Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The LSU basketball team has to be feeling a sense of remorse as they dismissed forward Craig Victor II from the team for an unspecified violation of team rules.
Victor was coming into the year with some high expectations after putting up 11.9 points per game last year, to go along with 5.6 rebounds. Those numbers, while not gaudy, are now going to be desperately missed on a middling team.
But what likely won’t be missed is the off-court behavior. This isn’t Victor’s first violation, as he was suspended earlier this year already, also for an unspecified violation of team rules.
Back in early November, head coach Johnny Jones made a statement at the time to the Times Picayune that seemed to be a vote of confidence:
“No, he won’t take floor for us on Monday and actually he will be out our first couple of games because of team rules in place that you have to abide by and he failed to do that, but (Craig) is certainly back on track now and is taking care of his responsibilities and we look forward to him being back on the floor soon.”
Obviously, much has changed since then, and it looks like the former Arizona transfer is going to once again be on the move.
After his dismissal, Jones made another statement through the team website that was as vague as possible:
“We are obviously disappointed that we had to take this action, it’s a privilege and an honor to wear the LSU uniform. When you commit to being part of our basketball program, there are expectations and standards that we demand from our players. Those expectations go beyond the basketball court.”
In the days and weeks ahead, more info will likely come out. For now, the Tigers basketball team is going to soldier on without him.
Where does the program go from here?
[Photo: Stephen Lew-USA Today]
