Black eye for college sports

The day Indiana University firmly grasped its spot in the national spotlight after its men's basketball team knocked off No. 1 Kentucky.

As great of a game that was, with Christian Watford hitting a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer, something awful happened earlier in the day regarding college sports.

The brawl that took place near the end of the Cincinnati-Xavier game.

With the score 76-53 (Xavier had the lead), punches were thrown, players ran off the bench, melee occurred.

Officials called the game with 9.4 seconds left due to the insane behavior.

As was expected, players received suspensions.

But as a fan of sports, I was hoping to see more.

For Cincinnati, four players received suspensions, including senior Yancy Gates, junior Cheikh Mbodj and freshman Octavius Ellis -- all of whom were hit with six games.

Freshman Ge'Lawn Guyn was suspended for one game.

Gates can be seen in video footage of the brawl with his fists up in air as if he was a heavyweight prize fighter ready to go in for the kill.

Xavier also handed out suspensions. Dez Wells and walk-on Landen Ames each received four games, while junior Mark Lyons was suspended two games and senior guard and All-American candidate Tu Holloway received a one-game suspension.

I saw some of the post-brawl interviews and was quite impressed with Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin, who said he had taken away all his players' jerseys because at the moment, they didn't deserve to wear them.

One day later, Cronin said even though the university handed down the suspensions, the four players would have to "earn their way back onto the team."

Xavier coach Chris Mack has told reporters Holloway's suspension was a direct result of his post-game comments.

"That's what you're going to see from Xavier and Cincinnati," Holloway told reporters. "We got disrespected a little bit before the game, guys calling us out.

"We're a tougher team. We're grown men over here. We got a whole bunch of gangstas in the locker room, not thugs, but tough guys on the court. We went out there and zipped 'em up at the end of the game."

Gangstas? Really?

Every player who elected to get involved in this idiotic brawl is a thug.

This is a horrible black eye on college sports. A black eye that isn't going to go away any time soon.

As far as the suspensions are concerned, I don't think they went far enough.

I believe all eight players should have been kicked out of school, scholarships revoked and no more basketball.

Student-athletes should be examples for their university, not "gangstas" in the locker room.

There is simply no excuse for that kind of behavior, professional, at the collegiate level or any other level.

I've been on the losing end of many bad games, but I never threw a punch and never got involved in a brawl.

It reminded me of watching footage of the Pacers' brawl several years ago, of which Metta World Peace -- formerly known as Ron Artest -- was suspended for the entire season.

These players should have been dealt a similar fate.