Van Treese wasn't going to play anyway.. Why not suggest he go somewhere that he would actually be used. Same with Buck. Love the kid, but he's been hurt, and honestly I don't think he's worth tying up a scholly for two more years, if that were to be the case.

 

That's still shady business if you ask me. You can't sit in a kids living room and tell his parents I want you to be a part of this team and University, yata yata yata, and then turn around a couple years later and pull your scholly because somebody better came along and you have to make room. Buckles is definitely a sad case. He was a pretty big recruit coming in for Pitino a couple of years ago, but now after injury it is like he is no good to Pitino. I mean there is zero loyalty there. Kid comes in, gets hurt, and instead of support he gets pushed out the door. Same for Stephen Van Stink, sure he may not be the player Pitino wanted him to be, but you still can't just pretty much say Stephen you gotta go because you suck and we found someone better. They're not the only two, but just the most recent two. Swop and others are also victims of and this as well. Swopshire gave four years and everything he had to UL, but they cannot give him one last season.

 

There's no way Rick Pitino can ever go into a recruits home again and claim he is going to be there for them, because obviously he's not. In fact, its like he could care less. He had zero regard for his scholarship situation, and since he is the one who over recruited his team he should be the one to pay for it, not the kids. Look no further than Calipari and Jon Hood. Most people would be fine with Cal letting go of Hood and replacing him with a 5 star guy. However, that's just not good business. Calipari has stuck behind guys like Hood, Harrellson, etc. when he could have easily recruited over them and lead their way off the team or at least off scholarship. There are a couple of guys Calipari could add to his roster every season just for the sake of adding some players who may be able to develop into some decent players down the road. However, he chooses not to do so in order to save scholarships and not get into this type of situation. Rick on the otherhand the last few years just signs wide open regardless of how many scholly's he has to work with. That is showing a blatant disregard for all of the guys who are already on the team and who have already went through the process of earning a scholarship.

And can't shoot a jumper.[/quote

 

True.

That's still shady business if you ask me. You can't sit in a kids living room and tell his parents I want you to be a part of this team and University, yata yata yata, and then turn around a couple years later and pull your scholly because somebody better came along and you have to make room. Buckles is definitely a sad case. He was a pretty big recruit coming in for Pitino a couple of years ago, but now after injury it is like he is no good to Pitino. I mean there is zero loyalty there. Kid comes in, gets hurt, and instead of support he gets pushed out the door. Same for Stephen Van Stink, sure he may not be the player Pitino wanted him to be, but you still can't just pretty much say Stephen you gotta go because you suck and we found someone better. They're not the only two, but just the most recent two. Swop and others are also victims of and this as well. Swopshire gave four years and everything he had to UL, but they cannot give him one last season.

 

There's no way Rick Pitino can ever go into a recruits home again and claim he is going to be there for them, because obviously he's not. In fact, its like he could care less. He had zero regard for his scholarship situation, and since he is the one who over recruited his team he should be the one to pay for it, not the kids. Look no further than Calipari and Jon Hood. Most people would be fine with Cal letting go of Hood and replacing him with a 5 star guy. However, that's just not good business. Calipari has stuck behind guys like Hood, Harrellson, etc. when he could have easily recruited over them and lead their way off the team or at least off scholarship. There are a couple of guys Calipari could add to his roster every season just for the sake of adding some players who may be able to develop into some decent players down the road. However, he chooses not to do so in order to save scholarships and not get into this type of situation. Rick on the otherhand the last few years just signs wide open regardless of how many scholly's he has to work with. That is showing a blatant disregard for all of the guys who are already on the team and who have already went through the process of earning a scholarship.

 

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120622/SPORTS02/306220060/Rakeem-Buckles-said-his-decision-leave-Louisville-basketball-FIU?odyssey=nav%7Chead

 

"

“This was purely my decision,” Buckles said. “I actually came up to him and told him I was going to make that move. He respected me, obviously, because I’m going to play for his son. I could have stayed.”

 

Stephan Van Treese Will Transfer From Louisville - Card Chronicle

 

"Van Treese's father told Daniels that his son has already applied for, and received, his release from U of L."

