A report early this morning from Fox Sports' Jeff Goodman states that Louisville forward Samardo Samuels has told Rick Pitino he plans to make himself available for this summer's NBA Draft and that he will sign with an agent this afternoon.
Neither Pitino nor Samuels are quoted in the story.
Samuels improved in nearly every statistical area in his sophomore season, but his lack of desire to defend or rebound drew criticism from both his head coach and the fan base. He scored a career-high 36 points in a double overtime victory over Notre Dame on Feb. 17.
Samuels is not listed on any of the mock drafts floating around the Internet, so there's little insight as to where he might be drafted or whether or not he'll be drafted at all.
Obviously - if the report is accurate - this is a huge blow to Louisville's 2010-2011 season, but I think it's an even bigger blow to Samardo's dream of playing a game for a great deal of money. Simply put, the man needs two more years in college.
Goodman didn't say whether or not Pitino would be addressing this matter at some point today, but he did say that it's April Fool's Day and that Mike Rutherford of CardChronicle.com had made every word of this post up.
If you didn't catch this one when you saw the title, then I'm ordering you to eat one of those new shrimp tacos from Taco Bell for lunch. And now I'm throwing the following out there just for people who saw the title and skipped down to the last line.
Obviously, we'll have more on this as it develops throughout the day.