Gary Parrish: Elliot Williams, Matt Pilgrim appear headed to Memphis
Guy | Jun 27, 2009 | Comments 9
Yesterday I wrote about how Duke transfer Elliot Williams and Matt Pilgrim were both possibilities for UK’s 13th scholarship. It now appears that Josh Pastner and Memphis could end up with both, according to Gary Parrish.
Memphis was the favorite for Williams’ services as soon as he announced he was transferring to play closer to home to spend more time with his sick mother. It was the one place where he was almost assured that he would be granted a hardship waiver from the NCAA so he could play next season. Besides, he is already familiar with the school and Pastner.
Parrish reports that an official announcement will come next week.
Also, in an ironic turn, it looks like Matt Pilgrim will also head to John Calipari’s former stomping ground to play for the Tigers. Lately, speculation about Pilgrim’s status has been rampant, as he has been scrimmaging with the team even though his departure was widely confirmed, although unannounced.
It now looks like the reason for the delay was that John Calipari was trying to help Pilgrim determine his next destination:
This development is interesting because Pilgrim transferred from Hampton to Kentucky after the 2007-08 season, sat out last season per NCAA transfer rules and was expected to play for the Wildcats in 2009-10. But that all changed when John Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky, oversigned and thus needed to move players out of the program to allow his six incoming freshmen to enroll.
One of the players moved out was Pilgrim.
He did not want to leave.
And that’s one of the reasons why sources told CBSSports.com that Calipari is working with new Memphis coach Josh Pastner to make this likely transition go as smoothly as possible. According to sources, Calipari and Pastner have been in contact, and Calipari has told Pastner he will not only release Pilgrim to Memphis, but that he will back Pilgrim’s expected request of a waiver that, if granted, would allow Pilgrim to play for the Tigers this season.
I think this goes to show you that even when Calipari has to make hard decisions about his players, he’s still going to do everything he can to put them in a position to succeed. Pilgrim’s situation is not ideal, but Calipari is doing what he can to help him deal with it.
As we saw John Calipari leave Memphis and most of the recruiting class at the school dissolve, it looked like Memphis run was over. Josh Pastner seems hellbent on not allowing that to happen. Pastner is going to be a force on the recruiting trail, and even though he may have some growing pains in his first head coaching job, it looks as though he will be very successful.
Calipari’s decision to leave Memphis was not an easy one, but the success of a former protege at the school has to be rewarding for him.
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Pastner only worked under Calipari for one season, he is not a protege’ to speak of, he would be more properly a Lute Olson protege’. As for trying to help Pilgrim, I think it has more to do with the negative publicity Calipari has been getting for dumping players off Kentucky than anything altruistic.
What I dont understand is I keep hearing that Kentucky has a scholarship available for E. Williams but not for Pilgrim. Sounds like he has alot of potential
It doesn’t matter because Elliot Williams is a Tiger and was NEVER going to Kentucky. Pilgrim will be welcomed and valued as a Tiger. And please don’t get it twisted. This is not an attempt for Cal to make things right with Pilgrim. It is purely to save face and get a little positive p.r. out there after all the negative p.r. the school has had since he started dumping kids right and left. That, my friends, is the real rub.
Regardless of the motivation, Cal is doing a good thing for Pigrim now and hopefully he will be the “beast” that he was said to be in so many pickup games as a Tiger. As for a schollie being available for Williams but not Pilgrim, it was Williams, not Cal that mentioned UK as a possible destination. No one even knows if it was ever a possibility. Cal says he usually does not use his full allotment of rides and he has no plans to use them all this year. He would rather have a talented kid who won’t play on his team happy playing on another roster instead of unhappy not playing on his.
[...] Henry. It now looks like we’ll end the weekend with 2 of those 3 now off the board with Pilgrim and Williams reportedly headed to Memphis and a Kansas City writer telling Kansas fans not to worry about Henry playing anywhere [...]
WWW,
What do you mean doing a good thing for Pilgrim, he kicked him off the team MAN. But this will be a great pickup for Memphis to go along with Coleman
I wasn’t saying it was a good thing for Pilgrim to be told to leave at Kentucky, rather a good thing for Calipari to help him find a new place where could land on his feet and get on the floor. With that said, Pligrim is a guy with aspirations to play professionally, so how happy would he have been at UK as one of the last guys off the bench? Sometimes the harder thing is better for a player in the long term.
Calipari didn’t mind dumping Pilgrim to Memphis instead of a team on his 09/10 schedule. He knew with him at Memphis he wouldn’t have to play against him.
Actually, Calipari is trying to set up a Memphis-UK game in Nashville. http://vaughtsviews.com/?p=576