20 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY,JULY 9,2003
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Missouri basketball player violates probation at party
The Associated Press
Floyd said he had befriended the troubled athlete at the request of basketball coach Quin Snyder, and told reporters he would make a similar effort to help any student with problems.
Boone County Circuit Judge Gene Hamilton on Monday canceled a workrelease program for Clemons, after speaking to representatives of the halfway house where the athlete failed to report as scheduled Friday evening.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Suspended Missouri basketball player Ricky Clemons will go from a hospital to jail for violating work-release terms, after wrecking an allterrain vehicle while visiting the university president's home without permission on Independence Day.
Meanwhile, the university president, Elson Floyd, said Clemons told him incorrectly that he wasn't due back to the halfway house until late Friday.
Clemons, 22, was ordered to report to the county jail within two hours of his release from University Hospital, where he remained in fair condition Tuesday suffering from injuries including a punctured lung and broken ribs from Friday night's ATV accident along a gravel road near Floyd's residence.
Clemons pleaded guilty June 13 to misdemeanor assault and false imprisonment of a woman last January.
The woman, who had dated Clemons,
Clemons has so far served 18 days of his 60-day sentence for a conviction arising from a domestic assault case involving a female acquaintance.
He will have to serve the remaining 42 days in the county lockup, Hamilton ordered.
said he choked her and detained her against her will at his Columbia apartment.
Clemons, a 5-foot-11 point guard, was suspended from the basketball team for one year after entering his guilty pleas. But he has another year of eligibility and still holds a basketball scholarship.
The Floyds were hosting a private gathering of family members at Providence Point, the president's official residence just a stroll from the Hearnes Center, where the Missouri Tigers play basketball.
He said Clemons, who arrived on foot, told both Floyds that he was not due back at Reality House until 10:30 p.m. Friday. He was actually required to return by 5 p.m., and had not checked in, officials said.
Flovd said alcohol was not served.
He said Clemons was driving and a visiting 14-year-old boy who is related to the Floyds was riding on the ATV owned by Mrs. Floyd.
The president said he had shown Clemons the brakes and other features of the vehicle.
A university police report said the ATV overturned around 9:45 p.m. on a gravel road near the residence.
The passenger said "the back end started to go from side to side and the next thing I knew, I'm flying through the air," according to the report, which Floyd distributed.
The ATV turned over, Clemons landed in a ditch and the passenger ran for help, the report said.
Clemons was taken by ambulance to the hospital a couple of blocks away. The passenger was treated for a leg injury and released, Floyd said.
DIRECTOR: Perkins wants sports equality
planned to increase attendance at football games next season and make it a major source of income.
"Yes, it would be absolutely hard," Perkins said. "It is going to be a bitch." But, Perkins said, it could be done and the football team was going to be a winner. Everything is possible, he said.
Perkins is going to do everything in his power to ensure that Kansas programs improve. He wants respect from other
schools in the Big 12, even if that means they hate Kansas' winning ways, he said.
For this to happen, Perkins said he would have to make some tough decisions.
"I know at times I will go home at night and say I really hated making that decision," Perkins said. "But if such a decision is made to ensure the success of Kansas, then it will be made."
—Edited by Annie Bernethy