Marquette's Williams acknowledges player citations

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Marquette coach Buzz Williams confirmed a published report that six Golden Eagles players were ticketed for being in a bar earlier this year despite being not old enough to drink.

Williams said he handled the situation when it happened in January. He did not disclose details of any discipline.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Tuesday that the players were ticketed for being in a Milwaukee nightclub on Jan. 29. There was no indication they were drinking.

The players were freshman guard Todd Mayo, sophomore guard Vander Blue, sophomore forward Jamail Jones, freshman forward Juan Anderson, freshman guard Derrick Wilson and junior guard Jake Thomas.

"That was handled on January 29th with our team, that was a Sunday morning,'' Williams said. "It was handled with our administration on January the 30th.''

Marquette faces Florida in an NCAA regional semifinal on Thursday. Given Williams' stance that the team already has dealt with the situation, the players were expected to be available for the game.

In a Feb. 24 game at West Virginia, Darius Johnson-Odom, Junior Cadougan and Blue sat out the first half because of an undisclosed violation of team rules. Mayo sat out the second half for a similar violation. It is not clear if those punishments were related to the bar incident.

The only part of the published report that Williams seemed to question was that the players weren't given tickets until this month, long after the January bar incident.

"That doesn't add up to me,'' Williams said. "But I'm not in the media, and all I can do is be accountable to our kids. And they've been accountable, and I've been accountable.''