Friday, 24 December 2010

Miss. State Players Suspended for Fight in Stands

Two Mississippi State players, Renardo Sidney and Elgin Bailey were suspended indefinitely after a fistfight Friday in the stands at the Sheriff Center in Honolulu.

Both players were sent home Friday on separate planes and will at least miss Saturday's game against Hawaii and a game against St. Mary's in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Additionally, after Sidney tweeted ""Haha, keep hating people am loving it...," Scott Stricklin, athletic director at Mississippi State, warned MSU's basketball team to stop posting "inappropriate" messages on the social networking website regarding the altercation. If the guideline is not followed, players were told that they would not be allowed to tweet all together.

Just before a second round game of the Diamond Head Classic -- a game that featured Hawai'i and Utah -- on Thursday night, Sidney and Bailey were caught on tape throwing punches at one another before the altercation was broken up by teammates.
Sidney was escorted out of the arena by ushers. Neither of the players was arrested, according to police.

School administration and coaches of the school were furious.

"The actions that took place in Hawaii were embarrassing to all of us who love Mississippi State," Stricklin said in a statement on Twitter. "This behavior will not be tolerated."

"In my 13 years as a head coach, we've never had anything like this happen before," MSU coach Rick Stansbury said in a statement. "I am very disappointed in the actions of Elgin Bailey and Renardo Sidney and in no way does it reflect the overall picture of our program.

ESPN reported that Bailey had taken a cab back to the team hotel after the fight but Sidney remained in the arena at halftime of the Utah-Hawaii game.

Sidney had just ended a one-game suspension for "conduct detrimental to the team," which forced him to miss MSU's loss to Washington State on Wednesday. Sidney scored 19 points in 19 minutes in MSU's 69-52 win over San Diego earlier Thursday in the tournament at the University of Hawaii.

Sidney sat out the 2009-10 season at MSU as the NCAA reviewed his case concerning possible amateurism violations, for receiving cash benefits while in high school.

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