Six weeks after he was dismissed from the U of L basketball team for a "violation of university policy," Chane Behanan is coming clean about his demons.
While plenty of people had already assumed as much, Behanan officially told Bleacher Report's Jason King that it was repeated marijuana use which led to his dismissal. He said a smoke session in Miami following Louisville's victory at Florida International led to the positive test which resulted in coach Pitino calling Behanan into his office on Dec. 30.
"Even when I went in to give the (urine) sample, I didn't worry," Behanan said. "I thought I'd beat it. But then Coach P called me into his office before practice."
Behanan pauses and shrugs his shoulders.
"And that was it," he said.
...
"I couldn't be mad at anyone but myself," Behanan told Bleacher Report last week. "They had given me opportunity after opportunity.
"I hate that it happened, all of the distractions and the pain that I caused. I hate that it had to come to that for me to realize how big of a problem it had become."
Behanan says he was able to separate himself from drinking and drugs despite growing up in violent neighborhoods in Cincinnati and Bowling Green, but that all changed when he went to college.
Behanan was close with his teammates-but he also had a separate set of friends away from the court. They were "locals," Behanan said, just a group of guys he'd see on weekends that weren't students or even regulars at Louisville's basketball games.
The friends introduced Behanan to marijuana, and it wasn't long before he was purchasing it from them on a regular basis.
Behanan said he began smoking weed regularly, often after a long practice or a tough, physical game-and almost always when he was alone. He didn't want anyone to see him getting high.
Asked if he became addicted to the drug, Behanan said. "I would say so, yes. It's hard to know for sure. But I definitely liked it."
Behanan, though, said smoking marijuana never became a daily habit, that he only did it on occasion.
"It just seemed like every time I did it, I got caught," he said. "I don't know if it was a sign from God, warning me...I don't know."
The entire thing - which ends with Chane saying "I messed up, but I'm not a bad person" - is worth your time. Check it out here.