Arkansas suspends Michael Qualls and Alandise Harris indefinitely

University of Arkansas men’s basketball head coach Mike Anderson announced prior to the team’s SEC road contest at LSU that redshirt junior Alandise Harris and sophomore Michael Qualls have been suspended indefinitely for conduct detrimental to the team.

Neither Harris nor Qualls made the trip with the team to Baton Rouge.

“All of our student-athletes are held to a high standard and everyone is accountable for their actions,” said Anderson. “We are trying to build the ultimate team and everyone has to be on board to make that happen. Our expectations of our student-athletes is that they reflect positively on themselves and our program at all times and that they enter each day as a Razorback with a positive attitude that helps us continue to grow this program.”

Qualls started 10 games this season, averaging 11.7 points per contest. Harris appeared in all 20 games so far and has started four, averaging 9.1 points per game.

This is a major blow to the team's depth as the Razorbacks were fighting to play their onto the NCAA Tournament bubble.

Jared Jeffries will have his own fishing show on the Outdoor Network

Former NBA player Jared Jeffries carved out an 11 year career as a contributor on four different NBA teams. The veteran played for the Washington Wizards, had two stints with the New York Knicks, Houston Rockets, and Portland Trail Blazers. The Knicks reportedly wanted Jeffries back for a third time before Jeffries decided to retire and become a scout with the Denver Nuggets.

Jeffries also has a love of fishing and he's going to get to show it on the Outdoor Network. Jeffries will have his own fishing show on the Outdoor Network.

Jeffries wasn't much of a star in the NBA, but stayed around long enough to make a living at it. Noe he gets a chance to be the star of his own show.

Scott Drew will not lead Baylor to greater heights

Baylor basketball coach Scott Drew has overcame tremendous odds to get the program where it is today. No, not the current five game losing streak, but to the point where they actually matter. Drew has resurrected Baylor form the Dave Bliss/Patrick Dennehy scandal to three NCAA Tournament appearances including two berths in the Elite Eight and a NIT title.

Drew inherited a program in 2003 that had made only four NCAA tournaments ever and had just been rocked by a scandal rooted in the fact that one player murdered another. The penalties -- among them scholarship losses and a postseason ban -- were so severe that non-league games weren't even allowed one year, meaning this was the mess of all messes, and lots of people thought Drew was dumb to leave Valpo to take the Baylor job.

That's all good, but with the talent Drew has procured in Waco over the years fans and media expect much more. Definitely more than a current 1-6 mark in the Big 12 including Tuesday night's loss to West Virginia, a team that has struggled since joining the Big 12.

Drew had the Bears  near the top 10 with a 12-1 record entering Big 12 Conference play – having only lost to Syracuse and beaten Kentucky and Colorado. Suddenly, this team is second to last in the league standings. Baylor has lost six of its past seven games and five in a row. Six Big 12 teams have NCAA tourney-worthy résumés, but coach Scott Drew's group isn't one of them. This is past the panic button.

I'm not saying that Drew can't coach, but maybe he's just not the guy to lead the Bears to greater heights. He recruits his tail off and gets top high school players to come to Waco, which is an achievement in itself. But I'm starting to get the opinion that Drew can't coach the talent. The Bears have the players to win big, but all too often they disappoint and don't perform up to their ability.

I don't know if the team has tuned Drew out, but maybe it's time for him to go. For all the good Drew has done for the program, he's seen as nothing but  an amasser of talent who recruits as many McDonald’s All-Americans and NBA Draft picks as possible without any regard for team basketball.

Whether you like Drew or not, you must give the man credit. He is responsible for perhaps the most remarkable rebuilding job in college basketball history, the young, vibrant head coach at Baylor has transformed a scandal-ridden program into a Big 12 powerhouse since taking over in Waco in 2003.

But for Baylor to take the program to another level Drew may have to leave, because it's looking like this current edition of the Baylor Bears has plateaued and the season has flatlined.

"It Girl" of the week: Rosee' Divine

The Just Sports & Just Us "It Girl" of the week is Rosee' Divine.

Detroit Lions admit that Matthew Stafford's game needs some work

The worst kept secret in the NFL was that Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford needed to be refined. He has regressed since the 2011 season when he threw for  5,038 yards and 41 touchdowns. Over the past two seasons Stafford has backslid. He completed 63.5 percent of his passes in 2011. In 2012 59.8 percent and in 2013 his percentage dove to 58.5, which was good for 30th in the league.

Stafford would always say there's nothing wrong, but his play on the field said otherwise. Fans started to watch the Lions and wait for the untimely interception off of an ill advised throw. The worse part was that former Lions head coach Jim Schwartz was an enabler of Stafford's lousy performances.

Stafford threw 12 picks in his final seven games of last season, and was culpable for 14 turnovers overall during that stretch and the Lions finished 1-6 after a 6-3 start. Seven games doesn't make a career but the way the turnovers happened you don't see the elite quarterbacks make.

General manager Martin Mayhew finally admitted what many knew all along. Stafford needs some work.

