University of Cincinnati, Xavier Suspend 8 Players After Saturday's Brawl
The big cross-town game between the University of Cincinnati (UC) and No. 8 Xavier on Saturday ended in a brawl which forced team officials to suspend eight players in total after a review on Sunday.
On the UC side, Yancy Gates, Cheikh Mbodj and Octavius Ellis all received harsh penalties which will see them suspended for six games each, while the first two were also handed a mandatory one-game suspension by the NCAA for being ejected in Saturday’s game, Cincinnati News reported.
UC athletic director Whit Babcock, UC president Greg Williams and UC coach Mick Cronin spent most of the weekend analyzing tapes and considering every option before making their decision. Babcock said that they considered everything from a simple one game suspension to even removing the players from the team, but at the end arrived at a decision which would be fair but “have some teeth” to it.
During the fight on Saturday, Gates punched Xavier center Kenny Frease in the face, Mbodj kicked him while he was on the ground, and Ellis attempted several punches which did not connect, but were deemed dangerous. Ge'Lawn Guyn was suspended for one game for aggressive pushing, though he was not involved in the main confrontation.
Xavier were also far from happy with the behavior of their players, and suspended Landen Amos and Dezmine Wells for four games, Mark Lyons for two and Tu Holloway for one.
Mike Bobinsky, the athletic director at Xavier, issued a statement apologizing for the players’ actions and issued it “on behalf of myself, our coaches, our team, to the Xavier community, the greater Cincinnati region, and honestly the entire college basketball world.” He explained that they had tried to find the fairest decision based on the involvement of each player, but there was no handbook for handing out penalties and they could only do the best that they could.
