Thompson off St. Benedicts team
After an exchange of words between Texas commitment Tristan Thompson and his coach Dan Hurley during Newark (N.J.) St. Benedict's Prep's game Tuesday night, Thompson has been kicked off the team.
"He was kicked off the team for public insubordination," Coach Hurley told Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.
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Hurley also had this to say to Zagoria:
"That's the state of basketball. The kid came here as an unknown kid with potential and as an intelligent kid who is very likable. The problem in our sport now is that as kids get better and as their ranking rises, the people around these kids ruin them."
Thompson's travel team coach Ro Russell of Grassroots Canada cited a lack of chemistry between Thompson and Hurley as ultimately causing the two to part ways.
"It has been an ongoing thing where they haven't seen eye to eye," Russell told Rivals.com. "There just hasn't been good chemistry and they've always been butting heads. It wasn't as bad last year, but this year got off to a bad start.
"After the incident last night, Coach Hurley felt that Tristan publicly disrespected him, and Tristan felt that Coach Hurley publicly disrespected him."
Russell reaffirmed Thompson's commitment to Texas, and said the junior prospect will finish the year at St. Benedict's and then find a new school for next year.
Russell did not know if this situation would affect fellow Canadian teammate sophomore Myck Kabongo, who is also committed to Texas.
Thompson, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound power forward, is the No. 5-ranked prospect in the class of 2010.