Gilchrist 'relieved' about chance to play

No school in the country has had USF's incredible success with hardship waivers for transfer athletes -- eight in football in the past four years, plus Wednesday's news on freshman forward Gus Gilchrist -- but you'll typically hear that such a waiver is hard to get without cooperation from the athlete's previous school.

Given Gilchrist's acrimonious departure from Maryland, where he took classes for just one semester, it's all the more surprising that his waiver was granted, allowing him to join the Bulls on Dec. 14, missing only six games. Back in August when Gilchrist's appeal was first filed, Maryland's senior associate athletic director, Kathy Worthington, told the Times she knew of no reason why his waiver should be granted.

Naturally, Maryland isn't happy to hear Gilchrist can play most of this season for the Bulls, effectively regaining the year of eligibility he would have lost due to the ACC's intraleague transfer policy. The Baltimore Sun had a story Thursday on Maryland's reaction to the Gilchrist news, and Worthington had this to say: "I thought the NCAA rule was in place to prevent a kid from shopping around from place to place to place. ... they are not holding Gus accountable for the ACC sit-out rule...I think they are taking a very liberal interpretation of that rule.''

Gilchrist, meanwhile, had a new level of energy at Thursday's practice, knowing that after a year away from basketball and months not knowing if he'd play this season, he has a basketball game in five weeks.

"When the coaches told me I'd gotten (the waiver), I was very excited and relieved I'd be able to play as a freshman this year," said Gilchrist, who has not been available for interviews since coming to USF. "The last five, six months, I was hoping for the best that the NCAA would come through like I knew they would, as they did. Everything seemed to come out right."

His Bulls teammates expressed a new optimism about the team's potential this season with another scoring threat to complement sophomore guard Dominique Jones. Coach Stan Heath said fans should be careful not to put too much expectations on a player who hasn't played since spring 2007.

"I think in fairness, we all have to understand this young man hasn't played in a year and a half," Heath said. "He won't be the second coming. He will help us in a lot of ways and will continue to get better. Now that we know the situation, I do think it'll help Gus focus. The biggest thing that's happened now is that he's more relaxed. He's got a weight lifted off his back and that'll help his focus in practice."

Comments

[DJ]

Anyone with good sense that knows B.E. basketball knows that a starting five of:
Gilchrist
Ajai
Jones
Verdejo
Mercer

will win a lot of games. That is a very good start.
You will see. Some of you guys were saying that Gilchrist would not get approved to play. Right.

[Bull Hooper]

we might also be competitive, and win our share of games. we have good players and a proven winner as coach. why not?

[Common Sense Bill]

Bulls basketball is beyond awful. We might win 2 conference games this year...

[Ari Hinkelberger]

I'm still very reserved about our b-ball program.

Call me when we can win back-to-back road games.

The additions of mercer and gilchrist should make a big difference though.

[DELdaBULL]

Give those people in that office raises.

[KC]

Is football season over yet? Oh yeah it died last Thursday night in Cincy.

Great work by our athletic department.
It would be great to see our hoops team competitive in the big east.

The ACC rule should be for the ACC only. He has sat out enough. Bravo NCAA for thinking about the athelete instead of the school.

[Bull Hooper]

for once, my favorite sports team, USF Mens' Basketball, got a break! Hallelujah (sp)! Let's play basketball!

[DataBull]

I don't understand Maryland's point at all. Why should the NCAA worry about an ACC rule? Why should the ACC be able to create a rule that extends beyond the ACC? That's really not a very well reasoned argument.

[G.A.]

Again, just from a distance, I don't think Gilchrist allows himself to enroll at Maryland unless he (a) isn't aware of the transfer policy or (b) is given the sense that the mitigating nature of his reason for backing out of his signing with Virginia Tech may allow an exception to the rule.

Nobody comes out worse in this than Maryland, so it's understandable that they'd object to the NCAA's ruling. They've had a rough sequence of events in basketball, to say the least.

[Rich]

I'm confused.

It's an ACC rule that required him to sit 2 years at Maryland, not an NCAA rule. It was the ACC that refused to let him play after 1 year, not the NCAA.

If the ACC didn't have that rule in place and didn't refuse his appeals twice then he would be playing for Maryland in the spring. They should have issues with the ACC rules, not the NCAA ruling.

[The Champ]

Apparently the NCAA disagreed as well.

[G.A.]

You could argue that because Maryland couldn't get him in, they wouldn't expect someone else to be able to get him in. Maryland's Worthington said the family was told about the transfer policy; the family disagrees.

[BullyPulpit]

I find it ironic that the Maryland AD would find it hard to believe that he was granted a waiver. They tried to get him one, but it was a draconian ACC rule that would not let Gilchrist avoid sitting out a year. According to Gilchrist, he was misled by the Administration and Coaches at Maryland about having to sit out the year.

[Hank]

GA, you should do a feature story on Steve Horton and his staff - he is under the radar yet continues to perform at a high level on these things.