By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

UPDATED at 9:45 p.m. and 11:45 p.m., 1/17/07 - See Bottom UPDATE note

ESPN’s Andy Katz was reporting in the 7 p.m. hour on Wednesday night that Boston College juniors Sean Williams and Akida McLain have been dismissed from the Eagles basketball team.

Neither the Globe nor the Herald had anything on the dismissals as of 7:40 p.m. BC men’s basketball SID, Dick Kelley, contacted by Shots shortly before 8 p.m. released this information:

Boston College Media Relations
January 17, 2007

Williams, McLain Dismissed from BC Basketball Team

Boston College Basketball Coach Al Skinner has announced that junior center Sean Williams and junior forward Akida McLain have been dismissed permanently from the team due to a violation of team rules.

Williams had played in and started 15 games for the Eagles this season, averaging 12.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. McLain had played in two games, starting one, averaging 2.0 points and 1.5 rebounds per game. McLain missed six games due to an ankle injury this season before returning to play two minutes against Miami this past Tuesday.

Neither Skinner nor Athletics Director Gene DeFilippo will comment further at this time.

Considering the two student-athletes involved and some of their past transgressions, you can almost be guaranteed that something unseemly has taken place. We’ll have to see whether the Herald (likely to be contributor Jeff Goodman) or Globe (probably beat guy, Michael Vega) is able to dig a bit for tomorrow’s papers (or tonight’s website postings).

Currently undefeated in ACC play, the Eagles have relied on the defensive presence of Williams throughout his playing time this year (which began late after an early-season suspension). McClain, also suspended for a portion of the season, has had trouble bouncing back, but did give Skinner a body off the bench.

UPDATED, 9:45 p.m., 1/17/07
. . . By 9:45 p.m., the news had spread a bit - some two and a half hours after the story broke with Katz’s initial report. AP got its own story up, which the Herald ran with, but the Globe still had nothing (at least not anything prominently displayed that we could find) at 9:48 p.m.

That could mean the Globe has something big and is holding it to make a splash in the paper and during the AM drive, but they do it at the risk of someone like Katz or Goodman jumping into the fray with more details or an interview with Williams or McLain. Already, before 10 p.m., Goodman got with ex-NBA coach (and a figure in Williams’ life) John Lucas, who told Foxsports.com’s Goodman: “They said enough was enough,” said . . Lucas, who worked out Williams last season in Houston. “I’m not sure exactly what he did, but I think he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s going to come back here to Houston.”

Goodman then provided the Herald with this at 10:25 p.m., which was being played on the Herald’s front web page. It is likely the same copy that will appear in most, if not all, Thursday editions of the paper.

UPDATE II: By 11:45 p.m., Vega had posted this (with barely any fanfare) but left users without any way of knowing when it went up on the site (and no new information). May we suggest time stamps, folks? And perhaps a real effort to advance the story, the way Goodman did.

. . . A little bit of our own background work on the topic appears over at CSTV.com’s “Hang Time” blog.