While the new signees were probably a major influence on the decisions, let's not make it sound like Pitino held a gun to their head and told them to get out... In the case of Buckles, that absolutely wasn't the case. And with Van Treese, from what I've been told, went to Pitino about the situation, and they decided him transferring would be best for him.

There's chatter tonight that Van Treese isn't leaving...

There's chatter tonight that Van Treese isn't leaving...

 

Just saw a tweet from Drew Deener to that same effect. I'd love it if he stayed.

SVT is staying. The plan was for him to drop to Bellarmine for a year and then use the graduate and transfer rule to come back to UofL or another D-I school. Van Treese and hs family started looking to play D-I immediately on a waiver, which wasn't what Pitino wanted. When Rock decided to go to FIU to play for Richard, that opened a scholarship back up, and now he's back.

 

Here's the whole timeline, for the Kentucky fans that have understandably not been following it this closely:

 

SVT is injured at the start the season, rehabs poorly, and doesn't make it back on the floor for the rest of the year. Pitino, if you followed his comments about Van Treese, is increasingly miffed that he's not going to play as the season went on. I think there was clearly some friction about when SVT was ready to play. Lord knows Louisville needed a better backup 5 option last season than Swop. See the Final Four match, when Dieng was clearly intimidated by Davis early and Pitino had no one to substitute in.

 

So SVT plays basically not at all last season, and Pitino is maybe not thrilled with the kid. Then Harrell becomes available, and Louisville has a significant shot because of previous relationships.

 

Harrell, who the staff considered underrated (and now the general scouting consensus about the kid has swung that way, too much so in my opinion because while he's got physical tools, he's raw and I think he's going to need time) shows serious interest. Pitino goes to his two injured big men, Buckles and SVT, and lays out a course for each of them:

 

SVT can transfer down to Bellarmine, play big minutes for a solid program, and then either come back or go elsewhere with a degree.

 

Buckles can stay, rehab, not play much when he does come back in a year and start on a head coaching career, or can go home to FIU with Richard (Buckles is from Miami,) rehab a year, play significant minutes, pursue a career overseas and then start a coaching career.

 

Pitino's preference, in my opinion, was for Buckles to stay. But then Buckles decides to go home and SVT starts considering other options, and that brings us up to speed.

SVT is staying. The plan was for him to drop to Bellarmine for a year and then use the graduate and transfer rule to come back to UofL or another D-I school. Van Treese and hs family started looking to play D-I immediately on a waiver, which wasn't what Pitino wanted. When Rock decided to go to FIU to play for Richard, that opened a scholarship back up, and now he's back.

 

Here's the whole timeline, for the Kentucky fans that have understandably not been following it this closely:

 

SVT is injured at the start the season, rehabs poorly, and doesn't make it back on the floor for the rest of the year. Pitino, if you followed his comments about Van Treese, is increasingly miffed that he's not going to play as the season went on. I think there was clearly some friction about when SVT was ready to play. Lord knows Louisville needed a better backup 5 option last season than Swop. See the Final Four match, when Dieng was clearly intimidated by Davis early and Pitino had no one to substitute in.

 

So SVT plays basically not at all last season, and Pitino is maybe not thrilled with the kid. Then Harrell becomes available, and Louisville has a significant shot because of previous relationships.

 

Harrell, who the staff considered underrated (and now the general scouting consensus about the kid has swung that way, too much so in my opinion because while he's got physical tools, he's raw and I think he's going to need time) shows serious interest. Pitino goes to his two injured big men, Buckles and SVT, and lays out a course for each of them:

 

SVT can transfer down to Bellarmine, play big minutes for a solid program, and then either come back or go elsewhere with a degree.

 

Buckles can stay, rehab, not play much when he does come back in a year and start on a head coaching career, or can go home to FIU with Richard (Buckles is from Miami,) rehab a year, play significant minutes, pursue a career overseas and then start a coaching career.

 

Pitino's preference, in my opinion, was for Buckles to stay. But then Buckles decides to go home and SVT starts considering other options, and that brings us up to speed.

 

What about Swopshire, Justice and the others? I realize Justice may not have been on scholarship.

