Markieff Morris involved in traffic accident
LAWRENCE, Kan. ? Kansas University men’s basketball player Markieff Morris was involved in a two-car accident last month. According to a Lawrence police report, the car Morris was driving belonged to former ku player Scot Pollard.
At 1:14 a.m., on Sunday, Sept. 13, a city police officer was dispatched to Tennessee and 17th streets in Lawrence ? the scene of a two-car, non-injury accident.
According to the report, a 1997 Chevrolet Tahoe, operated by current Jayhawks player Markieff Morris, 20, was traveling south on the right side of the two-lane street. Morris said he was preparing to make a left turn onto 17th, but as he did, he struck the rear passenger door of a 2004 Pontiac Grand Am that was just ahead and to the left of Morris.
Though the report listed damage at or equal to $1000 to the Grand Am, Morris, three passengers in the Tahoe (a 20-year old male and two females ages 16 and 22) and two females in the Grand Am denied medical attention.
The responding officer indicated that there were no visible signs of impairment.
It is unclear whether Morris’ driving a car reportedly owned by a former Kansas player violates NCAA rules regarding improper benefits.
As of early Wednesday afternoon, a call to ku Associate Athletics Director for External Relations Jim Marchiony had not been returned; nor had an email to University of Kansas Compliance staff.
On Oct. 11, the men’s program, along with the football and women’s basketball team, is scheduled to conclude a three-year probation ? the result of the NCAA’s finding and ruling in April 2006 that the teams previously were operating under a “lack of appropriate institutional control.”
Recently, negative headlines, including a series of on-campus fights between the men’s basketball and football teams, as well as guard Brady Morningstar’s arrest last weekend for suspicion of DWI, have surrounded the program. Morningstar has been suspended until the second semester by head coach Bill Self ? a punishment handed down hours after the arrest news was made public.
Markieff Morris was one of several basketball players named as having been involved in the football/basketball altercations. Last December, Morris accepted a diversion agreement in Douglas County after pleading not guilty to shooting a woman with a BB gun from his apartment window in August.
Kansas has been tabbed No. 1 in several preseason polls and will open its season at home on Nov. 3 against Fort Hays State.
