Minnesota coach Richard Pitino delivered his strongest hint yet that the punishments for three suspended guards might not be final on Tuesday, when he reiterated comments from the previous day's radio show in which he said he will "reevaluate" their statuses after the season.
Guards Kevin Dorsey, Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer were suspended for the remainder of the season -- three regular-season games plus the Big Ten tournament -- after sex videos appeared on the social media accounts of Dorsey, who was the only one of the three identified in the clips by those who viewed them.
But Pitino's comments revealed that the case on the players is not quite closed yet. He first said he planned to reevaluate the players on his weekly radio show on 1500-a.m. on Monday night.
Pitino said he planned to talk with his staff and interim athletic director Beth Goetz after the season and decide if anything else needs to be done. Pitino said "nothing has really changed" since the original decision and that "nothing needs to evolve." He didn't elaborate about what further punishments might be on the table.
Asked whether all three would definitely be invited back for another year, Pitino again replied "We'll reevaluate after the season."
"We made the decision that we were gong to suspend them for the rest of the season, and we're sticking with that," he said. "I'm not going to tell you one thing until we make an evaulation of everything we feel is necessary to reinstate them."
Pitino said he's happy with how the three have handled their punishment so far. All three, along with injured senior forward Joey King will make the trip to Indianapolis. Thirteenth-seed Minnesota plays 12th-seeded Illinois on Wednesday (3:30 p.m. ESPN2).
Pitino said the three guards coming along is as much to do with them staying up to date academically -- an academic advisor travels with the team -- as it is with forcing them to watch the deficits their absences have created on the court.
"To me, it's such an extreme situation," he said. "Obviously they feel like they let the team down. They don't need to be reminded of it every single second of every single day. People make mistakes, you learn from it and you move on. And hopefully that's what we can do."
Murphy All-Big Ten freshman
Freshman Jordan Murphy reacted on Tuesday to being selected to the All-Big Ten freshmen team by league coaches. The award was announced Monday evening.
"It's a huge honor just coming from the standpoint of not a lot of people expected me to do what I did this season," he said. "I didn't really expect to make that huge of an impact this soon. So it was just a huge honor and a big deal for me.
"Since we didn't do that well in the season and our record doesn't really reflect how good of players we have, I think it really says a lot that coaches still evaluate talent, regardless of record."
