Coming off of a surprising Elite Eight appearance last season, and with the program’s most highly touted recruit ever, namely Perry Jones, on campus and ready to wreak havoc on opposing Big 12 big men, the Baylor Bears seem poised to once again be a force to be reckoned with this season. But after an off the court incident by returning leading scorer LaceDarius Dunn involving an alleged assault, the Bears will have to do without the services of arguably the nation’s top shooting guard for a while after the university handed down a 3 game suspension to Dunn.
The former McDonalds All American guard had been suspended indefinitely throughout the preseason ever since he was arrested last month when police accused him of breaking his girlfriend’s jaw in a domestic disturbance. The woman, who is the mother of their 3 year old son, later said that Dunn hadn’t struck her, disputed police reports, and asked that all counts be dropped.
Dunn was also ruled academically ineligible back in early October, but did the required coursework to be cleared prior to the season beginning. Despite not playing in games, Dunn is allowed to practice with the team.
On the surface, losing Dunn for any period of time would be disastrous, but Baylor’s first 3 contests are hardly considered stiff competition since they play Grambling State, LaSalle, and Jackson State. He is officially eligible to make his season debut on November 22nd.
By the looks of things yesterday, Dunn’s teammates barely missed their leading scorer by putting a thumping on the LaSalle Explorers 74-64, behind dominating performances by junior forward Quincy Acy (25 pts and 11 rebs) and fabulous freshman Perry Jones (12 pts and 11 rebs). The Bears moved to 2-0 on the young season and although they cruised in the non-conference tilt against LaSalle, the Bears will definately need the services of the high scoring Dunn, to beat some of the other Big 12 heavyweights like Kansas, Texas, and Kansas State come conference play.
Dunn needs just 451 points this season to become the school’s all-time leading scorer, is only 90 3 point FG’s behind AJ Abrams’ all time Big 12 Conference 3 pointers made mark, and needs 518 points to break the Big 12 Conference all-time scoring mark of 2,256 points, held by Texas Tech’s Andre Emmet (‘01-’04). He also ranks as one of the all time Big 12 greats in FT% and 3 point shots attempted.
Last season Dunn averaged 19.6 ppg and 4.8 rebounds in helping the Bears to a school record 28 victories and helped to set numerous team records for points, 3 pointers made, and FT percentage in a season.
Check out the Baylor Bears ’10-’11 Season Commercial:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