"I think there certainly has to be some work done," general manager Martin Mayhew said this week. "I couldn't really quantify that."

"I don't think his confidence has fallen very far," he said. "I mean, think about it. In Week 9, his numbers were outstanding. We were winning games. We were playing really well.


"Didn't finish up the second half of the season the way we expected to, do the things that we wanted to do. But there are a lot of moving pieces to that. It's not all on Matthew. I've been in contact with him several times since the end of the season and he sounds pretty confident to me."

If the season were nine games the Lions might be in the Super Bowl. Instead they're watching from their lavish homes once again.

The team has taken steps to get Stafford back on track. The Lions have hired former Indianapolis Colts head coach Jim Caldwell, who worked extensively with Peyton Manning. The Lions have tabbed former New Orleans Saints quarterbacks coach, Jim Lombardi as their offensive coordinator. Lombardi worked with Saints quarterback Drew Brees.

Considering the past of the offensive coaches brought on board so far, many of the hires are geared to help Stafford.

Louisville's Russ Smith escorts freshman high school player to homecoming

 Louisville senior captain and leading scorer Russ Smith agreed to escort a Manual girls basketball player during homecoming festivities Friday night, after that girl's date didn't show up.

Smith was there to support a friend who is an assistant coach on the Eastern High School boys' basketball team. Eastern played at Manual Friday night.

Tonysha Curry, a freshman on the Manual girls basketball team, waited and waited for her date to arrive. He never did. Curry and her friends noticed the Louisville star sitting court-side, and Curry got up the nerve to go and ask Smith to step in as her homecoming escort.

"I had an escort, and he had won the homecoming for king. But he hadn't been coming to the practices. So, he didn't come to the game apparently," Curry said. "I was like, ‘There's Russ Smith. Oh my God. What if he escorted me?' Everybody was like, ‘Go do it! Go do it!'"

So Curry did. Russ Smith's response?

"Can I do that?"

"I was like, ‘Yeah, you can! You can,'" urged Curry to Smith.

"I didn't know," said Smith, when recalling being asked to take part in the homecoming festivities. "It just all happened too fast. She said, ‘Please, it would really make my day, make my night.' It actually made my day probably more than hers. I'm kind of really happy about it."

Let's recap: Freshman girl in high school gets ditched by the homecoming king. The leading scorer on the NCAA college basketball national championship team takes his place. Yet it made Russ Smith's day more than Tonysha Curry's? Russdiculous, please explain.

"It just never happens. It's something that's one in a million," replied Smith. "You just have to live in the moment. It may not ever happen to me again. That made my day."

"I could not breathe," said Curry recalling the moment, when she took Smith's arm and walked to half-court. "I was almost in tears crying. We even had conversations. We were talking to each other."

Smith was a finalist for Louisville's 2013 Homecoming King, but he was beaten out by teammate and Final Four Most Outstanding Player Luke Hancock. No matter. Curry got her man.

"Oh my God. Best day of my life."

Kudos to Smith for giving Curry a memory that will last a lifetime.

Georgetown's Josh Smith out for the season for academic reasons

Georgetown's Josh Smith might go down as one of college basketball's most puzzling players.

Smith was a talented high school player and a McDonald's All American and that netted him a scholarship to UCLA. Unfortunately for UCLA, Smith took the McDonald's billing literally and ballooned to 300+ pounds and never got into playing shape. When he was on the court he flashed the skills that made him one of the top high school players in the nation, but due to his weight issues and inability to mesh with then UCLA head coach Ben Howland, Smith often found himself on the bench.

Smith played six games for UCLA in 2012-2013 and decided to transfer to Georgetown. Hoyas coach John Thompson III was willing to grant Smith a second chance and surprisingly Smith was given immediate eligibility by the NCAA.

Smith paid immediate dividends as he reached double-digit points in seven of his first nine games. Water finally net its level regarding Smith's production as he averaged less than six in his final four games. His final game was on January 4 against St. John's as he scored six points and grabbed five rebounds.

That was his final appearance because Georgetown has ruled Smith academically ineligible for the remainder of the season.

This is a big blow to the Hoyas as a season that started as a Big East contender is now on the brink. The team released forward Greg Whittington, and starting guard Jabril Trawick is out with a broken jaw.

Coach Thompson released a statement regarding Smith's status with the team.

"It's disappointing," Thompson said. "So much was geared toward [Josh's] presence. "Now here in the middle of the season, between [Smith] and Jabril, you lose two starters," Thompson said outside the team's practice court inside McDonough Arena. "You have to reshuffle everything. But this is Georgetown. We have a set of standards here. Everyone has a responsibility above and beyond what goes on those doors right there. He let his teammates down, but the rest of the group will try to regroup here and figure it out."

Hopefully Smith sticks around and figures it out. He has a ton of talent but it has gone untapped in a big way. But knowing Smith from the outside looking in, I don't see him staying at Georgetown to fix his academic problems.

I could be wrong in this assessment on his future. I see him as a future D-League player or trying to go to Europe. Cliff notes version, he's gonna be a basketball vagabond.