More than two week before Stanford kicks off its season on the Friday the 13th, the Cardinal is already swimming in bad luck.Head coach Johnny Dawkins suspended star sophomore Jeremy Green indefinitely late Wednesday night, citing unspecified team rule violations. The suspension comes just one week after the team's top freshman, Andy Brown, was lost to the season to an ACL tear.
The school provided no further information on the suspension or its possible length.
Equally unclear is how the Cardinal will replace Green's production.
After Brown's injury last week, Stanford had only eight recruited scholarship players available. Green's suspension reduces that number by one.
A Pac-10 All-Freshman team member last season, Green played in all 34 games while averaging 6.4 points per game and shooting 45.6 percent from 3-point range Green improved as the season wore on. Over his final 10 games, he averaged 7.4 points per game and hit more than half his attempts behind the arc, including six 3-pointers and a career-best 22 points
With the loss of three starters from last year's team, including leading scorers Anthony Goods and Lawrence HIll (one of that duo led the Cardinal in scoring in 30 of 34 contests last year), four-year point guard fixture Mitch Johnson, and a key reserve, Green and senior Landry Fields were expected to provide leadership for the team.
Junior forward Josh Owens, Jones and guard Drew Shiller are the only returning players that averaged more than four minutes of playing time last season.
The Cardinal was expected to be picked near the bottom of the Pac-10 during the league's media day Thursday. Should Green's suspension prove to be of any considerable length, a gloomy season may turn downright scary for the Cardinal.
Stanford opens its season Friday, Nov. 13 at San Diego.
