UW-Milwaukee boots scoring leader Avery Smith

[JackJD]

ESPN reporting this evening:

MILWAUKEE -- Scoring leader Avery Smith was tossed off Wisconsin-Milwaukee's basketball team Wednesday, a day after his suspension.
Panthers coach Rob Jeter suspended Smith for an unspecified violation of team rules a half hour before Milwaukee opened its season by beating Wisconsin-Parkside in an exhibition game Thursday night. The school said Smith would remain on scholarship.

SDSU travels to UW-Milwaukee Nov 20.

Here's the story link:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/s...=NCAAHeadlines

[UWMandSDSU]

Re: UW-Milwaukee boots scoring leader Avery Smith

ESPN reporting this evening:

MILWAUKEE -- Scoring leader Avery Smith was tossed off Wisconsin-Milwaukee's basketball team Wednesday, a day after his suspension.
Panthers coach Rob Jeter suspended Smith for an unspecified violation of team rules a half hour before Milwaukee opened its season by beating Wisconsin-Parkside in an exhibition game Thursday night. The school said Smith would remain on scholarship.

SDSU travels to UW-Milwaukee Nov 20.

Here's the story link:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/s...=NCAAHeadlines

Oh Crap!!

[JackJD]

Re: UW-Milwaukee boots scoring leader Avery Smith

Why oh crap? Should be a great basketball game on Nov 20.

[UWMandSDSU]

Re: UW-Milwaukee boots scoring leader Avery Smith

Why oh crap? Should be a great basketball game on Nov 20.

Well...that is good for Nov. 20th, but Oh Crap for the rest of the season for UWM!

[JackJD]

Re: UW-Milwaukee boots scoring leader Avery Smith

UWMandSDSU: I know Smith is a good but what's your opinion on the short-term and the long-term consequences of his dismissal? It seems short-term, the team will likely have a difficult time adjusting to a lineup without him. Long-term, after the first few games, do they have a guy who can fill his shoes?

[RowdyRabbit]

Re: UW-Milwaukee boots scoring leader Avery Smith

What I don't get is how he can remain on scholarship even though he's off the team.

[UWMandSDSU]

Re: UW-Milwaukee boots scoring leader Avery Smith

UWMandSDSU: I know Smith is a good but what's your opinion on the short-term and the long-term consequences of his dismissal? It seems short-term, the team will likely have a difficult time adjusting to a lineup without him. Long-term, after the first few games, do they have a guy who can fill his shoes?

Very good assesment. Short term will hurt them, but they have two incoming freshmen from the Chicago Area that were on the #1 rated High School Team last year (Tim Flowers and Kevin Johnson). And SD native Paige Paulsen will step up even more this year and provide the leadership for the young team. So it is probably good that the Jacks are playing them early on (they might even come out with a win) because by the end of the season UWM might start become one of the top teams in the Horizon league again (like they were in the Bruce Pearl days). I support Jeter's decision, he is a man of character (he has been an assistant under Bo Ryan).

[JackJD]

Re: UW-Milwaukee boots scoring leader Avery Smith

What I don't get is how he can remain on scholarship even though he's off the team.

Must be a discretion call. And, perhaps a decision will be made later about whether he stays on scholarship after this semester. No details are available. It sounds like a suspension was announced first and then shortly after, he was booted off the team. There may be some developing story or investigation but nobody knows right now.

Losing a top scorer on any team really hurts. The Jacks are playing them at the right time.

Ever since the Jackrabbits had their share of unfortunate events a few years ago, I've come to not wish that on any team. But, it seems like every team has its turn at losing good players for one reason or another.

[joeboo22]

Re: UW-Milwaukee boots scoring leader Avery Smith

It could also be the fact that maybe they don't want to open a can of worms.... keep the guy on scholarship keep him happy.... take away the scholly and he starts talking to ESPN and whoever else wants to listen and all of a sudden there is a big cloud over UWM and a relatively small school is now the segment of every sportscenter..... I know it sounds a lil far fetched but who knows.

[Cadsev]

Re: UW-Milwaukee boots scoring leader Avery Smith

It could also be the fact that maybe they don't want to open a can of worms.... keep the guy on scholarship keep him happy.... take away the scholly and he starts talking to ESPN and whoever else wants to listen and all of a sudden there is a big cloud over UWM and a relatively small school is now the segment of every sportscenter..... I know it sounds a lil far fetched but who knows.

You have to have a legitimate reason to strip a DI athlete of a scholarship. People don't understand that sometimes...even if they break an "unspecified" team rule it may not be enough to take away the scholarship. It's like telling the coach..that kid sucks run him off. Yes you can make the athletes life miserable and yes scholarships are only guaranteed from one season to the next but unless you have a good reason not to renew the scholarship, ala something other than performance, drinking or something of the nature you can't just pull the scholarship. Academics would be a legitimate reason but that typically takes care of itself...poor performance on the court isn't a legitimate reason....kids that leave school do it on their own and aren't kicked off the team because they have poor stats. This is most likely why the kid in this case is still under scholarship and has nothing to do with poor media coverage. No coach wants a cancer in the program and certainly not a coach who learned the ropes under Bo Ryan. I can assure you that Rob Jetter is a no nonesense coach and given the opportunity, if the situation warrented dismissal from the team to include a lost scholarship it would have been done. The other issue may be that the kid may be entitled to the scholarship for the remainder of the year.

[MilwaukeeJacksAlum]

Re: UW-Milwaukee boots scoring leader Avery Smith

For what it's worth, Smith was in and out of the dog house all season last year. Coach Jeter employs a very defensive oriented style of basketball (he's a long time deciple of UW head coach, Bo Ryan). Avery very rarely thought defense was a part of the game he had to work on. He was more used to Bruce Pearl's system of run and gun and shoot with abandon on the offensive side of the ball. Those in the know around here feel like the team will actually be better without Avery on the team. He was often more interested in his personal stats than the team. If my memory serves me correctly, he didn't even start against SDSU last year because Jeter was pissed at him at that time. UWM&SDSU hit the nail on the head. UWM has 2 really good true freshman and Paulson is going to have a better year as a result. Also, the scholarship thing is probably not going to be much of an issue by the end of the semester. My money is on Smith not lasting through the next 3 weeks before transferring to another team.