 

 

 

Still doesn't justify over recruiting...... You can say what you want and all sounds great, but fact of the matter is more guys came along that could help the team so somebodys got to go. Too many players for the 13 scholarhsips your allowed, so best interests of the kids taken into account or not, hes still telling guys to go to make room. I can see this problem with a coach coming to a new team, but for a coach who has been at the same school for a decade, there shouldn't be this type of scholarship situation, especially with the rate he has been recruiting over people.

Swopshire and his family have been adamant that they were more than OK with the situation. Swopshire got four years with the program and a degree, same with Goode (which is who I assume you mean by others.) In fact, Goode only had another year because he didn't qualify coming out of high school and drew Pitino's ire by basically taking that year off. Goode was NEVER getting another year at UofL.

 

Justice, as a walk-on, doesn't even factor into any of this. He wanted to play, and do so in front of his family.

 

Buckles is going to sit out next year after having already missed most of the past two. I'm skeptical that he will ever play again, but he wants to make a go out of it, and so he's going somewhere where he has a chance.

 

The only player that had anything approaching a gripe IMO was SVT. And even that was mitigated by the fact that Pitino clearly had a plan for him to spend a year in the minors (so to speak) and come back for his senior season. Now that SVT is back on the team, I don't have a problem with any of it.

What about Swopshire, Justice and the others? I realize Justice may not have been on scholarship.

 

 

 

Still doesn't justify over recruiting...... You can say what you want and all sounds great, but fact of the matter is more guys came along that could help the team so somebodys got to go. Too many players for the 13 scholarhsips your allowed, so best interests of the kids taken into account or not, hes still telling guys to go to make room. I can see this problem with a coach coming to a new team, but for a coach who has been at the same school for a decade, there shouldn't be this type of scholarship situation, especially with the rate he has been recruiting over people.

 

If it comes down to two guys who have been injured for a significant duration of their career, tying down schollies for possibly six years, and two incoming FRESHMEN, I'm taking the frosh, 9 times out of 10. It's pretty simple to me... Had Buck and SVT been healthy, there wouldn't have been any issues...

Why, when it involves Rick Pitino, post-UK, does intent ALWAYS have to be portrayed as nefarious?

Why, when it involves Rick Pitino, post-UK, does intent ALWAYS have to be portrayed as nefarious?

 

I don't care if it's Pitino at UL or whoever wherever, its still over recruiting and it still sends a bad message. I have never been the typical UK despise everything about Rick Pitino fan, I like Rick. I have always took up for him and never understood the extent of hate UK fans gave him for going to UL. However, he has done some things lately that are hard to justify. Louisville fans will argue to the death, but fact of the matter is Rick isn't putting out the vibe that he's there for his players or that he has the players' best interest in mind. He's not there for his players I guess you can say. The Chris Smith twitter statement and other incidents have helped to further that thought.

I don't care if it's Pitino at UL or whoever wherever, its still over recruiting and it still sends a bad message. I have never been the typical UK despise everything about Rick Pitino fan, I like Rick. I have always took up for him and never understood the extent of hate UK fans gave him for going to UL. However, he has done some things lately that are hard to justify. Louisville fans will argue to the death, but fact of the matter is Rick isn't putting out the vibe that he's there for his players or that he has the players' best interest in mind. He's not there for his players I guess you can say. The Chris Smith twitter statement and other incidents have helped to further that thought.

 

By "lately," do you mean like pushing Rodrick Rhodes out the door?

By "lately," do you mean like pushing Rodrick Rhodes out the door?

 

No I mean the 5-6 guys he has in the last two months, as well as guys who have played for him last couple of seasons putting him on blast for not being there for them.

No I mean the 5-6 guys he has in the last two months, as well as guys who have played for him last couple of seasons putting him on blast for not being there for them.

 

I must be out of the loop... What instances are you talking about?

No I mean the 5-6 guys he has in the last two months, as well as guys who have played for him last couple of seasons putting him on blast for not being there for them.

 

That's not quite my point, but OK. I was more noting that scummy behavior by Pitino is not a new thing. Facts are, Kentucky fans didn't much care about said behavior when he was in Lex. I find it interesting that they get all worked up about it now.