Senior James Gist and sophomore Landon Milbourne have each been suspended one game for violating an NCAA rule and will miss Sunday’s season opener against North Florida.

Players are not allowed to compete in unsanctioned basketball competition outside of the university, but in April, Gist and Milbourne played in the Maryland State 5-on-5 Tournament in Ocean City.

Coach Gary Williams announced the suspensions yesterday during an afternoon press conference. He said the Terps reported the incident immediately after it happened to the NCAA, which then handed down the one-game suspension.

“They made a mistake,” said Williams, who noted he knew of the incident when it happened. “That’s the one thing you know as a player – you have to play in sanctioned events. Obviously they were swayed by some people that thought it’d be neat if they play.”

Williams was upset with a “source close to the Athletics Department” for leaking the suspensions to members of the media. Williams wanted to wait until Saturday to make the announcement.

“Competition-wise, it’s better if we can announce it Saturday so North Florida wouldn’t know that they had to sit out, because this is a violation that the NCAA doesn’t make an announcement on,” Williams said. “So if we could have waited until Saturday, it certainly would have helped our situation, but a source close to the Athletic Department decided to tell people, so that’s why I announced it [yesterday].”

Players were not made available to the media yesterday.

Gist, the Terps’ leading returning scorer and rebounder, is arguably the team’s best all-around player, while Milbourne was the frontrunner to start at small forward.

“We have to be a little tougher than that, but at the same time, they are really good guys,” Williams said. “They’re good people, and they made a mistake. When you’re 20, 19, you do make mistakes sometimes. This is a mistake they made, but it has nothing to do with their character or any disrespect for anyone, it’s just one of those things. It’s a tough lesson to learn but hopefully they got it.”

During the Terps’ media day on Oct. 11, Gist, a preseason Wooden Award candidate, proclaimed the Terps his team and accepted responsibility as the team’s leader.

“I think what it means to me to be a leader for these younger guys is just to be able to set a positive example to follow,” Gist said at the time. “A leader isn’t somebody that has to do everything perfect; a leader is just somebody who has to set the bar high enough and be able to guide the team to victory and success, and that’s something I want to be able to do.

“I want to help this team win, and one thing I’m doing now to show that is I’m doing everything I need to do as far as on-the-court, off-the-court roles, going to class, bringing in grades and coming in the gym and working out when we’re not in here as a team.

“I feel like I’m responsible for what goes on with the team on and off the court.”

Williams said the suspension will affect Milbourne more than Gist. Milbourne didn’t receive much playing time last season, and Williams was hoping to give him as much early-season experience as possible.

“It’s a shame it’s him that has to miss that game,” Williams said. “He needs games, let’s be serious. He didn’t play a lot last year. So that hurts him more than it probably hurts James Gist. But that’s the way it is.”

The Terps play a preseason game tonight against Concordia, a small university from Montreal. Williams said some of the younger players have a chance to earn minutes for Sunday night’s game, in place of Gist and Milbourne.

“It’s gonna be a little different Sunday night,” Williams said.

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