Chris Jones’ mercurial career as a member of the University of Louisville men’s basketball team appears to be over.
The 5-foot-10 senior point guard has been ousted from the squad, according to a two-sentence statement released Sunday afternoon.
“Chris Jones has been dismissed from the University of Louisville men’s basketball team. There will be no comment on the matter,” said the release sent out by Sports Information Director Kenny Klein.
Jones averaged 13.7 points, four rebounds and 3.6 assists - and also had a team-best 53 steals - in 26 games for the Cardinals this season.
He was suspended for last Wednesday’s game at Syracuse, but was reinstated late in the week and returned to the court Saturday for UofL’s 55-53 win over Miami (Fla.) at the KFC Yum! Center.
Jones scored 17 points - 14 in the second half - off the bench in UofL’s comeback victory. He was 6-for-13 from the field, including 3 for 8 from 3-point range, and 2 of 3 from the free throw to go along with five rebounds, two steals, two assists and three turnovers in 36 minutes.
“I had a couple players a while ago that were a problem, and I didn’t like coaching them,” UofL coach Rick Pitino said afterward. “The reason I didn’t like coaching the was not the problems that they brought me, but because they didn’t work hard. I can deal with problems. We’ll try to correct them and try to get them to own up and be a Louisville man. What I don’t like is when somebody doesn’t work hard at their game. Chris works hard at his game. All the time. That’s why I appreciate him. Is it fun to coach him? Not like Russ Smith - there’s not a lot of laughter coaching him. You appreciate how hard he works, so you give him some latitude when things don’t go well and he comes out of the game. He came out of the game tonight and actually didn’t pout for the first time, which was awesome. He just sat down, I said, ‘You ready to go in?’ and he said, ‘Yes.’ Now we took the next step.”
Apparently, though, Jones had another misstep in the time between Saturday’s game and Sunday afternoon.
With Jones gone, the point guard duties likely fall to Quentin Snider. The freshman guard, who scored 13 points in last week’s loss at Syracuse, started his second straight game Saturday but played only five scoreless minutes against the Hurricanes.
Louisville (21-6, 9-5), which is No. 12 in both national polls, plays at Georgia Tech (12-15, 3-12) at 7 p.m. Monday night on ESPN.
Photo courtesy University of Louisville Men’s Basketball Facebook Page
