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Tuesday, November 28, 2000
WAC agrees: Floyd will sit two games
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
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WAC commissioner Karl Benson will go along with Southern Methodist's two-game suspension of junior forward DeWayne Floyd.
Benson reviewed the case after Floyd bumped and verbally harassed an official after the Mustangs' victory at Lamar on Saturday.
"Any type of physical contact with a game official is a violation of the
WAC's sportsmanship policy," Benson said. "In this case, the penalty
recommended by SMU adequately reflects the seriousness of the incident, and
it is not necessary for the conference to impose any further sanctions.
"I also want to commend the SMU administration and basketball staff for
addressing the incident as quickly as was possible given the circumstances."
Floyd followed the official off the court instead of shaking hands with the other team. Floyd was upset over a call in the final few minutes in front of his hometown fans. He had to be restrained by the Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy who was guarding the officials as they walked off the court.
SMU coach Mike Dement said Floyd had been "wound up too tight" all week in advance of his homecoming. He said no one saw Floyd go after the official because the rest of the team was shaking hands on the court.
Floyd had an alleged verbal confrontation with fans prior to the end of the game. A report had surfaced that Floyd told relatives the official used a racial slur. Benson said he would look into that matter, as well.
Benson said he looked for precedent on the case and hadn't found any as of yet. Dement said Monday that he would sit Floyd for this week's games at New Mexico State (Wednesday) and against Tulane (Saturday).
The timing of Floyd's outburst hurts the Mustangs just when they were finally all healed. Floyd, who started, grabbed 10 rebounds in the 92-70 season-opening victory for the WAC favorites.
The Mustangs had their full compliment of players with formerly injured forwards Mike Niemi and Nigel Smith able to play five minutes each. Freshman Voc Atkins got into the game, too, after suffering a preseason injury. Jibran Kelley will have to take up Floyd's rebounding numbers. He had four boards against Lamar.
"We need Kelley, Niemi and Smith to step up now,"' Dement said. "All of those guys can go out and get 10 rebounds. This will hurt our rotations. We respect whatever the league wants to do here."
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