FYI
Here is a snippet detailing the suspension of Giddens....
McKay suspends UNM's Giddens
Somehow, no one should be surprised that New Mexico coach Ritchie McKay suspended J.R. Giddens essentially for being selfish. This is the same player who was pushed out at Kansas, not just for his role in a fight at a bar but also because of his inability to mesh with the Jayhawks and the staff.
When McKay took on Giddens, he was certain that Giddens would be a new man, a player who wouldn't be all about himself. He even pumped him up to be an NBA lottery pick. Well, that Giddens is still lost somewhere between Lawrence and Albuquerque, because the one that arrived didn't measure up to all the hype.
"I just felt like we needed to continue to emphasize the important parts of our program and [one of those is] being a good teammate," McKay said Sunday night about his decision to remove his leading scorer. Giddens missed four other games this season due to injuries.
McKay booted Giddens on Friday, the day before the Lobos hosted and ultimately beat TCU.
"He didn't do anything [illegal] and it didn't have anything to do with academics," McKay said. "He just didn't show consistent change. I can't rehabilitate his image. That's on J.R. He's done a lot of good things and is an excellent player, but our goals have to be the same."
McKay said he hasn't decided if Giddens would come back this season. New Mexico has four games remaining.
"If I couldn't deal with him at all, I would have booted him off without a chance to come back," McKay said. "It was just a culmination of things."
The bottom line: The ball stopped too often in Giddens' hands offensively, and he wasn't defending or rebounding. The selfishness was too much for the embattled McKay to endure.
