Continuing the chain of unfortunate happenings on the Gopher basketball team, Tubby Smith announced Thursday that junior guard Devoe Joseph was suspended indefinitely because of off-court issues
Joseph averaged 9.4 points last season, stepping up to try and compensate for the loss of Al Nolen's after his suspension last year, the Minnesota Daily reports. Now that Joseph has himself been suspended, the Gophers must work to fill another hole on an already embattled team.
Joseph's suspension came after undefined off-court events, Smith told the Star Tribune. Joseph sat out of Monday's exhibition game against Winona State University and though Smith attributed it to a leg injury, he told the Tribune that he was "having some off court issues," too. Even with a formalized suspension, the coach remains vague on the underlying cause.
"He's got some off-court issues," Smith said. "Hopefully he gets what he has to get done so he can get back on the board at some point in time during season. And at this stage, I'm not sure when that will be."
Even so, the Daily reports that though the future is unknown, the outlook need not be overly grim. According to the Daily, Smith said later that evening that Joseph was aware he let the team down and that it doesn't take long to recover from them.
If Joseph's suspension lasted only one week, said the Tribune, he would still miss five games - a serious blow to the Gophers. After the legal trouble of various players and even the coach himself over the last year, cited the Tribune, the team will band together and do their best to bounce back again.
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