Some quick hits from the world of college hoops…
**The NCAA has rejected Pitt forward Mike Cook’s request for an extra year of eligibility, according to ESPN.com.
The school appealed to the NCAA after Cook’s senior season ended with a knee injury. Cook played in 11 games before the injury Dec. 20 against Duke. But Cook ended up playing in 34 percent of his team’s games, and NCAA rules permit an extra year only if you have played in 30 percent or fewer of your team’s games.
“Situations like this are hard to take when you know how dedicated Mike’s life has been to playing basketball,” Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said in a statement, noting that Pitt was 40-8 with Cook as a starter.
**Harrison Barnes, a 6-6 junior from Ames, Iowa and Ray McCallum, a 6-1 junior from Detroit, will be at Kansas’ “Late Night in the Phog,” joining Xavier Henry.
**Speaking of Kansas, Markieff Morris is making an impression for the defending national champs, but not the right kind. Morris, a Philly native who played at Apex Academies in Cherry Hill, NJ last year, is accused of shooting an Airsoft rifle BB gun out of his university dorm room, possibly hitting a woman in the courtyard below, according to KUSports.com.
Morris, 18, was issued a notice to appear in court after the incident, which the KU Public Safety office said occurred about 11:15 p.m. Saturday at Jayhawk Towers. The suspect was intoxicated, according to a police report.
A 47-year-old woman from Mequon, Wis., was shot in the arm with a plastic BB in the courtyard of the building, police said. She received minor injuries.
Morris was found in a nearby building, where he admitted to shooting the BB from the window of his residence at Jayhawk Towers, police said.
Officers seized a 3-foot-long black Airsoft rifle, valued at $100, and a medium-sized plastic bag of BBs, a police report states.
**North Carolina guard Ty Lawson pled guilty to underage drinking and driving. Lawson, 20, appeared in court Tuesday after completing community service and other terms of his plea agreement. Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of violating a noise ordinance and driving with a suspended or revoked license. Lawson said he had learned his lesson and promised it wouldn’t happen again.
(Information from The AP was used in this report)
