Monday, Maryland announced that Terrell Stoglin and Mychal Parker are suspended for a year each, not that it matters: Parker had already announced his transfer, and Stoglin was one of the last underclassmen to apply for the draft, getting his paperwork in on the very last day at 10 pm with a midnight deadline.
With Maryland saying that Stoglin's suspension was for violations of the universityâs student-athlete code of conduct, that fairly quickly brought it down to academics or drugs. And by the afternoon, word began to leak out that it was the latter, that he had failed not one but three drug tests.
The obvious question here is: when? and for what?
There are different drugs with different issues. The most likely one is marijuana (apparently that was it, and that was Parker's issue as well).
It's not a good idea for anyone, and we understand why testing is in place and so forth. Having said that, marijuana is something well within the norm for college students. An athlete has particular obligations, to be sure, but on some level it seems unfair to single athletes out when everyone else is using it.
Still, he knew he wasn't supposed to use drugs and that he would be tested, and how stupid do you have to be to trip the alarm three times? For that matter, it takes a certain level of chutzpah to screw up your college career and then angle for a multi-million dollar job.
It would also be interesting to know when he was tested. We're not sure how it works exactly, but if you give one strike, which seems fair, when were the others?
In other words, did Maryland let him play after more than two tests? Was one post-season?
We'll never know, but when they were taken, it seems to us, is fairly relevant.
Post Stoglin, Maryland is down to just three Gary Williams recruits - Pe'Shon Howard, James Padgett and Ashton Pankey. That's a fast turnover, but presumably Mark Turgeon is happy to have a roster made up mostly of his own guys.
One who is not his recruit is Pe'Shon Howard who managed to get himself into some trouble arguing with the police at a local watering hole after they broke up a fight.
He wasn't in the fight but for some reason got into it with the cops, which wasn't a great idea.
Certainly not fatal though: he'll be back soon enough.