More input on Kerry Rupp's sacking of four players

Someone familiar with the Louisiana Tech men's basketball program has reached out to us and offered some insight on the dismissal of the four Bulldog players last week by Coach Kerry Rupp.

For a brief recap, Drew Washington, Dwayne Lathan, Orrim Tims and Brandon Mims were dismissed after meetings with Rupp last week. One article on Lathan quoted him as being 'blindsided' and with the decision coming out of nowhere. Lathan's father was also quoted similarly and decried the timing of the decisions.

Here's the link to that article: http://tinyurl.com/4ul3gq

Now here's our interaction with our source -- we have inserted the actual names of the players for clarification purposes:

"The media reports are not entirely correct. Of the four players not returning next season, the junior [Drew Washington] was advised of this decision at the beginning of April due to violation of team rules. His story should not be included in with the freshman.

There is more than meets the eye to every story. Especially stories written by local writers with no love for the local university.

Two of the freshman [Orren Tims and Brandon Mims] had academic issues. One of the two was not eligible to play in spring quarter for Tech -- the last two weeks of conference play and tournament.The other barely squeezed by. The odds of either one of the players staying eligible in such a travel heavy conference as the WAC is not good.

Rupp and staff contacted all of the state colleges before the spring signing period and advised them that the three players would be recruitable athletes once the academic year was finished.

Only one of the freshman is quoted [Dwayne Lathan] in the newspaper article. Not surprisingly, this player is the only one of the three that does not have multiple scholarship offers from in state schools. This player is a much stronger player than the other two. He averaged 11 points and 5 rebounds in conference games (once again as a true freshman). Why would you release a player of that caliber? Why then does he not have a scholarship offer? Shouldn't schools be lining up to receive this transfer? There are the FERPA laws so Rupp and company cannot comment any more than the official statement made to the press. All I know is if there is smoke......."

Okay, there you have have it. We believed the situation 'smelled' when we first came across it (and printed such) but also observed that there was much more unknown than known and that privacy issues were in play about what went down.

The key issue of what was known, by who and when would seem a simple issue to resolve -- if such hasn't already been determined by the above. There should be a number of state college coaches in the state of Louisiana who could obviously verify as to whether or not they received calls from Rupp and his staff.

Extrapolating from that, if the word was out to these Louisiana coaches that the three Bulldog frosh would soon be available to transfer, it makes sense that the freshman had to have some sort of idea or inkling something was up. Otherwise, an 'interest' call from one of the state coaches to any of these kids would certainly raise a ruckus and ruffle some feathers. Now these state coaches may have been told not to pursue any of these guys until the semester was complete but coaches being coaches and recruiting being recruiting...

What have we missed here?