3 Minnesota Basketball Players Reportedly Suspended for Illicit Video

A disappointing season for the University of Minnesota basketball team took another bad turn Sunday when three players were reportedly suspended for a posting on social media.

As Dave Campbell and Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press reported Monday, "Three Minnesota men's basketball players were suspended over the weekend after a sexually explicit video appeared on one of their social media accounts." The three players in question, guards Kevin Dorsey, Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer, were all benched during Sunday's loss at Illinois for a "violation of team rules," according to the report.

"The video was posted Friday on Dorsey's Instagram and Twitter accounts, both of which were disabled about a half-hour later," Campbell and Krawczynski reported. A source told them the three players are not under criminal investigation.

"According to information drudged up by a message board of the team's fans, Dorsey posted two videos to Twitter on Friday of himself and another person having sex with a woman," Mark W. Sanchez of the New York Post added. "The identities of the other parties were unclear."

Head coach Richard Pitino made a statement about the suspensions after the Golden Gophers' loss to the Fighting Illini on Sunday, per Marcus R. Fuller of the St. Paul Pioneer Press:   

"

Obviously, culture and doing what's right is extremely important to myself, our staff and our players. I wake up every day, and I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity that I have to coach in an awesome basketball conference and to coach in a place where I consider my dream job. We're going to do things the right way. Tonight wasn't about wins and losses, it was about making sure our guys understand that this thing is bigger than just basketball. And we're going to do what we believe is right. Unfortunately you may lose the battle, but you're going to win the war. Today was unfortunately not as much about wins and losses but about the culture of our program. That's something we work at every single day. And it's extremely important to what we're all about.

"

Minnesota is 8-20 overall and 2-14 in the Big Ten. It beat then-No. 6 Maryland 68-63 on Feb. 18. Mason is the team's leading scorer, while Dorsey and McBrayer are part of Pitino's rotation:

Player	MPG	PPG	APG	RPG
Nate Mason	32.5	13.8	4.5	2.8
Kevin Dorsey	18.3	6.8	1.4	2.3
Dupree McBrayer	22.7	5.9	2.5	2.3

The Golden Gophers' next game is at home Wednesday against the Wisconsin Badgers. They close the season at the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Saturday.