Jelan Kendrick’s absence from the Memphis Tigers basketball team is a mutual decision between him and coach Josh Pastner, according to Kendrick’s former summer league coach Daren Darby.
A CBSSports.com report filed by former Commercial Appeal columnist Gary Parrish on Tuesday said Kendrick had been indefinitely suspended, citing Darby as the source.
Parrish reported that Kendrick had been suspended because of an alleged threat against one of his Tigers’ teammates.
But late Tuesday Darby told Justin Smith of The Commercial Appeal that Kendrick had not been suspended, saying “He’s fine.”
“Coach Pastner had some talks with Jelan and just basically told him he needed some personal space, and Jelan said he needed some time away from basketball.”
Darby told Smith that he wants to remain with Memphis, something Kendrick seemed to confirm via his Twitter account around 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
Kendrick posted a tweet saying, “I will be in the fed ex forum in no time. I’m handling my business growing into a man day by day…”
Pastner told The Commercial Appeal that Kendrick’s absence was a “personal matter” and said that it was an internal issue that doesn’t involve the NCAA or the law.
“If it was something with the NCAA or against the law, it would be both myself and the university that would then determine what the consequences are. If it’s something internal, any discipline is my decision,” Pastner said.
“This is an internal situation, but the internal situation is that it’s a personal matter and he’ll be back when the personal matter is resolved. Once the personal matter is resolved, we will revisit the situation and we’ll go from there.”
Kendrick is part of the Tigers recruiting class of 2010 that is rated second best nationally by Scout.com. Memphis is ranked 19th in the ESPN/USA coaches poll and will open their season on November 12 against Centenary.
