Forward Ian Crosswhite was suspended indefinitely from the Oregon men’s basketball team for violation of team rules, head coach Ernie Kent announced on Wednesday. He did not disclose the details of the suspension.
The 7-foot junior from Castlecrag, Australia, was averaging
8.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game this season. Since Pacific-10 Conference play began on Dec. 31, Crosswhite’s numbers have dropped to 5.5 points and 5.2
rebounds per game. He also leads the team in turnovers with 55.
In the Ducks’ 76-72 loss to Oregon State in Corvallis on Saturday, Crosswhite played 17 minutes and scored two points on 1 of 2 shooting. He grabbed one rebound and had three turnovers.
The 22-year-old Crosswhite has come under much scrutiny for his play this season after seeing a drop in his statistics from a year ago. In his first season at Oregon in 2002-03, Crosswhite averaged 9.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. In 2003-04, his numbers jumped to 12.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.
Troubles for Crosswhite came when he was benched before the Arizona State game earlier this season. As Kent put it, Crosswhite was ineffective, and freshman Maarty Leunen was playing better basketball at the time.
Crosswhite started the next two games but came off the bench against Oregon State.
“As a coach, you feel like you’ve failed when you lose a guy for any reason,” Kent said. “Anytime you go through adversity, I look at the positive side of things.”
This season, Crosswhite was the team’s top returning scorer and rebounder and was looked upon to be a leader for the Ducks, who have no seniors. After receiving a Pac-10 honorable mention last season, Crosswhite dedicated himself this past summer to becoming stronger and spent time in Los Angeles working out with
college and NBA players.
Coming into this season, Crosswhite only needed 303 points to become the 25th men’s player in Oregon history to score 1,000 career points. He was also poised to move into the top six all-time in blocks in Oregon history, needing only 18. He has 12 blocks this season.
As a freshman in 2002-03, Crosswhite earned Pac-10 all-freshman honorable mention after averaging 9.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. He ranked ninth in the Pac-10 in field goal percentage (.519).
The last Oregon men’s basketball player to be suspended was freshman Chamberlain Oguchi, who was
suspended for one game against
Illinois this season for failing to meet team academic requirements. Former duck Andre Joseph was the last
player to be suspended for non-academic issues, missing one game following a post-game tantrum during the 2002-03 season.
Kent did not comment on the length of the suspension, saying only, “I really don’t want to speculate.”

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