UK reverses field, releases Stone to play at Louisville

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. <br> <br> &#34;Coach (Tubby) Smith and I met this morning, and Coach Smith has had a change of heart,&#34; Kentucky athletic director Larry Ivy said. &#34;He has agreed, and I also concurred, that we will release him to the University of Louisville.&#34; <br> <br> Stone, a 6-foot-10 junior and former McDonald&#39;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. <br> <br> 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. <br> <br> &#34;This came after a really gut-wrenching few days for Coach Smith,&#34; Ivy said. &#34;Marvin&#39;s leaving the team after the Christmas break was very, very bad timing. Normally these things don&#39;t happen during the middle of a season.&#34; <br> <br> 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. <br> <br> Stone became the first player dismissed in Coach Tubby Smith&#39;s five years at Kentucky on Dec. 27 -- only two days before the school&#39;s nationally televised showdown with Pitino and Louisville -- when he failed to return from the holiday break. <br> <br> <br>

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