Derrick Caracter

Caracter, who spent two seasons at Louisville, still needs one class at UTEP to become eligible.

“He’ll be eligible to play at the end of first semester next fall when the final grades are posted. He’s one class short of getting eligible,” Barbee said by phone. “He’s on track to graduate.”

Barbee first recruited Caracter when he was an assistant at Memphis from 2000-06, but Caracter chose Louisville instead.

“We recuited Derrick and knew him well and got to know him and his family and his support system very well,” Barbee said. After Caracter parted ways with Louisville head coach Rick Pitino last summer over issues related to his attitude and weight, Caracter got in touch with Barbee.

“He made contact with us through a third party member who was putting feelers out there to colleges that Derrick might be inerested in,” Barbee said. ”I just had my assistant run down where everything was at and we felt comfortable with where Derrick was at.

“He had been out of basketball since he left Louisville and we wanted to make sure he was still committed to being a college basketball player for the right reasons.

“As talented as he is and as rough as a patch he had leaving Louisville, he could’ve folded up his tent and got a fairly well paid route in Europe. He wasn’t interested in going that route. He wanted to be a college student and a college player.”

Barbee said he emphasized to Caracter that he wasn’t coming in to save the program.

“The biggest thing I told him is, ‘I got a very talented team, not just Stefon Jackson. I’ve got other talented players. You’re not coming here to be the savior. You’re just going to be a cog in the wheel and I’m going to help you get better. The only reason I want you to be here is because you want to come here to win. With winning comes individual success, individual attention. That all comes from winning. If you don’t win, none of us look good.’”

Caracter will practice with the team for the next year, giving Barbee a chance to evaulate and work with him.

“Derrick is a talented player,” Barbee said.  “He has an opportunity over the year. He’ll be practicing with us. He’s got to to treat the practice like his games, as an opportunity to get better without the pressure. He didn’t handle that spotlight very well and now he can practice outside of the spotlight.”

Barbee also want Caracter to focus on staying in shape.

“Obviously, he’s always had a battle with his weight,” Barbee said. “When you’re away from basketball as long as  he was after he left Louisville, he’s got to get his weight back down.”

“I told him you got a year to get yourself right physically, academically and mentally. If you can take care of business and get yourself right in all those ways, youll be ready to change peoples’ perceptions. But it’s going to be based on how you adjust to thosee three things.”

“Derrick really enjoyed his visit to the school and liked what their staff had to say,” said Anthony Ray, an adviser to Caracter.

The 6-foot-9 Caracter, out of Fanwood, N.J.,  is currently enrolled in classes at UTEP and will likely have to sit a year after transferring. He would then be eligible second semester of next year.

I’m trying to track down an official comment from the UTEP coaching staff, but haven’t heard back from them yet.

Caracter spent the last two years at Louisville and was suspended for a total of 17 games. He did not return for this season after repeated conflicts with head coach Rick Pitino over his weight and attitude.

He was linked to several options over the summer — NAIA school Oklahoma City, Division I Southern Miss and the Rochester RazorSharks of the Premier Basketball League.

Oklahoma’s 6-foot-10, 251-pound sophomore forward dropped 32 points and 15 rebounds on UAB in a 77-67 victory in the NIT Season Tip-Off at Madison Square Garden.

No. 11 Oklahoma meets No. 10 Purdue in Friday’s championship game at 3:30. The Boilermakers downed Boston College, 71-64, behind 19 points from E’Twaun Moore.

Griffin has now recorded double-doubles in all five games for the Sooners (5-0). He had career highs of 35 points and 21 rebounds Sunday, when Oklahoma looked sluggish before pulling out an 80-76 victory over Gardner-Webb. He entered the UAB game averaging 26 points, 19.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists.

Against UAB, he had 19 points and 7 rebounds in the second half, when the Sooners stormed back from a 34-29 deficit.

“I’m biased, I’m incredibly biased because I’m with him,” Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. “I know there are some other great guys in the country and some guys that are worthy of the same thing, but this is my kid. I see how hard he works. I watch him every day. You look at the impact that he has for our basketball team. You look at the numbers that he’s putting up, and this is against double- and triple-teams every night. It’s not like he’s playing single coverage.

“And so my biased opinion, yeah I do think [he's the best player in the country].”

Capel credits assistant coach Mark Cline with improving Griffin’s footwork.

“He’s done a great job with him, in helping Blake gain confidence,” Capel said. “Now he can step away and shoot it. Now he can shoot a fallaway jump shot. Now he can face up and play off of a face-up game. He’s always been able to handle the ball, we let him rebound and push last year. But he’s able to do those things more now.”

