Pitino Looking at Woods
You may have read where Tony Woods has decided on Louisville as his next destination to play college basketball. I have too. A couple of websites have reported it, without attribution.
As it turns out, Louisville has apparently yet to decide on Tony Woods.
I have a call out to Tony, and I’m hopeful he’ll call back. But I’m not optimistic. His former AAU coach, Norman Parker, told the Louisville Courier-Journal Woods to Louisville? that Woods is not talking with the media. But Parker is, and he’s saying that Woods did indeed visit Louisville this past weekend, and that he would love to play for Coach Rick Pitino.
“He wants to be there,’’ Parker said.
I’d heard that Tim Fuller, a Louisville assistant who was a walk-on at Wake, and who served as director of basketball operations at his alma mater under Skip Prosser, had his eye on recruiting Woods to Louisville. So none of this is out of the blue. What I didn’t know was that Woods, according to Parker, also has an uncle who lives in Louisville.
But the reports that Woods to Louisville is a done deal are apparently premature. Parker said that Pitino is doing his due diligence. I also imagine he’s floating a balloon or two over the fan base and key supporters to how welcoming they would be to Woods, who was convicted of misdemeanor assault against the mother of their son, with whom he lived in Winston-Salem. After being dismissed from Wake Forest by the administrative board of the ethics and honor council (I had it as the student ethics and honor council earlier, but I’ve been informed I was wrong) Woods decided to sever his ties with the university. He asked for his release, which first-year coach Jeff Bzdelik granted.
I had a problem with what Woods did, as I wrote in an earlier blog. But it bears noting that I never had a problem with him personally in my two years of dealing with him. I didn’t get to know him very well, but he was always cooperative and understanding. People make mistakes, and he made his. My hope is that he learns from this experience, and finds a place where he and his loved ones can be happy.
If that’s Louisville, good for him.