Well by now the news has spread across the college basketball landscape that Chane Behanan has been let go by the Louisville program today. His problems on and off the court have always been very well documented. Chane grew up in the rough inner city of Cincinnati and was able to avoid any kind of real trouble while living there, but still was surrounded by drugs, gangs and other dysfunction. Most thought that when Chane got away from that environment and got with a Coach that would challenge him to be better that he would flourish. Coach Pitino has pushed back and has always challenged Chane to overcome his defense mechanisms learned through that early dysfunction. Today Coach Pitino said that he had violated a “University Policy” and it is unknown at this time what that might be.

I don’t think Chane has lost his way. He is just a kid that doesn’t have any healthy coping skills, problem solving skills or decision making ability. I know that most wouldn’t consider a 21 year old guy a kid but growing up with as much dysfunction that Chane did it slows the developmental stage drastically. I have heard and seen this comment many times over the last few months “you can take the kid out of Cincy, but you can’t take the Cincy out of the kid” and while not the best way to describe this ordeal with Behanan it is a valid point. It is very difficult to erase years of damage created by rough environments. It takes a person to decide that they want to change their past and create a better future for themselves. Chane has said many times that he wants to be the one person in his family that does succeed now he just has to buckle down and make that change. Word is that several schools have already called to acquire the services of Behanan. I would like to see him move up to Minnesota with the younger Pitino. There isn’t much to do to get in trouble there and it snows about 8 months out of the year. Can’t think of a better place for him to go to figure out his life. I will say a extra prayer for Chane tonight and I will always appreciate what he did here.

Where does the Louisville Basketball team go from here? We have seen Coach Pitino work his magic under these circumstances many times in the past and he flourishes in it. He ran a small line-up that took Providence to the Final Four and he has had to work with small line-ups at Louisville. He took Louisville to the Final Four with that 2005 group and didn’t have a huge front-court. He used Kyle Kuric at the Power Forward spot 3 years ago. Looks like small ball will make it’s way to Louisville once again. The Cardinals perimeter pieces give them the ability to go small and use Luke Hancock and Wayne Blackshear as a stretch 4. I can’t wait to see how this all works out and am still very optimistic about how this season could end. We still have the shooters and the players to make this work. Its Gut Check time for our Cardinals… Let’s all make sure we stay behind them and give them the support they will need to overcome this recent shake up. GO CARDS!…