UPDATE: Mississippi State has taken action. Mississippi State athletic director
Scott Stricklin recently sent out three tweets saying the following: (h/t
Brad Locke):
Elgin Bailey & Renardo Sidney have been suspended indefinitely and are being sent home from Hawaii. The length of the suspensions will be determined by their attitude and behavior going forward. The actions that took place in Hawaii were embarrassing to all of us who love Mississippi State. This behavior will not be tolerated
And there you have it. Both players were clearly going to be punished, but the program has much invested in both (particularly Sidney), so kicking them off the team wasn’t an option. If something similar involving either happens in the future, though, we’d expect them to be done with the Bulldogs.
The original post is below.
Mississippi State forward
Renardo Sidney is one hell of a talented basketball player. The people who follow such things for a living have
said so for
years, but even someone who doesn’t follow the world of college basketball recruiting could figure it out – simply because if someone who’s been at the center of as much controversy as Sidney
weren’t extremely talented, no one would bother with him anymore.
It started when he was in high school: as the linked Scout profile said, he “put on weight and rode the prospect roller coaster.” It continued when he had “
a mutual parting of the ways” with USC before he could ever step on campus. It continued when the NCAA
ruled him ineligible for accepting improper benefits. It continued even after he
was finally eligible and at Mississippi State, when the Bulldogs
suspended him for one game earlier this week due to “an outburst at practice.”
And it
especially continued during one moment captured yesterday, when he was filmed fighting in the stands
with teammate Elgin Baileyat a game both were attending. And this wasn’t run-of-the-mill shoving – no, this one saw plenty of punches thrown – and pretty vicious ones. No matter how talented Sidney is (and in the two games he’s actually played in so far, he’s
shown potential), he’s giving Mississippi State less and less reason to keep him around.
