STARKVILLE — Mississippi State announced Friday morning freshman guard D.J. Gardner has been dismissed from the men”s basketball program a little more than six months after signing with the school.
Gardner, a four-star recruit according to Rivals.com, was dismissed for what the school called “repeated actions deemed detrimental to the team.” In the past week, Gardner posted profanity-laced comments about the MSU men”s basketball program and its coaching staff on his Twitter account.
“These b—es tried to f–k me over.. That”s y I red shirted,” Gardner tweeted Thursday. “But I wish my homies a great a– season.. I don”t even know y I”m still here”
According to school spokesperson Gregg Ellis, MSU coach Rick Stansbury will have no further comment on this issue. However, Stansbury”s announcement Thursday that Gardner would be redshirted sparked controversy.
According to Gardner”s mother, Angela, the guard from Okolona has been unhappy with his situation at MSU since he arrived on the Starkville campus.
“This had been brewing for some time with my son and Mississippi State,” Angela Gardner said Friday. “The coaches were not honest with him about his role from the start.”
After Stansbury announced Gardner would be redshirted, the freshman tweeted on his account, @OKOLONAEAST, “I can”t stand liars and that”s all they did since I started being recruited. R.I.p to that contract I signed.” The tweet has since been deleted.
The 6-foot-6 Gardner averaged 32 points and 10.4 rebounds per game last season at Okolona High School. Gardner has declined to speak to reporters about his dismissal.
“It was good he was able to realize some things,” Stansbury said Thursday. “Most of them will fight a redshirt. It”s probably good he was able to evaluate some things and see he has a ways to go and wanted to redshirt.”
Angela Gardner has a different take about why her son wanted the redshirt year. She said he wanted to redshirt so he would have all four years of eligibility remaining when he transferred from MSU after this season.
“He and I had discussed leaving Mississippi State after this year because he was frustrated from all the way back to when they left for Europe,” Angela Gardner said. “I told my son to tough it out and do what the coaches tell you. Then, at the end of the season we”d talk about future plans.”
Gardner is the fourth player to leave the program in the past year. He joins Elgin Bailey, Twany Beckham and John Riek, but Gardner is the first to be kicked off the team.
Since 2005, the MSU men”s basketball team has had 14 players transfer out of the program.
Ravern Johnson complained about his role on the team last season via Twitter following a road loss at the University of Alabama. His action earned the Bulldogs” leading scorer a two-game suspension. Johnson”s tweets last February were re-tweeted by sophomore forward Renardo Sidney.
“It”s a new world we live in with Twitter and all the things you can do on the Internet,” Stansbury said in a statement in February. “After the game last night, we had a frustrated player that gets on Twitter and says things that aren”t appropriate. In the heat of the moment, some young men just don”t understand once they put something out there for everyone to see, there is no taking it back. That”s why I”m banning the use of Twitter at this point.”
When asked Thursday if he would continue the in-season Twitter ban with his players, Stansbury didn”t answer the question.
Angela Gardner didn”t condone what her son tweeted, and was told by Stansbury on Friday that was the reason he was dismissed from the program.
“I don”t condone my son”s language, tone, and attitude on his Twitter account,” Angela Gardner said. “It embarrassed him, me and my family. D.J. was wrong, and that”s not the way I brought him up. He knows there are consequences for his actions, and he”s learning that right now.”
However, Gardner claims a meeting with the MSU coaching staff was scheduled next week where her son”s future with the team was going to be discussed. She said she learned of Stansbury”s decision to redshirt her son by watching the local news.
“Imagine my surprise when I turn on the news and I see on the bottom ticker that D.J. Gardner is being redshirted,” Angela Gardner said. “I immediately called (MSU assistant coach) Marcus Grant. He told me he wasn”t aware any decision on D.J. had been made and didn”t know what I was talking about.”
Gardner, who said he choose MSU over the University of Memphis mostly because of Rodney”s Hood”s decision to come to MSU, scored six points in three games in MSU”s European exhibition tour earlier this month.
When Stansbury announced Gardner would be redshirted, he said Gardner “was behind” physically and socially in his transition to college.
“It didn”t take him long to realize that in practice,” Stansbury said. “It was just a little bit of everything. I think the first time he ever lifted weights is when he got here in June, if you can imagine that.”
Angela Gardner said D.J. wouldn”t finish the semester at MSU, but she insisted her son would return to college as soon as possible.
“They sold him on the idea he would be backup shooting guard in his first season, and that”s why he signed the scholarship with them,” Angela Gardner said. “I”ve already had six or seven coaches call my phone and ask if D.J. will transfer there. Not that I mind, but I don”t even know how they got my number.”
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