Cohadarevic Suspended: LAJ's Courtney Linehan and DT's Adam Coleman report that head coach Pat Knight has suspended PF Darko Cohadarevic for Wednesday's game against the Texas Longhorns. Here's a bit from Linehan's article on Darko's suspension:
Cohadarevic was suspended Monday for what coach Pat Knight termed "behavior detrimental to the team." Cohadarevic acted out during Monday’s practice, talking back to both Knight and an assistant coach.
Knight said the senior forward will be suspended "until he changes his attitude and becomes coachable." Cohadarevic will not practice with the rest of the Red Raiders (14-5, 2-3 Big 12) today or join the team for its trip to Austin to face the Longhorns (17-2, 3-1 Big 12).
"I don’t want to see him until Thursday," Knight said.
Where to begin. I wish I could remember the game, I think it was the Iowa St. game, and I believe it was late in the game and a technical foul was called on Darko for punching the padding underneath the basket. Darko was called for a foul, something that happens quite often during the game of basketball, but apparently that set Cohadarevic off and he thought that the best course of action was to punch the padding of the goal, receive a technical foul, in what was a pretty close game.
I thought it was a strange reaction at the time. Cohadarevic has been labeled as passionate, but apparently that passion spilled out during practice and Darko told the coaches how the cow ate the cabbage. This comment may be completely irrelevant, but I've never really liked the aggravating style of play that Darko seems to embrace, whether it be standing over a player after a foul, or intentionally trying to get inside a players head by being over-aggressive. I'd prefer that players simply play and if said player is better or worse than his opponent, so be it, but trying to be that guys is not something I enjoy watching. This is another aside, but I've always thought that Darko believes he is a much better player than he actually is and this suspension doesn't surprise me in the least.
Roberts Out with Ankle Injury: Also in the articles linked above is the news that PF D`Walyn Roberts is out with an ankle injury, something that's been bothering him for quite some time. This will have a significant effect, along with Cohadarevic's suspension, on Wednesday's game. Roberts hasn't quite been himself for three or four games, and other players will need to step up their games. Perhaps we see the return of Corbin Ray, who hasn't played much at all this year (maybe one game) due to a concussion. I seriously doubt that he will, but there's going to be some real front court deficiencies without Darko and Roberts.
Singletary's Surge: DT's Mike Graham writes that this team is rallying behind the resurgent play of SF Mike Singletary. SF Brad Reese knows how important Singletary is to this team:
"He’s a great leader," guard Brad Reese said. "When you see him inspired in a game, and really playing hard it makes you want to play hard yourself. He’ll get the rebound you missed on a shot in the first half. It really drives the team to come together and play harder."
And Singletary knows that he wasn't himself against Kansas and Missouri:
"It wasn’t even just the Kansas game," Singletary said. "Even the Mizzou game I didn’t play up to my potential I think just based on my expectations. Whenever you can come out two games in a row and get two wins, help your team out, and just play better than you have, it’s always a plus."
Miscellaneous Links: SB Nation's Chris Dobbertean's weekly bracketology . . . BON's excellent look at the week ahead and the Big 12 standings . . .
**Ed. Note: Another morning where I considered throwing the basketball news and recruiting news in the DTN DD, but thought it would be better for comments to separate them out.