UK reverses field, releases Stone to play at Louisville

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Posted 6:01PM on Friday, January 11, 2002

LOUSVILLE, Ky. - Kentucky unexpectedly granted a release to former basketball player Marvin Stone on Friday, allowing him to play for former Wildcats coach Rick Pitino at archrival Louisville. "Coach (Tubby) Smith and I met this morning, and Coach Smith has had a change of heart," Kentucky athletic director Larry Ivy said. "He has agreed, and I also concurred, that we will release him to the University of Louisville." Stone, a 6-foot-10 junior and former McDonald's All-American at Grissom High School in Huntsville, Ala., can be offered a scholarship to play at Louisville after sitting out a season under NCAA transfer rules. He would have one full season of eligibility remaining. Pitino, who coached at Kentucky from 1989-97, has said he would be interested in talking with Stone about joining the program. Stone enrolled as a student at Louisville earlier this week. "This came after a really gut-wrenching few days for Coach Smith," Ivy said. "Marvin's leaving the team after the Christmas break was very, very bad timing. Normally these things don't happen during the middle of a season." Stone never lived up to his pre-college billing, averaging 5.3 points and four rebounds in about 14 minutes in nine games this season. Stone became the first player dismissed in Coach Tubby Smith's five years at Kentucky on Dec. 27 -- only two days before the school's nationally televised showdown with Pitino and Louisville -- when he failed to return from the holiday break.