So I pulled into a parking spot in the garage across the street from the XL Center today at about noon and who's stepping out of his car two spots over but Jon Mandeldove.

Apparently, big Jon isn't allowed to take the team bus from Storrs to Hartford during his "suspension". While the exact reason for Mandeldove's suspension has never been fully addressed, it apparently has to do with academics. Mandeldove promises, however, that he has straightened things out in that department and will be back in a UConn uniform come January. We'll see.

***Darius Smith was held up at Midway Airport in his hometown of Chicago for 2 1/2 hours on Saturday and missed UConn's practice. He wound up getting into Connecticut around 3 p.m., but not after a slippery landing for a connector in Baltimore that had him scared on an airplane for the first time in his life.