Illinois head coach John Groce announced on Saturday morning that the 6-foot-8 forward has been suspended indefinitely following a violation of team rules during the team’s current foreign trip in France. “We have specific standards of behavior for every member of our team and when those expectations are not met, there are consequences”.
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Groce and the team will return to Champaign on August. 19.
He is the brother of former Illini MVP Brandon Paul.
But after being sent home from the European trip on Saturday for violating team rules, Paul’s future with the program is uncertain.
According to Champaign news station WCIA-3, Paul was arrested around 5 a.m. Friday morning in Deauville, France, after receiving reports of Paul breaking windows and damaging vehicles.
The Deauville police superintendent, Madam Pons, told WCIA 3 sports reporter Bret Beherns Paul was “very, very drunk” when authorities approached him. He was the freshman of the year in the Mid-American Conference while playing at Western Michigan University and then transferred to Illinois.
I would be absolutely shocked if Darius Paul ever plays a game for Illinois.
While sitting out that season because of NCAA transfer rules, Paul found himself in trouble. He charged with vandalism, public intoxication and resisting arrest, the station reported.
That resulted in Paul’s first suspension.
We don’t know yet what Paul’s playing status will be for the 2015-16 hoops season, but given his history of disciplinary errors, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a hefty punishment from Groce.
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For today’s countdown piece we’ll take a look at Illinois and Minnesota as they’re both now overseas on exhibition trips. The Illini were a miserable 276th in field goal percentage last year and will need to find a more consistent offense if they want to avoid missing the NCAA Tournament. The program has invested three seasons worth of scholarships in him, and he has yet to play a regular season minute for the orange and blue. Rice returned to action and was named the team’s co-outstanding player along with fellow senior Nnanna Egwu.
