Tuesday Quick Hits: MSU Suspends Conboy, Tropp for Rest of Season

By Sean · Tuesday, January 27, 2009 · 5:55 AM |  Share | 1 Comment 

• Michigan State head hockey coach Rick Comley has suspended Andrew Conboy and Corey Tropp, the two players that assaulted Steve Kampfer during Saturday’s game, for the remainder of the season. Although I still think both players should be kicked off the team altogether, this suspension is more than I expected. I credit Comley for making this move, but I still hope these two never see the ice again in college, at least in the state of Michigan. If they are out there next season when Michigan and Michigan State play, I would be willing to bet that things will get very ugly.
• The CCHA supports MSU’s decision to suspend Conboy and Tropp for the rest of the season, so they will not be doing anything discipline-wise it would appear.
• A new video of the incident has been uploaded to YouTube and gives us a longer look at how things unfolded.

• Red Berenson confirmed that Steve Kampfer’s father, Bruce, was the one that confronted Tropp in the MSU locker room following the on-ice incident. Bruce Kampfer apologized to Berenson for his actions, and Michigan associate athletic director for media relations Bruce Madej explained how Kampfer’s father gained access to the locker room.
• Steve Kampfer hopes to get back on the ice by Wednesday at the latest. He still has to go through a couple more tests before being cleared to practice, but Kampfer seems confident he will return to the ice shortly. It still doesn’t seem clear if he will play against Notre Dame this weekend if he does in fact return to practice, but you would certainly think he will be ready to go if he can get on the ice this early in the week.
• No one from MSU has contacted Steve Kampfer to apologize, though he doesn’t want an apology from them anyways.
• Michigan Hockey Net tore apart The State News’ (MSU’s student newspaper) recap of Saturday’s game that actually insinuated that Kampfer’s check on Tropp at mid-ice wasn’t clean (it was) and also worried more about what Michigan fans were chanting rather than the actions of Conboy and Tropp. What’s even worse is that the article wasn’t even accurate when recounting the chant. For starters, it was “F*** You State” not simply “F*** State.” Also, fans were not chanting that when Kampfer got off the ice. The F-you State chant lasted approximately 20 seconds, as the crowd began chanting “Sore Losers” soon after. And when Kampfer was taken off the ice, fans were chanting his name, not F-you State.
• MVictors has the audio of Michigan associate head hockey coach Mel Pearson’s interview on WTKA yesterday. As expected, Pearson talked about the Kampfer incident, and he also mentioned that Mark Mitera is “probably a couple weeks away” from returning, which is pretty remarkable. It would be great to get him back from his ACL injury at all, so the fact that he may return before the end of the regular season is truly awesome news.
• Audio of defensive coordinator Greg Robinson’s interview can be found over on WTKA’s website.
• The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review talked about LaMarr Woodley and Steve Breaston and how they will play each other in the Super Bowl.
• Greg Mattison, who was a defensive line coach at Michigan in the 90s, was promoted to Ravens defensive coordinator yesterday.
• The Mountain West wants to become a BCS conference.
• Duke is now ranked #1 in both basketball polls following a 40-point win over Maryland. The Blue Devils’ only loss this season is to Michigan, as Duke is currently 18-1.