone call rule should go away?
DeCourcy: The phone call rules always have been a bit ridiculous, but they're totally obsolete now.
One former Division I head coach pointed out recently that nearly every American phone now has the capacity for caller ID, and the choice to answer any call can rest with the receiving party.
If State Tech is calling and a recruit or parent doesn't want to talk, they don't have to answer. It's that simple. To pay people with college educations—and sometimes law degrees—to pore over cell phone bills in order to ascertain that coaches call their top point guard prospect only once in a week rather than twice is a simultaneous waste of time, money, energy and common sense.
3. Several coaches have been signing extensions lately. Any seem like a strange decision by the school to ink the coach longer?
DeCourcy: What struck me as odd was not that Connecticut was working on a contract extension for Jim Calhoun, but that it needed to work on one.
How does Jim Calhoun get down to one year remaining on his deal? Calhoun wants an extension, which means he plans to continue coaching awhile even though he is 67.
He's worth every dime of his $1.6 million annual salary—just ask him, right?—and has continued to perform at such a high level there never has been reason to put in place a succession plan.
4. As you look at the preseason Top 25 you compiled for the preview magazine months ago, do you have second thoughts on any teams?
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DeCourcy: The picture rarely looks the same in October as in July, because the players aren't sealed up in their school libraries awaiting the start of fall practice. Guys get in trouble, as we've noted. Guys get injured. 
The Saints triumph in the Super Bowl, Olympians work on final preparations for Vancouver, and more.
Our college basketball yearbook placed Notre Dame as the No. 22 team in the country and the fifth-place team in the Big East, but right about the time the yearbook hit newsstands Irish forward Scott Martin hit the floor with a torn ACL. Notre Dame still might be able to scrape out an NCAA bid but would no longer be considered a likely Top 25 finisher.
Mississippi State was placed No. 10, but that's entirely conditional. If freshman forward Renardo Sidney is not cleared to play, the Bulldogs will be much more vulnerable to an SEC West challenge from in-state rival Ole Miss.
If you ask me which teams make me worry most about making us look most wrong—those that haven't had any personnel changes since we made our picks—I'd say Xavier (No. 30), Oklahoma (No. 43) and Missouri (unranked). They all had significant departures but retained several key players. They could win bigger than we've suggested.
5. Any backlash to SN's selection of Tyler Hansbrough as athlete of the decade?
DeCourcy: Goodness, no. Hey, apparently Tyler is now out there saving lost puppies, so how can anybody have a problem with him?
Some wondered if Duke's Jay Williams was punished for not playing a fourth year, and maybe that's true. Williams won as many national titles (one) and earned as many of our player of the year awards (one), but Hansbrough made our first All-American team four times.
It doesn't make sense to argue against that degree of consistent excellence. Hansbrough was a star for four years. Williams was a star for three. Given all else that was so close between them, that ought to settle things.
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