Asked which of those rules forward Yancy Gates violated, Cronin said, “Probably all three in my opinion.”
Gates, a 6-foot-9 junior from Withrow High School, was suspended indefinitely Friday for violating team rules and did not make the trip here with his teammates to play against Pitt.
Cronin said he had no meetings scheduled with Gates and has no idea when he’ll return.
“I’m worried about the guys that are here,” Cronin said.
The UC coach would not say specifically what Gates did.
“It wasn’t one incident,” Cronin said. “It was all week. Now you might have had a culminating incident.”
That incident reportedly occurred at practice when Gates exchanged words with an assistant coach, although Cronin would not confirm that.
Gates could not be reached Saturday night. His father, Tony Dees, said he did not want to comment until he knew more about what triggered the suspension.
“I’ve only got bits and pieces,” he said.
Asked if he was upset that Cronin suspended Gates, Dees said, “Not if he didn’t handle his part and did what he needs to do. I’d like to find out what’s going on before I comment on anything.”
Without Gates, UC’s second leading scorer (11.4) and leading rebounder (6.9), Cronin started a front line of Ibrahima Thomas, Darnell Wilks and Rashad Bishop against the Panthers after considering starting either Biggie McClain or Sean Kilpatrick.
Cronin said he was disappointed with Gates and said Gates’ teammates should be disappointed in him, too.
“The problem with college basketball today,” Cronin said, “it’s gotten lost that it should be a privilege to play for Jamie Dixon at Pittsburgh or to play at Cincinnati, the home of Oscar Robertson, that you should take that and make the most of it.
“Too many kids think you’re doing everybody a favor being around. What they don’t realize is if you don’t want to be around somebody else will take your spot.”
After the game, Cronin was adamant that he believed Gates’ absence did not cost his team the chance to knock off the fourth-ranked Panthers. He said he thought UC’s offense actually flowed better without Gates, even though the Bearcats shot only 33.3 percent from the field.
“Our ball movement and our execution is a lot better with him out of the lineup because we don’t throw the ball to him in the low post without him posting,” Cronin said. “We have better spacing. We get a lot more player movement and our screening is better. I think it showed. We were just missing layups and missing shots in the first half.”
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110205/SPT0101/302050030/1064/UC-s-Gates-suspended-indefinitely
