Rockne's Roundtable

Any chance pointer gets suspended for more than just a game?

I believe the NCAA has an automatic ejection rule for throwing a punch (maybe it has to land?) and it makes no difference if it is retaliatory, defensive, or the first punch. I didn't see the game, so I have no opinion but St.John's best player, Harrison, was suspended for the rest of the season, last week. My guess is he already has an agent for the draft.

I guess there is always a chance, depending on what officials glean from the tape. But I would guess he'll only sit one game as well.

There's plenty of smack going on every game, Wes. Pointer was frustrated and looking for trouble. I understand the intent of the rule, but there should be discretion involved. Treating a guy who defends himself the same as the guy who throws the first punch is indiscriminate application of justice.

Good point Wes, if he was instigating up 20 he should have used better judgement. Then he has to defend himself and now we lose him for a big game. But the rules are the rules, lets just go and let it rip saturday with nothing to lose at Louisville.

I can only go by what I saw with my own two eyes, but earlier this season, when the Irish were playing at DePaul, and DePaul was in the midst of their 2nd half comeback, CBS was laid into by Brey as he was coming off the floor for shooting his mouth. The last thing Brey said was, "Cam, you need to shut your trap...you're a freshman...one of these games you're gonna cost us for shootin' your mouth." Clearly heard this sitting 4 rows behind the ND bench.

Again, I wasn't there last night, but based on at least one experience I witnessed, I dare say CBS was far from innocent in all this, and Coach Brey could see this coming as early as a month ago.

Just as an aside, Trash Talk is tolerated, unfettered in the NBA. It is commented on by the broadcaters and even bragged about by the players.. The professionals set the standards and examples for all leagues below them, whether it's College or Little League. The David Stern NBA is little more than a circus as far as I'm concerned. Who wins has become secondary to the show, just like professional wrestling.

Clearly, the problem, is lack of proportionality. Pointer was, let's say,
90% guilty, Cam 10% but each is given the exact same punishment.
That's a problem with the rule---no real "analysis", just a knee-jerk
response by the officials who could have ejected Pointer for "fighting"
and Cam for "inappropriate behavior", the first meriting a one
game suspension, the second, only a technical and suspension for
the remainder of the game.

Let me ask this question--when Cam responded, was his response
more egregious than Pointer's slap at Knight earlier? If the officials
did not throw Pointer out for that incident, why throw Cam out for
defending himself.

m, looking at it from a legalistic perspective, he technically didn't do anything wrong by trash talking, but technically did, when he fought, even in self-defense. The league obviously doesn't make those distinctions, and it's pretty clear that they wanted a rule with some teeth in it so that they could avoid the bad P.R. of having their student-athletes portrayed as thugs on ESPN (apparently a much bigger concern than academics since student-athlete transcripts don't show up on Sportcenter). From a more common sense perspective, Biedschied, by all indications, was defending himself, which may merit ejection just to clear the floor of bad blood, but anything beyond that is overkill, IMHO. However, I also believe Biedschied was guilty of ill-advised judgment, euphemistically speaking. It was pretty obvious Pointer was a loose cannon, getting looser by the minute. There was no percentage in pushing him over the edge, and the result proved it. Secondly, ND was up by over twenty points, and Beidschied hadn't really done a damn thing to make that happen. He had zero points on the night. He's a Freshman. Brey had previously told him to put a lid on it. Frankly, I think he deserves to sit a game, at Brey's discretion, just for "ill-advised judgment" (I'm being kind in my choice of adjectives).