Griffin credits teammate Cade Davis with opening up the middle. Davis scored 12 points on 4-of-8 from 3.

“They’re always running the guys at him when he catches on the perimeter,” Griffin said, “so they can’t clog the lane when he’s in.”

Griffin’s teammates, in turn, say it’s easy to play with someone as skilled as he is.

“He’s getting doubles every game and he’ll have that the rest of the this year and his career,” Davis said. “It…leaves me open outside there, and you really don’t have to force anything while he’s in the game. And you know, with such a good player like he is, he can dribble out of the double team and find the open man.”

UAB’s Paul Delaney, who had 23 points for the Blazers, concurred.

“Blake’s a great player,” he said. “He’s physical. He did what he’s supposed to do. …He carried his team on his back. He did a great job.”

Next up is a date with Purdue, and those players have tremendous respect for Griffin as well.

“There’s no other Blake Griffin,” Purdue guard Keaton Grant said. “There’s only one of them in the United States, get 20 rebounds. So it’ll definitely be a great challenge playing against them and we look forward to it.”

CAPEL ON NEXT YEAR’S BIGS

If Griffin becomes the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, which he well could, Oklahoma can rest somewhat easier knowing it’s bringing in a recruiting class that includes 6-8 forward Andrew Fitzgerald of Baltimore and 6-9 Keith “Tiny” Gallon of Houston.

Fitzgerald is rated No. 63 nationally by ESPN and Gallon No. 21, No. 3 among centers.

“Gallon brings size, skill, understanding how to play basketball,” Capel said. “He can score it, he can shoot it, he can pass it. He’s a really skilled guy and if he comes in here and really gets after working with our strength coach, then he can be very successful.”

He added: “We have some guys coming back. Ryan Wright, I hate it for him. He’s not playing as much because we can’t afford to have Blake off the floor. But Ryan is really good and he’ll be a senior next year. We have [6-11] Orlando Allen…We have a kid signed with us Andrew Fitzgerald, a big kid who’s from Baltimore who we’re really excited about. So we’ll have some options next year.”

UAB PURSUING CARACTER

UAB coaches are researching former Louisville big man Derrick Caracter of Fanwood, N.J. and will know more within the next couple of weeks. But they think he could be worth the risk.

UAB has a verbal commitment from 6-9 senior big man DeMarcus Cousins, but Cousins has yet to sign his NLI, saying he wants an out clause if head coach Mike Davis leaves. If Davis is still around in the spring, the staff expects Cousins to sign then.

The 6-9, 270-pound Caracter was linked to several options over the summer — NAIA school Oklahoma City, Division I Southern Miss and the Rochester RazorSharks of the Premier Basketball League.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino had given Caracter the chance to return for the 2009-10 season provided he met various academic and weight issues, but Stacy Brooks, a Louisville professor who mentored Caracter, said Caracter did not think those were realistic.

“I think he got discouraged,” Brooks said over the summer. “Although the agreement had been verbally made between him and Coach ‘P,’ he felt like the chance he was being given wasn’t really a chance. They really weren’t behind him.

“He thought it would be better for him to start at a smaller school so he can play at a smaller school and hopefully go to the next level.”

Stay tuned….

According to a spokesman for the team, Caracter recently worked out for the team but has yet to sign. I have a call into the head coach and will update if I hear anything further.

The 6-foot-9 Caracter, a native of Fanwood, N.J., has parted ways with Louisville and apparently came close to attending both NAIA defending champ Oklahoma City University and Division I Southern Miss.

The Premier Basketball League launched in 2007 out of dissatisfaction with the business model of the ABA; 8 of its 10 teams were former ABA franchies. The Razorsharks were defending ABA champions when they defected to the PBL.

Rochester beat the Arkansas Impact last year to win the 2008 PBL championship.

The 6-foot-8, 270-pound Caracter will not enroll at Southern Mississippi as I originally reported.

“Caracter is not transferring to Southern Miss,” a Southern Miss spokesman said by email.

At this point, after false starts at Louisville, NAIA Oklahoma City and Southern Miss, your guess is as good as mine as to where the Big Fella’s next destination is.

If anyone knows, feel free to contact me by email at zagoria@Hotmail.com

Despite the fact that Louisville sent Southern Mississippi Caracter’s release last week, Caracter has not arrived on the Southern Miss campus.

“He’s not enrolled,” said a Southern Miss spokesman. “He’s not here. I have not heard that (he’s coming).”

As reported here last week, Louisville sent his release to Southern Miss.

“The release has been sent to them (Southern Miss),” a source close to the situation said. “They have permission to contact him and speak with him. They’re pretty much recruiting him, so to speak. They have inquired for his release and it’s been granted. He’d have to sit out a year.”

