Pat Skerry will be without Towson's top returning scorer for an indeterminate amount of time this season.

The first-year Tigers coach announced Friday that RaShawn Polk, a senior shooting guard from Greensboro, N.C., has been indefinitely suspended for conduct detrimental to the team.

"There is a greater standard of conduct associated with the privilege of being a member of the Towson men’s basketball program,” Skerry said in a news release. “We will not tolerate anyone not living up to their commitment.”

Polk averaged 11.6 points last season, good for third on the team behind Isaiah Philmore (who transferred to Xavier) and Braxton Dupree (who left Towson to pursue a professional career in Israel). After Polk, Towson's most experienced returners are Robert Nwankwo, a senior forward who was academically ineligible last season, and Erique Gumbs, a redshirt sophomore who averaged 3.6 points (12.3 minutes per game) in 30 appearances.

The biggest beneficiaries of Polk's absence could be freshman wing Deon Jones and freshman shooting guard Will Adams, who signed with the Tigers in 2008, was later diagnosed with cancer and eventually beat stage 4B Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Towson opens its season Oct. 29 with an exhibition game against Holy Family.

Baltimore Sun photo of RaShawn Polk by Lloyd Fox / Feb. 27, 2010