All speculation aside, what did the four MU players do that brought punishment?

[MUMac]

I agree. The only thing is that the suspensions look a bit weird with the first half, second half thing. Why not the whole game? Some commentary says, "Well, it must have something that wasn't that serious" leaving with "hopefully it wasn't serious". If it wasn't that serious, maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing to explain the situation.

Some suspensions are to miss a start, some for a half, some for a full game.  This could have been the 2nd or 3rd for all we know.  I am guessing, though, it was of nature that they were to sit for a half.  To accomplish this with only 9 players, Buzz chose to sit the starters for the 1st and the sub for the 2nd.

If it was to be a game suspension, I would have thought Buzz would go 2 and 2, as someone mentioned previously.  That is why I believe it is truly that they were to miss half a game.

I think the mistake is that the announcers were calling it a suspension.  I think a better choice of words would have been that they were sitting a half for disciplinary reasons.  Not sure who came up with "suspension" as the term to use.

As I mentioned previously, last year a player sat for half a game.  No discussion about it, but I really wondered at the time if it was for disciplinary reasons.

[Lennys Tap]

They were late for practice. That's it. No big deal. Everyone has moved on but a handle of posters on this board.

+1. The idea that Buzz (or any coach) owes fans a detailed explanation each time a player is disciplined is silly.

[romey]

I agree. The only thing is that the suspensions look a bit weird with the first half, second half thing. Why not the whole game? Some commentary says, "Well, it must have something that wasn't that serious" leaving with "hopefully it wasn't serious". If it wasn't that serious, maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing to explain the situation.

Someone's not reading the posts.  Tisk, tisk.  If he suspended them for the whole game we would have had five eligible players.

I think what all the "uproar" is about is that if you look at this as an outsider, and given the state of college athletics today, people who have a "glass is half empty" perspective tend to read or hear things like this through the media - often ESPN - and think the worst.   If we read or heard "Calipari suspends four players", many people's reaction (mine included) might be, "huh, business as usual, I wonder what rules he/they broke this time?"  I'm NOT saying I think that at all with Buzz.  In fact, I agree it was likely a minor infraction, no violations of anything other than team rules.  But, don't you agree, with the state of college athletics, that one might look at this and, perhaps not knowing Buzz as "intimately" as we all do  , might think, "I read about MU in the Chicago Tribune last year, and they suspended a couple players earlier this season, and now they suspended some players again, What's going on there?  Oh, well, no surprise, that's sports today."

Now, do I care that people think that from the outside? No, i guess not, but can you see how some might?  I would never want to be one of the programs that seems to be in the headlines for the wrong reasons, and the way freakin' ESPN is, you know everytime a program suspends a player, especially a succesful progaram, they will throw it out on the web or Sportcenter and then later, when it turns out to be "nothing serious" will of course ignore that reporting.

[MerrittsMustache]

There are a lot of "punishments" that go on during the course of the season that probably range from running stairs after practice to having an early morning "workout" with the trainer. Maybe some people would like a detailed log of every "punishment" that's handed down. Perhaps something like: "Jae Crowder didn't follow his defensive assignment during Play #14 in practice. Punishment: Buzz yelled at him for 9 seconds." Would that make people happy?

It's possible that Buzz has specific rules that if a player does X, Y or Z he's suspended for half of the next game. If he does A, B or C, he's suspended for a full game, etc. To me, it doesn't really matter what it was, I just hope the players don't do it again.

[The Equalizer]

One of the issues about these suspensions is the unusualness of a "half-game" suspension.  I tried to search for other examples, and outside of a handful of football examples, a half-game suspensions appears to be quite unusual.

This unusual nature of the punishment leads to two possible thought people may have:
1.  Wow, most coaches would just make players run laps.  Buzz is really coming down on them.
2.  What total BS. A half-game suspension?  It's a meaningless punishment, just for show.

My guess is that inside the MU community, #1 is prevalent, and outside the MU community some are assume its the 2nd.  

I think Buzz opened himself up to the #2 argument because they way he administered the susupensions. This probably could have been avoided by suspending 2 for the first half, and 2 for the second.  Or by suspending all 4 for the first half knowing that you woudln't be able to sub.

By suspending 3 players for the first half--who just happened to be the 3 players you'd most want on the floor at the end of the game--we shouldn't be surprised that other team's fans are questioning the motivations.

[MUMac]

One of the issues about these suspensions is the unusualness of a "half-game" suspension.  I tried to search for other examples, and outside of a handful of football examples, a half-game suspensions appears to be quite unusual.

From what I have heard, I doubt WVU would have even sat the players for a half of basketball.  Likely made them miss a start (for the 3 starters) and one rotation for Todd.  Got to give Buzz credit for doing what he did.  Sent a point to the team.  Probably focused them more than for just that game, as well.

[AlienWarrior]

They got us a #7 ranking

[Lennys Tap]

A certain percentage of our own fans will rip Buzz no matter what he does. A higher percentage of our opponent's fans will do likewise. Worrying about how the malcontents within your fanbase or haters from other schools spin things is a waste of time. I'm sure as long as Buzz is at peace with himself and has the administration's backing he couldn't care less. Good for him.

[WellsstreetWanderer]

these guys are competitive and watching teammates on the court instead of them must have been agonising. Just what Buzz intended the lesson to be. I don't care what the infractions were but i suppose they were relatively minor but he put an exclamation point on his lesson. i also think it was brilliant from the standpoint that the timing was huge for post season motivation. some teams seem to need to lose a clunker to get them primed for post season play. I think these suspensions may be a catalyst for the remainder of the season

[MUMac]

these guys are competitive and watching teammates on the court instead of them must have been agonising. Just what Buzz intended the lesson to be. I don't care what the infractions were but i suppose they were relatively minor but he put an exclamation point on his lesson. i also think it was brilliant from the standpoint that the timing was huge for post season motivation. some teams seem to need to lose a clunker to get them primed for post season play. I think these suspensions may be a catalyst for the remainder of the season

Agree completely.  That is where my thought process was with my last post in this thread.  I think the results are precisely what Buzz was looking for.