Outlaw Will Play vs. Duke In Friday’s Sweet Sixteen Matchup

In case you were wondering, Ty Outlaw, who was hit with misdemeanor marijuana charges, will play against Duke on Friday.

Coach Buzz Williams says that Outlaw was tested by an outside agency and was negative. A.D. Whit Babcock said it was his decision to let Outlaw play.

It’s their situation and their decision and even if Duke wanted to do something about it there is no way to do it so it would be a waste of energy for the team to worry about it.

For our part though we’d like to offer one stray thought.

In 1980 when South Carolina began to flirt with Bill Foster and it looked like the bottom might fall out of the Duke program, Foster parked in front of Cameron, in what is now Krzyzewksiville but which was then an unpaved lot. He dropped some dry cleaning in the mud and reportedly screamed “what do we have to do to get this **** lot paved?”

Like Williams, Foster preferred to rebuild rather than maintain, and did in fact leave for South Carolina. At the time it was perceived as a terrible blow to Duke and a pigheaded move by A.D. Tom Butters (it wouldn’t be the last time people would say this about Butters, a brilliant man who could at times be very stubborn). Of course it worked out okay for Duke as they hired some guy from 10-19 Army with an impossible name that even he made fun of. And the lot was eventually paved before the area was remodeled to accommodate the Schwartz-Butters building and the plaza that hosts K-Ville.

As far as Foster goes, it was a disastrous decision that started his career on a definite decline. South Carolina was still sold on being an independent and Gamecock basketball has never really recovered, not fully anyway.

If we’re Babcock, with reports that Texas A&M has targeted native son Williams and with Texas also coach shopping, we are not going to do anything to upset, irritate or make him make moon eyes at the Lone Star State.

We’re not impugning Babcock. We’re just saying he’d be an idiot to make Williams unhappy when he clearly has suitors who are ready to make him very, very wealthy.