McDonnell’s suspension tops headlines as NCAA baseball tournament nears

Posted Jun 3, 2010 by Scott Carter

Updated Jun 3, 2010 at 08:47 AM

June Madness doesn’t exactly have the same ring as March Madness, but the NCAA baseball tournament starts taking swings on Friday.

As if having Muhammad Ali as one of your biggest fans wasn’t enough to make Louisville a good story, the Cardinals made big news Wednesday when head coach Dan McDonnell was suspended for three games for his umpire altercation at last week’s Big East Tournament in Clearwater.

Here are some morning Big East baseball links to help wake you up:

—Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier-Journal writes about the curveball thrown by the NCAA on Wednesday when it suspended McDonnell for three games.

—Click here if you would like to watch a video of McDonnell discussing the surprise.

—UConn is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1994, the season current Huskies coach Jim Penders was a senior writes Chuck Banning of TheDay.com. Florida State, Oregon and Central Connecticut are the other teams in the Norwich Regional.

—Dan Tomasino of the New York Post writes that Big East champion St. John’s, the No. 3 seed in the Charlottesville (Va.) Regional, is pumped to play Ole Miss in the first round.

—Shifting games, in the wake of an NCAA investigation, UConn men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun is looking for at least two new assistant coaches. Kevin Ollie has surfaced as a potential candidate according to the Hartford Courant, and guard Darius Smith has informed Calhoun he plans to transfer.