Seton Hall kicks two players off team

Published Feb. 12, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Seton Hall has dismissed seniors Keon Lawrence and Jamel Jackson from its basketball team.

Coach Kevin Willard announced the moves on Saturday, hours before the Pirates were to play at Big East rival Rutgers. He said the decision was made ''due to a violation of team rules and an ongoing pattern of conduct unbecoming of a representative of Seton Hall athletics.''

Lawrence, of Newark, played in all 24 games, averaging 4.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists. He transferred from Missouri in 2008.

Jackson, of Brooklyn, played in 19 of 24 games, averaging 4.6 points and 1.2 rebounds.

The dismissals brought back memories of last season when the Pirates' program was riddled with problems on and off the court that led to the firing of coach Bobby Gonzalez despite a 19-win season.

That season ended with forward Herb Pope being was ejected from an NIT game for hitting a Texas Tech player below the belt, and Gonzalez picking up his seventh technical foul of the season.

When Willard was hired less than two weeks later, the school said it had expectations as to how coaches and players would conduct themselves.

Before last season started, Lawrence was involved in a traffic accident on the Garden State Parkway in which he was driving in the wrong direction, seriously injuring the driver of the other vehicle.

Lawrence was charged with assault by auto and driving with a suspended license, and was suspended for the first eight games of the season.

Gonzalez also threw forward Robert Mitchell off the team late in the season and the former player was arrested shortly after that and charged with entering a house in South Orange and robbing eight people at gunpoint.