Robert Morris University suspended four basketball players for a year over alleged violations of university policy. In compliance with the school rules, the officials will not be disclosing the nature of the violations.
"No criminal charges will be filed in this matter," spokesman Jonathan Potts said."Out of respect for these young men's privacy, we will not be disclosing further details. As RMU athletic director Craig Coleman stated last week, we trust that these young men have learned from their mistake and will become better individuals as a result," Post-Gazette reports.
The suspensions were handed over to Colonials - standout forward Jeremiah Worthem, Britton Lee, Evan Grey and Shaire Tolson-Ford before Jan.23 game against Sacred Heart University.
Now the Cardinals are down to eight members due to the suspensions and absences of two other players.
The suspension will certainly hurt the team in the form of Worthem. The 6-foot-6 Philadelphia freshman and starting forward averaged 8.9 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. He was named the Northeast Conference rookie of the week after averaging 16.5 points in wins against Saint Francis and Mount St. Mary's early this month.
"Something like that hurts, especially for someone like Jeremiah. He was doing really well here and he was starting to get things....," Karvel Anderson, senior guard and the Colonials' leading scorer, said.
Grey and Tolson-Ford are both walk-ons (a player without a regular status on the team), while Lee, a fellow freshman from Philadelphia, played only four games this season.
Potts said that the suspended players might be allowed to re-enroll for the spring 2015 semester. Coach Andy Toole said that final decisions will be taken once the suspension ends.
Toole said that despite strict adherence to the rules, transgressions continue to happen on campus.
"There's not many weeks that go by where we don't discuss how you have to try to conduct yourself and handle yourself on campus, in the community.....making the right decisions and doing the right things is something we stress on a daily basis. I wish we could get the message through to everybody all the time, but it unfortunately doesn't work that way," Toole said, Post-Gazette reports.
