Louisville head coach Rick Pitino caused a bit of a stir last week when he noted on his website that freshmen-to-be Wayne Blackshear and Kevin Ware had not arrived on campus and were finishing up some classwork in their respective home towns. Partly due to a handful of recent instances where players headed to the Derby City ultimately failed to qualify, Cardinal fans subsequently had a mild freakout.
The bulk of the paranoia was directed at the eligibility of Blackshear, an elite high school scorer who figures to come in and compete for a starting position right away. The fact that Pitino recently offered a scholarship to a player (Andrew White) who could have reclassified and been eligible to play during the 2011-2012 season (one U of L is supposed to have zero available scholarships for) did little to calm nerves.
Now, a story in this morning's Chicago Tribune confirms that Blackshear is in summer school in Chicago satisfying a core requirement in order to qualify academically. Fear not, however, as Blackshear's high school coach Nick Irvin says the McDonald's All-American will be on campus shortly.
"He should be there in two weeks," Irvin said. "He has one class to finish, then he should be good to go. He should finish with a 2.8 (GPA). He had a core class he had to finish because he transferred (to Morgan Park) from Curie."
Wayne, anything to add?
Can't wait.
And I didn't type that with the Bart Scott voice in mind. Don't read it like that. Read it like...Jeremy Irons.