STORRS Conn. -- Connecticut guard Doug Wiggins was
reinstated to the team by coach Jim Calhoun on Friday, but starting
guard Jerome Dyson remained suspended indefinitely.
The 20-year-old sophomores were suspended Jan. 25, a day after
campus police said they found them in a car in a parking lot with a
bottle of vodka and a bottle of cognac.
Both players were cited for possession of alcohol by a minor.
Wiggins also was charged with operating a motor vehicle with a
suspended license. He is due in court Monday to face that charge.
Campus police said they also found a small amount of marijuana
near the car, but neither player was charged with any drug
violation.
As part of the school's policy, both were given drug tests.
Those results have not been made public, but several published
reports say Dyson tested positive for a second time in his UConn
career and was automatically suspended for 30 days.
"I've seen people put in numerical numbers," Calhoun said.
"As far as I'm concerned, he's indefinitely suspended."
Under the policy, laid out in the student-athlete handbook,
athletes who test positive for street drugs twice during their
career, "will not be allowed to participate in practice or
competition for a period of 30 to 60 days. At the end of this
period, the student-athlete will be retested. If this test is
negative, the individual may be reinstated for both practice and
competition."
Both players missed Connecticut's wins over Indiana and
Louisville, part of a four-game Husky winning streak.
Wiggins practiced Thursday and Friday and will be on he bench
when the Huskies (15-5, 5-3 Big East) play Pittsburgh (No. 21 ESPN/USA Today, No. 18 AP) on Saturday, Calhoun said. That doesn't mean he will play.
"He will dress and I'll go from there," Calhoun said.
"Basically, it will be how I sleep on it. I've been trying to
decide over the last couple of days, and haven't come up with a
decision."
Both players have apologized to their teammates, and are trying
to move forward, said guard A.J. Price, who missed the entire
2005-06 season at UConn after being suspended for his role in the
theft of some laptop computers.
"That's one of the first things that I told [Jerome], that it
would all pass over with time," Price said. "You just have to
give it time, keep your nose clean and just keep being positive and
everything else will just take care of itself."