Syracuse fans yearning for a sophomore season from Malachi Richardson received bad news this week when it became known that the NBA is not requiring him to play five-on-five at the combine. That doesn't guarantee anything, obviously. But it does suggest Richardson is considered something close to a first-round pick, which, by extension, suggests the 6-foot-6 guard is gone, baby, gone.
So we now know that Syracuse's Final Four run will likely come with a cost.
And that cost is Malachi Richardson.
Richardson, you see, wasn't really prominent on many NBA Draft boards before the NCAA Tournament began. In fact, he wasn't even considered one of the nation's best freshmen. And whether he was even Syracuse's best freshman was up for debate considering the production of Tyler Lydon.
But then the NCAA Tournament happened.
Richardson got 21 points in a first-round win over Dayton, then had that amazing stretch in the come-from-behind upset of Virginia. He finished with 23 points and seven rebounds in the victory that propelled the Orange into the Final Four. Suddenly, Richardson was a hot name. So he entered the draft. And now, barring a surprise, Richardson will remain in the draft and get picked somewhere next month.
Good for him.
But it's a tough blow for Syracuse -- even if it's hardly rare.
On a lesser level, this reminds me of the 2007 NCAA Tournament -- when Mike Conley averaged 16.0 points and 4.8 rebounds while leading Ohio State to the national championship game against Florida. Before that run, almost nobody was talking about Conley as a one-and-doner. And Conley had no intention of being a one-and-done prospect, he subsequently told me. But Conley was so great on the big stage March Madness provides that he was suddenly a projected top-five pick. Thus, he had to bolt Columbus. So Ohio State's five wins in that NCAA Tournament also created a loss -- specifically the loss of Mike Conley.
Bottom line, sometimes surprising performances in March create unexpected losses in May. That's my point. It's not a good thing or a bad thing, per se. It's just a thing. And it's a thing Jim Boeheim's Syracuse program is likely to soon experience.
Is it a trade worth making?
Of course.
A banner hanging is a banner hanging.
But that doesn't change the fact that a banner sometimes comes with a cost.
And the cost, for this banner, looks like Malachi Richardson's sophomore year.
NOTES FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY
Maryland's Mark Turgeon is one of many college coaches at the combine watching prospects who played for him. In his case, it's Jake Layman, Robert Carter, Diamond Stone and Melo Trimble.
"I thought all of my guys did great," Turgeon told me Thursday night, and the reports from Chicago echoed that sentiment. As you likely know, Layman exhausted his eligibility while Carter and Stone have already announced they're remaining in the draft, no matter what. That leaves Trimble as the big question mark. And his decision to stay or go remains very much up in the air, sources have told CBS Sports.
With Trimble, Maryland will be a preseason Top 25 team.
Without him, perhaps not.
Oakland's Kay Felder has announced he's hiring an agent and remaining in the draft. And even though he's the smallest player at the combine, there's a decent chance he'll be picked.
"[Somewhere from] 35-to-50," Oakland coach Greg Kampe told me.
For what it's worth, Felder recorded the second-best vertical in combine history this week. It was 44 inches. Take a look ...
Jim Larranaga will be back on George Mason's campus Saturday for graduation, at which point he'll receive the school's highest honorary award -- the Mason Medal. It's a cool thing for lots of reasons, but mostly because it'll bring closure to Larranaga's 14 years at GMU.
As is often the case, there were some hard feelings, on both sides, when Larranaga left for Miami in 2011. But enough time has passed -- and there's been enough change in the administration -- to where the school can now properly appreciate what Larranaga did and celebrate the amazing achievement that was an almost unimaginable trip to the 2006 Final Four. So good on George Mason for doing what it's doing, and good on Larranaga for accepting. Should make for a fun day in Fairfax.
FINAL THOUGHT: It's been a rough stretch of bad headlines at Minnesota, as I detailed earlier in the week. But it shouldn't go unnoticed that the school handled last weekend's arrest of Reggie Lynch properly.
In a statement issued the same day Lynch was arrested on probable cause of criminal sexual conduct, Minnesota announced both the arrest and an indefinite suspension from all basketball-related activities. There was nothing about "waiting to get more information" or "trying to gather all of the facts." Minnesota just acknowledged a bad development and made it clear the person at the center of it will not be associated with its program unless, and until, he's cleared.
Simple stuff.
And that's absolutely the way all athletic departments should handle these situations.
Contrary to what some believe, representing a university by wearing a uniform is not a right. It's a privilege. And "innocent until proven guilty" does not apply. So if a player is arrested for something serious -- like sexual assault or domestic violence, for instance -- a wise policy would be for the arrest to automatically trigger a suspension. Keep the player on scholarship, if you want. Keep him or her in school, if you want. But the university policy should be that nobody arrested for a violent crime can participate in team activities unless, and until, everything is cleared up.
That kind of policy would prevent the PR nightmares schools often endure.
More than that, though, it's just the right thing to do.
