Devo had his day in pseudo-court yesterday.  Here we go...

Paul Harris, Rick Jackson, Justin Thomas and Arinze Onuaku.  Those were the other four players with Eric Devendorf when he allegedly hit Kimberly Smith in the face. 

Oh, but that's not even the most "fun" part.

Smith received three text messages from Thomas after the alleged events and they were so...

Sent 12:32 a.m. Nov. 2: "yo kim thanks for taking the time 2 talk 2 me ... i appreciate it ... and i hope u can find it in ur heart to forgive my teammates thanks"

Sent 1:51 p.m. Nov. 2: "XXX ... this is coach boheim number if u or ur family wants 2 call ... and thanks for listening"

Sent 4:56 p.m. Nov. 2: "hey kim its me again ... i just letting u know that i just got out of practice and eric was pretty animate at wanting 2 apologize 2 u and ur family himself but i didn't know if u wanted 2 hear from him so im asking u now if that's ok?"

Well, that's...incriminating.  And I'm rather "animate" about that.

Why oh why did Boeheim getting involved?  Well, according to Jim, he didn't really:

"I said it was fine with me. I never told him to use my number. I don't have a problem with it. If somebody wanted to call me, I'd be glad to talk to them, but I wouldn't call anybody, and she never contacted me or JT," Boeheim said. "But none of this came from Eric, and it didn't come from me."

 Long story short, the board of five students now have five business days "to render a written decision whether Devendorf violated SU's code of student conduct."  If he did, no word on what the punishment might be yet.  But it sounds like he did (imo), so we might not be looking at just a slap on the wrist anymore.

Richard Kesnig, the accuser's lawyer, continued doing his best impression of an outlandish defense attorney on Law & Order, commenting on the way Devo and his lawyer interacted:

Kesnig said when he was in the room during Smith's testimony, he saw Devendorf's lawyer write questions on paper and point at them when he wanted Devendorf to ask them.

"It's as though he had a hand up (Devendorf's) back," Kesnig said.

Dis-bar that man!  Exhanging ideas on a piece of paper...the audacity.  Surely they'd never let you do that in an actual court...except that, they would let you do that in an actual court.  So, um, Richard...you can stop now.

In a bit of decent timing, the Orange don't have a game for more than a week.  So whatever the outcome, the team can just put its head down, practice all week and do its best to move forward.

That said, those test messages imply something really, really bad.  And if any further evidence corroborates it, SU fans shouldn't put too much effort into defending Eric Devendorf further.  Unfortunately, it's looking more and more like he's going to prove his critics right.

SU fans don't really stop to think about how close the Flynn/Scoop/Jackson sexual assault charges came to going to trial.  Maybe we don't want to.   All it would have taken was one piece of circumstantial evidence and the grand jury could have asked for a trial.  It would have changed the course of the entire 2008-2009 season and probably tarnished Jim Boehiem's legacy.  Now, while this incident won't go to court, it's the 2nd time a group of SU basketball players have been accused of assaulting a woman in the last year.  And even if the hard evidence has been lacking, there's a distinct reputation hanging over the program now. 

There's only so many times you can sweep this stuff under the rug before all anyone notices is the rug itself.  I know, Jimmy B is made of Teflon in Syracuse.  But there's only so many times your players can be involved in incidents like this before that wears off.  I'm pretty sure that quota has been hit.  Let's just hope that's it.

Previously:

Please, Please Keep All Women Away From Syracuse Basketball Players....

Devo Gets His Day In "Court"