Williams and McLain are dismissed by BC
His patience evidently worn thin, Boston College men's basketball coach Al Skinner last night announced the permanent dismissal of junior starting center Sean Williams and junior reserve forward Akida McLain, dealing a huge blow to the Eagles' chances of making the NCAA Tournament and winning the Atlantic Coast Conference championship.
The troubled duo, both of whom had been suspended at the beginning of this season and last, were let go for an unspecified violation of team rules.
Both players began the season on suspension, with Williams, 20, of Houston, sitting out the first two games and McLain, 20, of Pittsburgh, sitting out nine for another unspecified violation of team rules.
In Williams's case, however, it was believed his transgression was not of a serious nature when his mother, Audrey Garrett, said in November it was unrelated to the nine-game suspension her son served at the beginning of his sophomore season after his arrest by campus police May 20, 2005, for marijuana possession and underage drinking.
McLain was arrested about a week later in Pittsburgh when he and an accomplice were apprehended for passing counterfeit $20 bills at a local convenience store. He served a seven-game suspension at the beginning of last season.
Both players were eventually reinstated after complying with the conditions of their return to school and the team. Williams attended summer classes at the University of Houston and completed a drug counseling program at the John Lucas Resource Center under the personal guidance of the former NBA coach and player who experienced his own substance-abuse problems.
"I talked to Sean earlier today and obviously he's disappointed," Lucas said last night by telephone from Houston. "Hopefully this will be a learning experience for him and whatever happens he'll just have to move on with life. Life is a bunch of startovers and he and Akida will have to start over again."
Skinner and BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo declined to comment on the matter, according to a statement released by the school. Efforts to reach Skinner were unsuccessful.
"I don't know a whole lot about [the situation]," Lucas said. "But from the unspecified [nature of] team rules, Coach Skinner and everybody has a threshold of how many times you can violate a policy procedure until they get rid of you. That's what happens in business and this is what happened in this case.
"I don't know all the facts, but when people run into trouble [repeatedly], they become the Boy Who Cried Wolf," Lucas added. "It's unfortunate because Sean was having a very, very good year and BC was having a very, very good year."
Projected as a potential NBA lottery pick, the 6-foot-10-inch Williams averaged 12.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots in 15 games this season and ranked as BC's career leader in blocked shots (with 193 in 69 games) and was the ACC leader (5.1 average).
He record his first career triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and a career-high 13 blocked shots in a 98-93 overtime loss against Duquesne Dec. 28. It came five days after another high-level performance (19 points, career-high 15 rebounds, 7 blocked shots, 3 steals) in an 84-66 loss against 11th-ranked Kansas at the famed Allen Fieldhouse.
"There's been a lot of special athletes play in this building," Kansas coach Bill Self said of Williams afterward. "But I don't know if we've played against many guys that can block or alter shots like him."
McLain averaged 2 points in two games, severely spraining his right ankle just 4 1/2 minutes into his season debut at Kansas. He returned to the lineup after missing six games to log two minutes in BC's 82-63 victory over Miami Tuesday night at Conte Forum, which kept the Eagles (13-4) atop the league standings with an unblemished 5-0 record.
When BC plays at Clemson Saturday at noon, it will do so without Williams, meaning 6-11 junior Tyrelle Blair, a transfer from Loyola University-Chicago who sat out last season, will be expected to fill the void, as will Shamari Spears, a 6-6 freshman power forward from Salisbury, N.C.
"Hopefully," Lucas said, "BC can continue to go on and Sean and the other young man can move on and start over."
Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com. 
