Thanks for....Nothing

Oh, what could have been...

South Carolina dismisses Mike Jones

Posted by Mike Waters May 17, 2007 5:43PM

Categories: Breaking News

Mike Jones is now 0-for-2 for colleges.

Jones, the highly-touted recruit out of Lower Richland High School in Hopkins, S.C., left Syracuse University last December after just one semester. He played in 11 games for leaving the Orange in mid-season. Jones eventually transferred to the University of South Carolina.

Photo courtesy the University of South CarolinaThis is as close to a South Carolina uniform Mike Jones is going to get.

Today, The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., is reporting that South Carolina coach Dave Odom has dismissed Jones from the team for academic reasons.

Here's a quote from the story:

"He's tried two different college atmosphere, here at Syracuse and here at Carolina, and neither one of them has been right for him," Odom said. "That doesn't necessarily imply that there's something wrong with him. Nor does that imply there's something wrong with those situations. It just means the two haven't meshed."

It's a sad situation. I firmly believe Jones was going to contribute at Syracuse. Now, he's put his basketball future in serious jeopardy.

Mike Waters
mwaters@syracuse.com

Take this for what it's worth, because it's certainly newsworthy in my neck of the woods...


An "Outside the Lines" segment set for broadcast at 8:30 a.m. today, ESPN is reporting that seven Clemson student-athletes told the network they had abortions in recent years, due in part because of their fear of losing scholarships.

"We are aware of the story although we're not sure what it's going to say," Clemson assistant athletic director for sports information Tim Bourret said. "ESPN went behind our backs to interview these athletes so we're just going to have to see what the story is and go from there."

Clemson is unsure whether the report is regarding former or current athletes.

The ESPN story focuses on Memphis' Cassandra Harding, who said she and other members of the school's track team were required to sign a document acknowledging they could lose their scholarships if they became pregnant.

Memphis declined to renew Harding's scholarship in 2005 after she got pregnant.

-- Staff and wire reports