Duke Crews, who a played basketball the past two seasons with Tennessee and was a consensus top-10 player in high school, made a one-day unofficial visit with the Charlotte 49ers on Monday, the Observer has learned.
Crews' visit included a meeting with Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz and a visit with some of the players who remain on campus this summer.
Crews, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound sophomore forward from Hampton, Va., previously said he planned to transfer in the fall and the 49ers and Pittsburgh were his top two choices. Sources said Crews has added Southern Cal to the short list of schools he is considering.
Neither Charlotte nor Pitt has a scholarship available and Crews would have to pay his own way his first season, during which he would not be eligible to play anyway. USC, however, does have an available scholarship.
Crews and point guard Ramar Smith were dismissed from Tennessee on May 2 by coach Bruce Pearl citing violations of unspecified team rules.
A story in May by the Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel cited violations of the university's substance abuse and academic shortcomings as contributing to both players' departures, but the Observer last month was shown Crews' official release from Tennessee, which states Crews was in good standing academically and did not violate any university or NCAA substance abuse policies.
Since Crews would be a transfer, he has not set timetable to announce a decision. He could wait until the final day to enroll at a school for fall semester if he so chose.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Former Tennessee player visits 49ers
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6 comments:
What team rules did he violate? I would worry about some head case getting on the team and ruining the chemistry.
His violation had to do with drugs. Pearl knew what was going on and had previously given Crews some guidelines/goals he was to abide by after drugs were found in his apartment last fall. Obviously he did not live up to his part of the deal, and is gone.
This is the article citing his first offense which the guidelines were set after ... Marijuana linked to Crews
Hope this gets him away from the wrong group of people and can be a positive for him.
However, Crews' release from Tennessee states he failed no drug tests for the university or ncaa. I doubt a school would be willing to lie about that. - Jim
You don't have to have a drug test by the University or NCAA to know a student athlete is smoking marijuana. He can be caught red handed. If Pearl had set the team rules and Crews' goals to not smoke marijuana and he was caught doing it then he is off the team for violation of team rules.
Coaches do not have to let the University or NCAA become involved by allowing the practice to continue until they are caught by one of the above institutions.
The article, however, said he had failed a drug test. So either the newspaper is wrong or the university lied. - jim
He failed a drug test, but not at the time of his dismissal. The failed drug test occurred about a year and a half before his dismissal. The University of Tennessee usually goes by a three strikes and you're out in regards to testing positive for marijuana. He was not allowed to reach this and instead was dismissed from the University for violation of team rules.
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