EZ The Blog

When a washed-up sports radio host has only one outlet left.

Just hours after Rick Pitino told the local media that all underclassmen players were returning to the Louisville basketball team for the 2010 season (and their brand new KFC Yum! Center), Samardo Samuels may be doing otherwise, but I doubt it.

Over the last three hours, the big scuttlebutt has been exactly whether or not Samuels has declared for the NBA Draft.  The Jamaican Basketball Association issued a release saying just that (click here to read it).  Disclaimer: please TAKE IT FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH.  There are misspellings and misinformation in the release (I’m pretty sure Louisville didn’t make the Final Four).

According to many mock drafts, Samuels may not even get drafted.  Samuels doesn’t show up in DraftExpress.com’s latest mock draft.

My guess is that he’s just testing the waters–declaring for the draft this year, coming back, then going for sure next year.  But who really knows?  The press release, based on grammar alone, is not nearly enough for me to make a really good guess.  But, it’s a guess nonetheless.

But the bigger story is the perception that was created of some lack of communication between Pitino and, arguably, his best returning player.  Only five hours transpired between Pitino saying all players were coming back, and Samuels declaring for the NBA Draft.  Even if Samuels was only testing the waters, I’m pretty sure Pitino would’ve said something about it at his press conference earlier today.

A very bizarre afternoon in Louisville.

(h/t Adam Zagoria at ZagsBlog.com)