The AAS has a story up on Texas' future point guard Dogus Balbay's suspension for playing "professionally" in Europe prior to coming to Texas. Texas is saying that Balbay was cleared to play for the last ten games of the season, but did not participate. Therefore, those games should count toward Balbay's 11-game suspension. I understand that it's worth a shot, (if the NCAA will give OU their wins back...) but this doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
If those games count for his suspension, then they should count toward his eligibility too, right? You can't count and not count the same 10 games. My first question to you, then, is:
Has anyone ever heard of a player using all or part of their redshirt season to serve a suspension?
Assuming that it counts, that would effectively burn a whole year of Balbay's eligibility to let him play 11 games against non-conference opponents. Obviously the experience would be valuable in the rest of the games, but is it worth a whole year of Balbay? This, of course, assumes that Balbay is a four-year player at Texas. PB has given us hints that his sources think Dogus is something special, but that doesn't mean he'll necessarily go early for the Association. Brandon Rush played four almost four years, for God's sake.
So, given that information, here's my second question:
Suppose the NCAA gives Barnes the choice:
A.) Take the redshirt off early and have Balbay only miss the first game of the season or...
B.) Keep the extra year but lose 11 games next season
What does he do?
For my money, I'd drop the shirt and get Balbay into the game as early as possible. With DJ, it'll give Barnes confidence to give quality minutes to Dogus and keep DJ fresh, without DJ, it will be vital to help the team mesh with Balbay early on before the real tests arrive.
Also, I'd just like to say that the NCAA is ridiculous. If Balbay never made a dime, how exactly is he a professional? Because one of my friends played in an IM basketball game with Jermichael Finley, that makes him an NCAA student-athlete? Because other players on the team got paid, Dogus is a professional? Puh-lease.
Oh yeah, by the way- I owe vy til i die an award since the rest of you gave up:
I love this.