Rick Pitino appeared on The Terry Meiners Show this afternoon and broke the news that Terrence Williams would definitely be returning for his senior season, and that there was "zero" chance of Earl Clark playing another game in a Louisville uniform.
"T-Will's very sensible," Pitino said. "He listens. If he was a first round draft choice, he would have been gone yesterday. He's like a son to me. He needs to stay for his senior year. He's a great athlete, he will be a pro, he will graduate. He's one of the few people in the younger generation that does listen to older, wiser people."
Pitino added that Williams and fellow senior-to-be Andre McGee will be named co-captains for the 2008-2009 season at a press conference sometime next week.
Pitino said that Clark's decision to forgo his final two seasons of collegiate eligibility was made against the advice of his head coach. He said he believed that Clark would be selected somewhere between 18-30 inn this year's NBA Draft, but that he could have been a top seven or eight pick in 2009.
"It's sort of like your son or your daughter when you don't approve of the person their going to marry," Pitino said. "You see all the blemishes and all the possible future problems. They don't see it. They get married, and you hope it turns out to be a good marriage."