Jared Swopshire will spend his final year of eligibility playing for the Northwestern Wildcats, according to C.L. Brown of the Courier-Journal.
Swopshire will graduate from U of L next month and will be able to play at Northwestern immediately, per NCAA rules.
"The opportunity is there for him to start," Teddy Swopshire said. "He's replacing (John) Shurna, so that's the style he's going for from an offensive and a playing style standpoint."
Ok, I'm just going to stop right here and say that the fact that Swop's dad is named "Teddy Swopshire" makes me even more upset that he's leaving. Seriously, "Teddy Swop." I feel like I've been robbed of an invaluable possession.
Swopshire has consistently stated that he has no issue with U of L not having a scholarship available for him next season, a stance his father reiterated on Thursday.
"He was there for four years," Teddy said. "He's got two Big East (tournament) championships, a Final Four appearance, and Elite Eight appearance, a conference (regular season) championship and he's graduating."
Northwestern is the lone BCS program to have never made the NCAA Tournament, a fact which Swopshire now has the opportunity to change in his final season of college basketball.
One of my older brothers attended Northwestern, and as a result I've been a tertiary Wildcat fan for about as long as I can remember. That level will only increase with Swop, who just might be the nicest person to ever don the Louisville jersey, thrown into the fold.
Unlike with George Goode at Fairleigh Dickinson last season, Northwestern is high-profile enough and on television enough for us all to be able to follow along relatively closely. I'd be thrilled if he could help guide the Cats into the big dance for the first time.
Also, not a bad place to start working on a graduate degree. Congrats to both Swop and Northwestern.
Oh yeah, definitely.