Lute dismisses Chris Rodgers from the team

[Lefty]

If Lute has to dismiss Chris Rodgers from a depleted team then it must of been very serious. I have read from other sites that the Arizona players had enough of Chris and wanted off. The guy has had attitude problems since he arrived at the UofA. They will miss his defense but that is about it.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Good riddance! This guy has been a headcase and a complete assclown from the first day he stepped on campus. Complete waste of talent. Hope the NBDL treats you well C-Rod.

 

[green machine]

He needed to go, this was a long time overdue.

 

[AZBALLER]

Congrats to Lute...I've questioned him before and probably will again, but he showed some integrity in that move...Maybe this will help the chemistry on the team improve, and in turn a lot more W's?

 

[Renz]

Rodgers is a fool. This move is definitely "addition by subtraction".

 

[sly fly]

That move could save the Wildcat's season.

 

[Russ Smith]

It is pretty telling that Rodgers didn't play much in the last game and is now booted. No idea what he did but he certainly had more than enough troubles before to be warranted. Sure it's just coincidence that Lute got fed up AFTER McClellan was reinstated

I agree this could be a boost for UA this season, they'll miss his defense but if guys pull together this could turnaround the year for UA.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

MF'er spent the last half of my senior year trying to sleep with my girlfriend at the time.....

They can both be shipped to the moon for all i care

The guy is just one of those dudes who has alot going for him and just loves to rub everyones face in it and make people feel less than him. This should be an attitude check for someone who was not a favorite around the team from my personal knowledge......

Can you believe he declared for the draft last year? This guy got what was coming....pride comes before a fall.....

 

[Russ Smith]

The rumor from a UCLA board is Lute got pissed at rodgers trash talking a teammate in practice, walked on the court, tried to grab the ball from him and told him to shut up until he shot better than 30%. Rodgers wouldn't hand Lute the ball, allegedly challenged Lute to a "fight" and players separated the two. Lute threw him out of practice, cooled off, asked his assistants am I over reacting did I cause that or did he? Apparently Lute had an assistant poll the players and essentially everyone blamed Rodgers for the incident and was fed up with him so Lute dismissed him.

 

[Russ Smith]

FYI another rumor making the rounds was that Budinger was really concerned with what's going on at UA and was reconsidering his choice and thinking about asking out of his LOI. But someone on a UCLA board said he has connections to Budinger's family and asked them point blank and was told it's nonsense, made up rumor, that Budinger is fully committed to UA. Since the same guy is the one who told us all months before it happened that Chase was a lock for UA, I'm inclined to believe it's probably true.

 

[boondockdrunk]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2297815

TUCSON, Ariz. -- One day after calling for one of Arizona's big men to step up, Wildcats coach Lute Olson dropped one of his backcourt players.

Shooting guard Chris Rodgers was dismissed from the team by Olson on Wednesday.

"It should be noted that Chris has earned his college degree in 3½ years," Olson said in a statement in which he said the decision followed "long and serious deliberations" but gave no other details.

The move followed a disastrous road trip that saw the Wildcats (10-6, 3-3 Pac-10) lose twice in Oregon. Voters responded by dropping them from the Top 25 for the second time this season. Until the earlier disappearance from the rankings earlier, Arizona had been ranked in the regular season for 18 consecutive years.

On Tuesday, Olson cited an inconsistent inside game -- which has sometimes forced forward Ivan Radenovich to play out of position in the post -- as part of the problem, but the Wildcats' poor 3-point shooting has been a sore spot all season.

Rodgers, a starter in 13 games, shot 34.6 percent (56-of-162) overall and 34 percent (33-of-97) from beyond the arc, averaging 10.8 points and 2.3 rebounds. His 40 steals are second to Hassan Adams' 45.

The 6-foot-4, 205-pound senior from Portland, Ore., came into the season touted by Olson as his best defensive player. But Rodgers became disgruntled in mid-December over what he perceived as a lack of playing time.

Rodgers, who was averaging just under 30 minutes a game, was held out of the starting lineup at Houston on Dec. 3 and against Saint Mary's on Dec. 10 -- the first time for missing a team meal and the second time to prepare for a final examination.

Just checked his facebook... and he has 15 friends... total... ouch!

I am very happy that he is finally gone. What a waste of talent.

 

[green machine]

The rumor from a UCLA board is Lute got pissed at rodgers trash talking a teammate in practice, walked on the court, tried to grab the ball from him and told him to shut up until he shot better than 30%. Rodgers wouldn't hand Lute the ball, allegedly challenged Lute to a "fight" and players separated the two. Lute threw him out of practice, cooled off, asked his assistants am I over reacting did I cause that or did he? Apparently Lute had an assistant poll the players and essentially everyone blamed Rodgers for the incident and was fed up with him so Lute dismissed him.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

FYI another rumor making the rounds was that Budinger was really concerned with what's going on at UA and was reconsidering his choice and thinking about asking out of his LOI. But someone on a UCLA board said he has connections to Budinger's family and asked them point blank and was told it's nonsense, made up rumor, that Budinger is fully committed to UA. Since the same guy is the one who told us all months before it happened that Chase was a lock for UA, I'm inclined to believe it's probably true.

