ESPN Men's Basketball

Oklahoma's leading returning scorer Michael Neal is being forced to sit out the first two games of the season by the NCAA. Did he take money from a booster? Did he do something else in egregious violation of the rules? Did he commit a felony? What could he have done to get suspended for two games?

He played basketball over the summer.

That's right. He had the audacity to play basketball in a league that was outside of a 100-mile radius from his home. This rule is one of many in the NCAA rulebook that really frosts me. How a kid can be punished for playing basketball is beyond me. His university can fly him all over the country during the season (and sometimes out of season), causing him to miss class time, and there is no ridiculous limit on how many miles away from home his school can send him. But the kid decides he wants to play ball in a summer league, and he gets suspended. This is micromanagement of the game at its very worst.

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