The 2013-14 season may be lost for former Louisville star Chane Behanan, but his career as a collegian suddenly has new life as Behanan told Bleacher Report‘s Jason King on Monday that he is transferring to Colorado State to play for head coach Larry Eustachy. Louisville and most savvy college basketball fans should already be well-versed in the details of Behanan’s saga, but it’s worth briefly summarizing anyway. After playing a pivotal role in the Cardinals’ run to the National Championship last season, it was widely expected that Behanan would have a breakout junior year as a preseason first-team All-AAC selection. The trouble started shortly thereafter, when Behanan was suspended indefinitely in October for violating university and team rules.
Many expected that he wouldn’t return to the Cardinals until mid-December, if at all. Instead, Behanan missed just one regular season game before getting reinstated by Rick Pitino. Behanan’s triumphant return did not go quite as planned, though, as the burly 6’6″ forward looked like a shell of his former self upon his reinsertion into the lineup. He averaged 7.6 points and 6.3 rebounds in 12 games this season, bottoming out by failing to score in 20 minutes in the December 28 loss to Kentucky. Two days after that, Louisville dismissed him for good due to a violation of university policy. The Cardinals’ program and Pitino had given him plenty of chances to get his act together, but he never stayed out of trouble for long and ultimately he used up all his lifelines at Louisville.
It was initially unclear whether Behanan would look to transfer, try his hand at the National Basketball Developmental League, or just train privately for June’s NBA Draft. Behanan began rehabilitating his image and habits by working with John Lucas at his drug and alcohol treatment center in Houston, and rumors about Behanan considering Colorado State began to surface in the middle of January. The notion got considerably more attention when CBS college basketball analyst Doug Gottlieb made an obligatory joke at Behanan’s expense.
It now appears official and Behanan will be eligible to play for Colorado State after the first semester ends next season. The move and the fit make plenty of sense given that Behanan as an undersized power forward could clearly benefit from more development at the collegiate level, and his new head coach Eustachy knows a thing or two about rehabilitating one’s image and the benefits of a second chance. Considering all that has happened involving Behanan in the past year, one would hope that the talented junior is relishing the opportunity at one last shot to prove himself as a collegian. He should become an immediate impact player for the Rams next season, so here is to hoping that he can stay on the straight and narrow and finish his college career on a positive note, because his legacy in Louisville is a complicated one to say the least.