FYI Russ - this rumor is garbage. The only person that has issues on the Arizona basketball tam was Chris Rodgers and he had been that way since he got there. Now that he's gone, I'd expect things to get better chemistry-wise although the on-court problems will probably continue because the team just got much thinner over the last 48 hours.

As far as Rodgers ******** goes, it's really not that difficult of an issue to digest. When you come to Arizona to play basketball you listen to Lute and you get set up financially for the rest of your life or you do it your own way and end up trying to hack it in the Middle East or South America. C-Rod chose the latter and I could honestly care less where he ends up because the guy was one of the biggest pieces of garbage ever to come through the Arizona program.

 

[Chaplin]

That move could save the Wildcat's season.

This is an extremely loaded statement, and very possibly true.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

This is an extremely loaded statement, and very possibly true.

Oregon fans were pretty accurate when they were chanting "your team hates you" at Rodgers last weekend. I really just don't know what to expect from this team from here on out. Just like 2003-2004 as they can outplay the best teams in the country one night while getting embarassed by some mediocre squad the next.

 

[Lefty]

McClellan did not participate in the shoot around today so it looks like he will not be playing tonight, this according to KVOA channel 4. Rumor has McClellan out for the year. Don't know if that is true.

Well, I'm out of here. Got to get ready to go to McKale and watch the Cats. I hate 8:30 starts.

 

[Russ Smith]

FYI Russ - this rumor is garbage. The only person that has issues on the Arizona basketball tam was Chris Rodgers and he had been that way since he got there. Now that he's gone, I'd expect things to get better chemistry-wise although the on-court problems will probably continue because the team just got much thinner over the last 48 hours.

.

I know it was worded poorly but that's actually what I meant. I don't believe the rumor Budinger was concerned, I believe the guy who claims to know the family and said the rumor was made up.

It's typical fan stuff, he commits to UA, UCLA fans start trashing him, and then something like this happens and they start a rumor that he wants out of his LOI so he can sign with UCLA.

You should see the trashing of Taylor King now that he's verballed to Duke, wonder how long until he changes his mind this time, that verbal isn't worth a dime, that kid is a primadonna etc. These people say he can't play too, of course if he'd verballed to UCLA, they'd love him.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

Oregon fans were pretty accurate when they were chanting "your team hates you" at Rodgers last weekend. I really just don't know what to expect from this team from here on out. Just like 2003-2004 as they can outplay the best teams in the country one night while getting embarassed by some mediocre squad the next.

Oh man i remeber hearing that during the game, turning to my buddy and just cracking up. With the crowd being as loud as it is in Eugene, that has to be one of the harder chants to endure at 10,000 decibels.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

In the post-game press conference, Lute supposedly left the door open for a possible Rodgers return to the team. I don't know, if the guy couldn't get his act together after three and a half years of suspensions and reprimands I doubt he all of a sudden will get it now. But then again, I said similar things about Salim Stoudamire and he proved me wrong.

 

[green machine]

Well, for those who don't know, McClellan is done for the year too...


As far as Rodgers goes, he deserved to be kicked off the team. The Oregon fans were pretty much spot on.

 

[Russ Smith]

In the post-game press conference, Lute supposedly left the door open for a possible Rodgers return to the team. I don't know, if the guy couldn't get his act together after three and a half years of suspensions and reprimands I doubt he all of a sudden will get it now. But then again, I said similar things about Salim Stoudamire and he proved me wrong.

It'd be a huge mistake to let him back. It just sends the wrong message to the rest of the team, plus it makes it appear that Lute is panicking because he lost McClellan.

Big win last night, UA is still good just lost a lot of depth since they essentially lost a starter and 6th man.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

It'd be a huge mistake to let him back. It just sends the wrong message to the rest of the team, plus it makes it appear that Lute is panicking because he lost McClellan.

For what it's worth, Lute knew about McClellan's injury before he booted Rodgers, so it's not a kneejerk reaction although it may look like one. I don't know every detail of the story but Lute met with both a contingency from the team as well as Rodgers and decided to leave the door open if Rodgers accomplished some things in the next few weeks. Without knowing the exact details, I'll defer to Lute on this one seeing in that he's in the Hall of Fame.

 

[green machine]

Some new info

Rodgers Speaks!

http://wildcat.arizona.edu/papers/98/241/02_1.html

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

More Chris Rodgers brilliance...

http://www.kgun.com/story.php?id=1272

 

[green machine]

More Chris Rodgers brilliance...

http://www.kgun.com/story.php?id=1272

I'm an intern for KGUN, and we cleaned up the email as best we could as far as grammar goes. Wow, reading the original set me back as a writer about 7 years I think.