By Charlie Leffler
On Thursday afternoon, University of Louisville freshman forward/center Brandon Bender was suspended by coach Rick Pitino from the Cardinal basketball team for a violation of team rules. The incident marks the second suspension that Bender has undergone so far this season.
The suspension comes at a bad time with conference play beginning Saturday at UAB. The 6-9 player would have been helpful in combating the Blazer’s size. For Pitino, playing without Bender will hurt the team. “Not only was he playing better,” said Pitino, “but for conference play he gives us somebody who’s over 6-8 and a legitimate post threat. So this hurts the team pretty significantly.”
Pitino would not go into specifics as to why Bender was suspended. “This is just the growth process of a program,” said Pitino, “and there are a lot of facets in this program that have to be corrected in order to have a program and we’re just correcting them now. I think it’s my job as a basketball coach of young people to make sure they’re not only good basketball players when they leave but good people.”
Bender will still practice with the team but will not be allowed to compete in games or travel with the team.
Pitino said the suspension could be for the rest of the season. “Until I see a significant change in certain areas this is indefinite.”
“I don’t have a whole lot of rules,” said the coach, “but when you’re part of this program it’s a belief that you’re special. And you have to act special, you have to be special, and if you’re not you shouldn’t be part of this program. I want special players and special people. Until I reach that point, unfortunately there’s going to be some battle scars.”
“That’s the good thing about coming back to college basketball,” said Pitino. “You don’t have to sacrifice your principles at any time.”
Bender has played in 10 games to date, averaging 5.5 points and 2.7 rebounds. His best outing of the season was against Ohio State, totaling 11 points, eight rebounds and three assists.
No Stone Unturned?
Now that he has been dismissed from the Wildcat team, former University of Kentucky center Marvin Stone has been quoted as saying that he would be interested in playing for Louisville. Yet, UK released a statement that Stone would not be released from the school to transfer to any school on Kentucky’s schedule.
Still, that does not end speculation that Stone may transfer to Louisville. “The last I heard, unless you heard differently, is that they did not give the release for him to come to the University of Louisville,” said U of L head coach Rick Pitino. “We were contacted. I personally have never met the young man, never talked to the young man, don’t know what he’s all about, don’t know if I’d take him. But if he got a release, which is what I told them, we’d sit down and talk with him. Apparently that’s not the case… so at this point it’s not even worth speaking about because he does not have his release.”
The circumstances surrounding Stone’s exit from Kentucky are not ones that would appear to fit in with Pitino’s disciplined nature. “I don’t even know if I would take this young man,” said Pitino. “I don’t even know if he would want to come here. If I felt I could help that young man and he would benefit by coming to Louisville and the team would benefit and he would buy into what we preach. Obviously he’s leaving Kentucky because of playing time. Not unhappiness with the coaching staff and not unhappiness with the school but not playing enough.”
“Obviously we have a great need for big men,” said Pitino. “I imagine his attraction to U of L is that we have very few big people and he could play a lot of minutes. The reason I’m sure he’s looking at U of L is not to compete against UK. It’s because he looks out there and sees a lot of small people.”
“I would say that the chances of him coming here are remote because he doesn’t have a release.”