Derrick Caracter’s

Louisville sent his release to Southern Miss on Wednesday and the 6-foot-9, 270-pound Caracter could enroll in classes next week.

“The release has been sent to them (Southern Miss),” a source close to the situation said. “They have permission to contact him and speak with him. They’re pretty much recruiting him, so to speak. They have inquired for his release and it’s been granted. He’d have to sit out a year.”

“All is know is that there were talks that he could be transferring here, but as of (Thursday) night he hadn’t,” SMU spokesman Timothy Andrzejewski said. “The compliance department has to look everything over.” He added that Caracter was not on campus as of Friday morning.

Caracter had considered NAIA national champ Oklahoma City University, but that option now appears dead in the water, perhaps because OCU coach Tommy Wade make take a job under Travis Ford at Oklahoma State. Caracter would not have had to sit out a year if he made that move.

Stacy Brooks, a professor in the Pan-African Studies Department at Louisville who has become an adviser to Caracter, said Caracter had been in the process of getting his paperwork from Louisville together so he could transfer.

“He’s dealing with the paperwork on that right now,” Brooks said. “He’s trying to get all the courses accounted for in the spring and summer that he can. I’m sure his intention is to expedite his eligibility so he can have as many credits as he possibly can.

“I don’t know if the NCAA has a waiver process (to play next year). I’m sure that that’s what he’s trying to do. If not, then he’s going to sit out a year and then play the following year.”

Louisville coach Rick Pitino initially offered Caracter a chance to return for the 2009-10 season if he met various weight and academic requirements. After initially accepting the offer, Caracter decided against it and looked for options to play either next year or the year after.

This Southern Mississippi development is the latest in the long, up-and-down saga of Caracter, who was projected as an NBA player in the eighth grade, but hasn’t grown physically since. He attended various high schools, and now appears to be following his transient pattern in college.

“The last time I talked to him he had made a decision to go to Oklahoma City,” Brooks said Wednesday night by phone. “That was last week. I told him to hurry up and get on that and go.

“Right now I don’t know where he is. I sent a text message to him and he hasn’t texted me back.”

OCU coach Tommy Wade, whose team has won back-to-back NAIA national titles, said Caracter has not yet arrived on campus.

“He wasn’t considering overseas,” Brooks said. “I think he’s had offers from D-1 schools. The most important thing (for him) this year is to play and then be part of a team and feel like he’s needed on a team.”

Louisville coach Rick Pitino had given Caracter the chance to return for the 2009-10 season provided he met various academic and weight issues, but Brooks said Caracter did not think those were realistic.

“I think he got discouraged,” he said. “Although the agreement had been verbally made between him and Coach ‘P,’ he felt like the chance he was being given wasn’t really a chance. They really weren’t behind him.

“He thought it would be better for him to start at a smaller school so he can play at a smaller school and hopefully go to the next level.”

The 6-foot-9 New Jersey native is apparently still deciding whether to transfer to the NAIA school from Louisville, or to go to another D-1 school and sit out a year.

“He’s not here,” OCU coach Tommy Wade told Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.com. “From my conversations, not necessarily with Derrick but with his people, he’s still considering trying to transfer to a D-1 school and sitting out. We’re still in the mix, but the last day he can enroll is a week from today.”

Caracter had been offered an opportunity to return to the Louisville basketball team for the 2009-10 season, assuming he met various academic and athletic criteria set out by head coach Rick Pitino.

Caracter has hung up on both me and Goodman, so we’ll have to hear how this plays out from Wade.

“Are we recruiting him? Yes,” Oklahoma City coach Tommy Wade told Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.com. “Is he at Oklahoma City? No. Has he decided to come to Oklahoma City? No. Not today.”

Louisville coach Rick Pitino is in favor of the move.

“I think it’s an excellent choice for him,” Pitino told the Louisville Courier Journal. “Sitting out is not going to benefit Derrick, but playing right away will.”

If Caracter comes to the two-time NAIA champs, he would not have to sit out a season, whereas if he transferred to another D-1 school, he would have to sit a year. He needs a 2.0 GPA to play at any NAIA school and is still waiting on some summer courses from Louisville.

“He’s a big-time talent and an intelligent young man,” Wade said. “He’s got to make a decision (soon).”

In a move first broken by ZAGSBLOG, Caracter was offered a chance by Pitino to return to the Louisville team for the 2009-10 season assuming he met various GPA and weight requirements, but said it was unlikely he would meet those.

“I don’t think there is any chance of him reaching the stipulations that we set forth,” Pitino told the Courier Journal. “It’s in his best interest to do exactly what he’s doing.”

Caracter could also follow Brandon Jennings overseas or join the NBDL.