SEC upset at Alabama 'Fax Cam' that shows female student in skirt
Nebraska signee Todd Peat swayed by license plate

Rick Stansbury bans Mississippi State from Twitter after criticism

Updated

By Brandon Marcello, The Claron-Ledger

Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury has banned the use of Twitter among his basketball team after a message from one of his players criticized the team's performance.

Bulldogs guard Ravern Johnson, less than 30 minutes after the senior spoke with the media about a 75-61 loss to Alabama, sent a critical message across the social networking website Wednesday night:

"Starting to see why people Transfer you can play the minutes but not getting your talents shown because u watching someone else wit the ball the whole game shooters need to move not watch why other coaches get that do not make sense to me"

Johnson scored 10 points and played all 40 minutes in the loss Thursday night.

"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 released Thursday afternoon. "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."

There was no mention of possible punishments or suspensions for players who violate the rule. Johnson was not suspended for his message criticizing Mississippi State after the loss Wednesday night.

Johnson's tweet, which appeared to be a shot at MSU's coaching staff, was re-tweeted by sophomore forward Renardo Sidney, who's had his fair share of controversy on and off the court and, yes, on Twitter. Soon after the re-tweet and a flood of criticism from fans directed to the two on Twitter, Johnson and Sidney deleted their Twitter accounts.

For more on the story, you can read the entire blog item at the Clarion-Ledger.

PREVIOUS
SEC upset at Alabama 'Fax Cam' that shows female student in skirt
NEXT
Nebraska signee Todd Peat swayed by license plate
To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.