Pitt Grants Marcus Carr His Release But With Restrictions

Marcus Carr is now a college basketball free agent, sort of.

Today, Pitt officially released Carr from his basketball scholarship, and the freshman point guard intends to transfer, but his release has come with some restrictions. The university is blocking him from transferring to any program in the ACC or anyone that’s on Pitt’s 2018-19 schedule. There is an additional ACC rule that prevents intra-conference transfers that would cause Carr to lose a season of eligibly if he transferred to another ACC school.

Carr plans on appealing that decision, which would free him up to transfer to any of the schools that are on Pitt’s 2018-19 schedule. He admits it’s a process that could drag out for a bit.

“I’m sure this is something that they won’t let go lightly and they’ll be a process that has to happen before it gets approved or denied,” Carr said.

For now, Carr is glad to have options. He said he knew he’d be pursuing this route as soon as the school made the decision to fire Kevin Stallings.

Marcus Carr (5) February 21, 2018 — DAVID HAGUE

“This was something that I kind of knew immediately that I’d do once they went ahead and made that decision,” he said. “I pursued the release so that I would have all options available to me and to kind of take control of my own situation and to make the best decision for me.

“There was a bit of a process behind the scenes to get this done and a lot of things had to happen. I am definitely relieved that I got it and am now able to explore my options and figure out what’s best for me going forward.”

The freshman guard didn’t want to go down this road at all and like all of his teammates, wanted Stallings to return.

“I’m pretty disappointed that he and we collectively didn’t get the chance to kind of finish what we started and this whole thing all kind of hit us hard,” Carr said. “We had a conversation with Coach before it happened so all of us were able to talk with him one final time.

“It was pretty difficult because we weren’t ok with the decision so it was hard. Like I said, we wanted him to be our coach and it’s pretty unfortunate that we weren’t able to see it through.”

Like Jared Wilson-Frame told PSN yesterday, this release isn’t a guarantee that Carr won’t be back with the Panthers next season.

Now that he has his release, Carr can start the recruitment process over again, which might include returning to Pitt if the situation is right.

“I haven’t really gotten to looking at other possible schools,” he said. “I’m going to try and be patient and talk with my parents and people that are in my corner and figure out what’s best for me going forward.

“It really depends on who they hire. I can’t say there’s a 100% chance that I won’t return but I definitely have to see who they hire and take it from there.”