Majok: "I didn't want to leave"

Ater Majok left UConn in a cloud of smoke, abruptly bolting from the men's basketball team in September and leaving nothing but a two-sentence university-issued release as to why.

But, in speaking with the New Haven Register, Majok admitted he wasn't the one making the decision. 

"I didn’t want to leave," he said. "I’m not stupid. Why stay around here all summer, miss the NBA circuit, and then leave? At the end of the day, I had no choice."

Majok wouldn't elaborate, but his agent, Mike Lelchitski, told Borges "it's pretty clear that it wasn't his decision" and that the sophomore-to-be could have transferred but instead decided to pursue a pro career -- essentially disputing claims of a possible forthcoming NCAA suspension.

Jim Calhoun, speaking to the Courant's Mike Anthony today, "adamantly" disputed such claims, and said he was shocked when Majok broached the subject of transferring, first in May then again in June.

Although it's impossible to tell, at this point, whom to believe, the eight transfers Calhoun has on his record since the end of the 2006-07 season -- some of which accompanied by the same behind-the-scenes whispers of a forceout -- certainly don't help his case. (Nor do snarky, MS Paint-filled blog posts perpetuating such ideas.)