FanHouse Ncaa Basketball Police Blotter

A serious situation at the University of Arkansas seemed to resolve itself last month when it was determined that there was insufficient evidence to file rape charges against three unnamed Arkansas Razorback basketball players. For a program that has had numerous off-the-court distractions and dysfunctional coaching searches, this was a small relief not to have it hanging over its head when the season got underway.

So much for that plan. Questions quickly arose surrounding the prosecutor that determined there was insufficient evidence. Now the Razorbacks are looking at a case that's being reopened by a special prosecutor appointed by the state, just as the season opener looms.

Kansas' basketball team may have an early-season problem, but Kansas' athletic department may have an even bigger mess on its hands.

The Kansas football and men's basketball teams are at odds, resulting in at least two skirmishes Tuesday and another early Wednesday morning. Sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor suffered a thumb injury in one of the altercations and likely will not be available when the Jayhawks begin practicing next month.

The situation is serious enough that it demanded the attention of the school's administration, as well as basketball coach Bill Self and football coach Mark Mangino, on Wednesday.

You know it has not been the best couple years for a program when the best news these days is that three unnamed Arkansas players will not face charges after being accused of rape. The players were never named, but speculation was rampant as you would expect.

A woman filed charges with the University of Arkansas Police Department, in which she alleged that she was raped at a fraternity party on August 27. The subsequent investigation found inconsistent evidence from witness and the alleged victim herself. Couple that with alcohol being involved, and it was not terribly surprising that the prosecutor declined to pursue the case.

For Billy Gillispie, the road out of Kentucky isn't getting any easier. Gillispie, who was fired in April after two seasons as Wildcats coach, was arrested on suspicion of DUI.

According to a report by a Lexington television station, Lawrenceburg, Ky., police pulled Gillispie over at 2:45 AM Thursday morning. The 50-year-old coach, who said he was returning from a golf outing, refused to take a breathalyzer or blood test.

Every time news breaks, like the Rick Pitino imbroglio did Tuesday night, I always feel a little twinge of sympathy for the lawyer who ends up hurling a semantic argument into the whirlwind of 24-hour news coverage. These days news coverage has room for two opinions: you're right or you're wrong. The shades-of-gray approach doesn't sell.

But that doesn't mean lawyers don't try to split hairs. Think Bill Clinton asking what the meaning of is, is. Inevitably, these hair-splitting defenses blow up. Which brings me to this, according to his lawyer, Rick Pitino didn't pay for Karen Sypher's abortion. Heavens no. What he did was pay for an uninsured woman to get health coverage .... which she then, oh by the way, used to have an abortion. That's a great story except for one flaw, pregnancy is a preexisting condition. So adding health insurance doesn't cover an already existing pregnancy.

Oops.

Bad excuse. But not as bad as the 10 excuses for the $3,000 the legal team considered and rejected. Read on for those.

There's something like 10 kinds of crazy in the ever-expanding story on Louisville coach Rick Pitino and his relationship with the alleged extortionist Karen Cunagin Sypher. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the information she was holding over the married Pitino's head involved an extramarital affair. Still, this is now approaching pure soap-opera levels of melodrama.

The latest, as reported by the Courier-Journal, is that Pitino admitted to police investigators that he did have sex with Sypher and subsequently gave her $3,000 for an abortion after she claimed she was pregnant.

What a bombshell from the University of Memphis. It has exhaustively determined that it has found nothing to suggest Derrick Rose did not take his own SAT test. Just for good measure it has also concluded that even if -- somehow -- it did turn out that someone other than Derrick Rose took the SAT there was no way the school could have known. Therefore, in Memphis' humble opinion, there should be no punishment of Memphis.

The main thrust of the document (PDF) seems to be to make it clear that Memphis knew nothing. This should not be surprising since it will be a document that Memphis plans to submit to the NCAA as part of its defense.

It is a coincidence.

Besides nothing ever was proven or even suggested by the NCAA that John Calipari even knew what Marcus Camby was up to at UMass. Just like there is nothing at this point to indicate that Calipari was aware of the things the NCAA is now accusing Memphis.

The NCAA is accusing the Memphis Tigers with failure to monitor with regards to actions relating to the 2007-08 season in which the Tigers went to the Final Four. While the name of the key player has been redacted the letter from the NCAA indicates that the player, "subsequently competed during the 2007-08 season and specifically the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship." In other words, Derrick Rose.

There are things people do to lose a job, then there actions that completely obliterate any chance at continuing a career in their chosen field. For Mike Burden, the now former associate head basketball coach at the Maine Black Bears, he allegedly took an action that should necessitate leaving coaching -- and likely anything involving students -- forever.

Burden resigned after being charged with unlawful sexual contact against one woman and assault against another woman who tried to assist the victim. Both women were students at Maine.

It was exactly a year ago that all the evidence and information was made public by O.J. Mayo's former entourage member, Louis Johnson. The story was about how Rodney Guillory was giving the money to Mayo both to be attached to Mayo and as a runner for Bill Duffy Associates.

USC and Coach Tim Floyd had maintained the stance that they were clueless fools, not at all complicit. Now Louis Johnson reveals that in his interviews with investigators that he informed them that Floyd gave Guillory an envelope of cash.