It looks like Brian Gregory may have seen the national outrage sparked by Bo Ryan’s transfer debacle at Wisconson, and has decided to steer clear of any possibility of it happening at his program at Georgia Tech.
As embattled forward Glen Rice Jr. prepares to leave the team and transfer, Gregory has now publicly said that he will not bar any schools from Rice’s list of possible destinations.
“Probably with UGA, it’s the in-state rivalry thing and so forth,” Gregory told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But I will be honest with you, if it ever got to a situation where a kid really wanted to go to a specific school, I wouldn’t fight it … I wouldn’t fight it.”
Rice was dismissed from the team after multiple suspensions. His most recent trouble stemmed from his involvement in a shooting outside a nightclub in Atlanta, where he was charged with permitting unlawful operation, according to a report by The Associated Press.
Perhaps we are seeing the beginning of a trend.
After the outrage of Ryan’s decision to severely restrict the transfer options of Badger Jared Uthoff, NCAA coaches may be taking the hint that, because of all the other restrictions placed on student-athletes, public opinion has sided with players when it comes to transfer.
Gregory’s explanation has been one of the most logically grounded we have seen.
“That’s kind of our blanket policy,” Gregory told the AJC. “If any kid comes up to me and says ‘These are the schools’ and one is in the ACC, then I’ll explain the rule about ACC transfers and that usually eliminates the scenario immediately because no kid wants to sit out two years and lose a year of eligibility in the process.”
It’s almost refreshing.
Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_