More College Basketball & Barfight News

[tornado]

FIVE members of the UAB basketball team were arrested in the wee hours of the morning Friday after a bar fight.

They were booked into the Birmingham City Jail between 2:45AM and 3:30AM.
The players included:
Edward Berrios, (junior-guard) 23; Keenan Ellis (freshman-center), 18; Walter Sharpe (sophomore-forward), 21; Channing Toney (junior-guard), 21; and Robert Vaden (junior-G/F), 22.
Charges range from disorderly conduct, to physical harassment to physically harassing a police officer.
They all posted bond and were released early this morning.

http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/1188635493105380.xml&coll=2

The story also says:
"There were several other basketball players there" as well.....maybe it was a team meeting!

One of the players (Sharpe) had other outstanding warrants against him!!
Vaden was a transfer from Indiana and was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year!
Toney is the son of ex-NBA star Andrew Toney.
Berrios, like Iowa State's Michael Taylor, is another Chipola grad.
Ellis, because of his age, should have been carded and never even allowed in the bar!

[Da Coach]

Walter Sharpe has a long history of issues. He had problems in high school, but he was one of the highest rated big men in the class of 2003. He was a junior in 2002, and this Scout page shows he was a senior in 2003--

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=447732

But somehow, he reclassified, and finished high school in 2004, still as a 4-star recruit--

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=12918&Sport=2

Because of that, there were a lot of schools recruiting him. He went to Mississippi State, but was kicked off the team by coach Rick Stansbury after one too many team rules violations.

http://www.mstatesportsblog.com/2006/06/24/walter-sharpe-to-play-for-uab/

He returned home to Birmingham, and was found one night in April, 2006 sitting on the street with a gunshot wound--

http://www.ncaabbs.com/forums/archive/index.php/thread-42121.html

He claimed he was just walking down the street and was hit by some random stray bullet. I guess that can happen to anyone!
So despite his history, Mike Davis gave him another chance at UAB. But before he can ever play a game, he is not involved in this bar fight.

If Mike Davis allows this thug back on his team, I will have lost all respect for him.

[tornado]

Now there's more info coming out............

http://uab.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=1741&mid=99679693&sid=982&tid=99679693&style=1

The players were all arguing among themselves, then argued with and fought the police who arrived and even the backups that were called in because of ther altercation.
One of the players even tried to flee but was caught running away.
Maybe they should have had team rules against going out drinking on a Tgursday night and staying in bars until 3AM.
Maybe all college basketball teams should enforce such rules......naw...

[tornado]

He claimed he was just walking down the street and was hit by some random stray bullet....

It seems to happen with uncanny frequency to college basketball players between midnight and 3AM,
especially in the vicinity of bars and motels !!!!!!

It just happened to Missouri's DeMarre Carroll

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=4551

It just happened to Indiana's Eli Holman

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2788

It just happened to New Mexico State's Herb Pope

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3825

and others.........

http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/basketball/articles/2005/03/29/a_citys_hoop_star_felled_by_gunshot/

[chitownBUB]

Indiana's Eli Holman

Eli Holman has not yet gotten cleared by the NCAA Clearing house,
and is not on the trip to the Bahamas

"Bloomington, Ind. ??“ Eli Holman has yet to be cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse and will not join the team on its trip to the Bahamas, IU officials announced Friday."

[tornado]

oooops....I must have missed it........

UAB coach Mike Davis now says that ALL FIVE of the players who were involved in the late night/early morning bar fight
already have been disciplined and the team is now moving on from here.....

"Appropriate disciplinary action has been taken, and we are moving on as a program.''

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/basketball/ncaa/wires/09/04/2060.ap.bkc.uab.players.arrested.0305/

Meanwhile...John Calipari reacted to two of his players getting arrested in a late night/early morning bar fight - one which they themselves started, by restricting the activities of all the other completely innocent players on the team.

"he decided to institute a curfew and make all nightclubs off limits.
Furthermore, if fans see any of his players out in these establishments, they are encouraged to snap a picture with their cell phones and send it to him."

http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/1188980352316130.xml&coll=2

Hmmm..... I don't know if it's fair to take pics over the phone from alcohol drinking patrons of a bar at 3AM....they might just be fans of University of Tennessee trying to get Calipari's players in trouble falsely!!




.....late edit..........here;s a new story about a D-II basketball coach
who appears to have gotten into a very late night bar fight, and is hospitalized.

http://www.kxmc.com/Sports/159182.asp