Kansas scoring machine Brandon Rush was arrested for not appearing in court to settle several traffic incidents. The guy can drive to the hole but apparently can’t drive a car — among the charges were driving on the wrong side of the road, driving uninsured, speeding, and driving on a suspended license.

I think that if I were as important to my team as Rush is to #3 Kansas, I wouldn’t follow up these boneheaded traffic incidents by not appearing in court to settle them! Kansas coach Bill Self says he will not suspend Rush — probably because he has too much value to the team. That seems boneheaded in itself! I guess if you’re a basketball star in Kansas, you can drive however you want, skip court, post only $500 to get out of jail, and not miss a game. Sweet deal!

Here’s a boneheaded act that got Arkansas State’s leading scorer suspended indefinitely from the team — early Sunday morning, Adrian Banks was arrested for firing a gun in the air several times.  Banks claimed he found the gun at a night club, and he was firing off the shots so that no one would get hurt.  He left the club after a fight broke out and was riding in a car with other players, but why did the bonehead need to empty the gun at that point?  Here were his comments:

“I just really want to say that what happened last night was a stupid incident, it was a mistake,” Banks said. “It was nothing like I was out there shooting at someone or anything. It wasn’t my weapon or anything. I just found the gun, and I was really trying to protect my teammates from anything happening. It wasn’t like I was shooting at someone or was involved in anything. That’s pretty much the way it was. I just want to apologize to my school, my coaches and my parents and everyone involved.”

Whatever dude — the fact that you’re out at 2:30 in the morning firing a gun in the air makes you an idiot.  Enjoy your suspension.

Bobby Knight got in another confrontation? Get out of here! Apparently coach Bob Knight goes hunting wherever the hell he pleases, even if birdshot and pellets invade other people’s private property. The latest fiasco involves a guy named James Simpson who claims he got shot in the neck and back with stray fire. What makes this classic is the VIDEO the guy took of his confrontation with Knight! Back in 1999, Knight also shot a guy in the shoulder while hunting. Check out the video and bask in the beauty of Knight criticizing this guy for his foul language.

I stayed away from this story at first because there was nothing funny or boneheaded about it — this is a horrible incident where 3 people were murdered and several other injured, including Nevada basketball player Tyrone Hanson. But now we know that Hanson violated team policy by choosing to party that night instead of staying in, as he was instructed to do by coach Mark Fox. Hanson was brutally beaten and robbed during this whole mess, and because the bonehead chose to go to this party, he’s off the team. Many more details of the whole incident are covered here.

Another blow to the Missouri basketball program happened Thursday as senior forward Darryl Butterfield was suspended from the team after being arrested for domestic assault. Butterfield was arrested after a dispute with his girlfriend, where he allegedly struck her in the face. Way to be a team player, bonehead.

Any drunk driving arrest by an athlete is boneheaded, but Oklahoma State basketball player Marcus Dove has served his suspension, and now he’s being reinstated to the team. Dove was arrested in July for aggravated DUI, whereafter he was suspended indefinitely. Dove will get a small fine and limited community service and will be back for his senior year with the team.

Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson is in trouble again for recruiting violations. Sampson and other assistant coaches have been violating the limit on calls that can be made to recruits, contacting different recruits illegally on many different occasions. The punishment of these violations was quite severe — Sampson lost out on a $500,000 bonus, the team lost a scholarship spot, and an assistant was banned for a year from recruiting activities. It’s really sad that boneheads like this have to go and mess up the program for everyone else.

Good for Georgia for stressing the importance of actually learning in college. Georgia football and basketball players had the worst graduation success rates in the conference, so the university instituted some stiffer penalties for skipping class, including game suspensions. Well, it delivered a big blow to the basketball team, as their top two returning scorers were among the 3 suspended for the start of the season.

Forward Takais Brown led the team with 14.2 PPG last year. He gets 9 games for boneheadedness. Guard Mike Mercer was not far behind in PPG, but he leads the team in boneheadedness with 15 games. Center Albert Jackson also got suspended for 6 games.

For christ’s sake, these guys must have skipped a lot of class. If you’re a big-time college athlete, or even if you’re not, can’t you at least drag your sorry ass to class on a regular basis?

UPDATE — Brown has been kicked off the team.

Eighteen-year-old guard Bud Mackey was arrested on Friday for drug trafficking! Mackey led his team to a state title in Kentucky last year and is a big-time committed Indiana recruit. How can a high-school stud like this with a really bright future go and throw it away like this? It’s a boneheaded shame.

It’s pretty easy to get kicked off the team with boneheaded acts like this — Tennessee basketball player Duke Crews, a freshman forward last year, had two bags of marijuana in his apartment, which were found by the staff upon an investigation of a loud music complaint.  Coach Bruce Pearl immediately suspended Crews, who played a big role in the team’s success last year.  Not that it’s ever right for a college kid to have drugs in his apartment, but the staff wasn’t even looking for anything suspicious at Crews’ place — next time, try to hide anything illegal a little better!