The New York Times-20080126-UConn Suspends 2 Players- Including No- 2 Scorer

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UConn Suspends 2 Players, Including No. 2 Scorer

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Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun has suspended the starting guard Jerome Dyson, the team's second-leading scorer, and the backup guard Doug Wiggins indefinitely for violating team rules, university officials announced Friday.

UConn (13-5, 4-3 Big East) did not release the nature of the allegations.

The suspensions came as the Huskies prepared for a game Saturday afternoon against No. 7 Indiana at Assembly Hall. Calhoun went public with the suspensions at the team's hotel in Bloomington.

Dyson and Wiggins, both sophomores, did not travel with the team to Indiana.

It obviously isn't something that is making me particularly happy, Calhoun told The Hartford Courant on Friday. This particular suspension is mine, no one else's. I took the action based upon what I felt was in the best interest of our basketball team and the university.

Calhoun told the newspaper that neither player was arrested and that the discipline was not related to grades.

MAYO'S ELIGIBILITY RESTORED The Southern California freshman O. J. Mayo violated an N.C.A.A. rule by accepting free tickets from Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony to an N.B.A. game, but his punishment will not include missing games.

University officials said Friday that they had been informed by the N.C.A.A. that Mayo committed a violation and must contribute $460 -- the value of the two tickets -- to a charitable organization. U.S.C. said in a release that the N.C.A.A. restored Mayo's eligibility after he and his family donated the money.

F.D.U. 70, MONMOUTH 66 Sean Baptiste had 23 points and 10 rebounds as Fairleigh Dickinson (6-11, 2-5 Northeast Conference) rallied to defeat visiting Monmouth (5-15, 2-6).

Fairleigh Dickinson trailed by as many as 9 points midway through the second half, but outscored Monmouth, 17-4, in the final seven minutes.

FAIRFIELD 70, CANISIUS 51 Fairfield (7-12, 5-4 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) defeated visiting Canisius, which has lost 14 of its last 15 regular-season conference games.

NIAGARA 79, ST. PETER'S 59 Charron Fisher scored 29 points to lead Niagara (12-6, 6-3 in MAAC) to an easy victory at St. Peter's (4-15, 1-8).