Six Memphis East players are suspended
Basketball team involved in altercation during M.L. King tournament
While Memphis football is playing for the AAC championship on Saturday against UCF, glimpses have emerged as to what bowl game the Tigers could play in.
This week, five websites projected Memphis to reach the Birmingham Bowl on Dec. 22. Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports and ESPN all predicted Memphis would face Vanderbilt.
While Memphis' bowl game won't be announced until Sunday, it's likely the Tigers will play
Six players from Memphis East's boys basketball team have been suspended for leaving the bench during an altercation with Charlotte Basketball Academy (N.C.) during the M.L. King Tournament a team from a Power-Five conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC).
AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco said that the conference has strong input with bowl games and schools to ensure the top teams get the best matchups that involve Power-Five teams.
“It helps the branding of the conference, continues our progress and it gives us a level of prestige,” Aresco said. “Those games tend to be our higherprofile bowls that involve P5 teams and they’d like to see our best teams.”
The Tigers' status as AAC West division champions makes them an upper-tier team in the conference along with UCF, Cincinnati and Temple, according to Aresco. Last year, the Tigers faced Iowa State in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl
The AAC has bowl tie-ins against the Big 12 (Armed Forces), SEC (Birmingham) and ACC (Military). The Tigers have experience playing in Birmingham, where they lost 31-10 to Auburn in 2015.
Clint Overby, vice president of ESPN Events, said that the Birmingham Bowl would welcome the chance to host Mem- held at Hamilton on Nov. 21.
TSSAA rules stipulate that basketball players who are ejected must sit out two games. East has played two games since the altercation.
The suspended players, who have not been identified, did not play in Wednesday's win over Raleigh-Egypt and must sit out one more game, TSSAA assistant director Gene Menees said.
He said 16 players were ejected — nine from East and seven from CBA. CBA chose to quit the game as it only had four players remaining and was down 30 points. CBA quitting led to confusion regarding whether players were ejected, Menees added.
Menees said the TSSAA didn't receive information about the ejections until Saturday from the referees.
East is scheduled to play Curie (Ill.) on Saturday in the Marshall County Hoops Fest. East coach Jevonte Holmes said Wednesday he didn't know if his team would play in the Hoops Fest.
News of the suspensions came after a
report that East star James Wiseman had been receiving death threats.
Holmes denied that report about the Memphis signee and No 1 recruit in the nation.
Holmes could not be reached Thursday for comment on whether East would participate in Saturday's game.
The school was also fined $250 for players entering the court from the bench.
East has won the past three Class AAA boys basketball state titles.
The Mustangs' roster also includes Memphis signee Malcolm Dandridge.
Memphis East principal Marilyn Hilliard did not respond to an email seeking comment.
"Initially we were told that fans were on the floor," Menees said. "The altercation led to double technicals being assessed. There were supposedly players on the floor off the bench."
Menees said Robert Newman, the executive director of Youth Engineering Success Foundation, said one of the East players that the officials listed as being ejected on their report didn't attend the game, which led the TSSAA to reinstate him. The foundation runs the tournament.
Two more players were reinstated when Newman verified that they didn't leave the bench. Newman said he did not see any fans on the floor.