Pitino: Harrell removed himself as captain

Louisville's All-American forward Montrezl Harrell removed himself as a team captain, U of L coach Rick Pitino said on his radio show Wednesday night.

The news that the 6-foot-8 junior was no longer a team captain leaked out earlier this week, and Pitino on Tuesday said it was "absolutely no big deal." He reiterated that point on Wednesday, saying Harrell simply removed himself as a team captain because he was being too hard on Louisville's newcomers and that he'd told Harrell and his teammates to keep the change in-house.

"Nobody was supposed to say anything because it was really no big deal," Pitino said. "I've had a problem with Montrezl getting all over our guys in practice, especially the young freshmen. I've called him in on several occasions and said, 'Listen, as a captain, you cannot get on these guys the way you're doing. You're killing their confidence.'

"His response was, 'These guys don't work hard enough. They don't listen well enough. And unless they develop, we're not going to be a great team at the end of the year.' I said, 'That may be true, but you've got to let me be the bad guy.'"

At that point, Harrell suggested just having senior wing Wayne Blackshear as the team's only official captain. Blackshear, Pitino said, played the good guy to Harrell's bad guy.

That was really the extent of it, the coach said.

"It's absolutely no big deal," Pitino said. "We didn't pay any attention to it."