Jerry Tipton on UK basketball

A.J. Stewart’s high school coach said Monday that he had heard about Internet traffic concerning his former player getting on the bad side of Kentucky Coach Billy Gillispie.

And after speaking with Stewart on Sunday, Rex Morgan said the player told him that the problem had been resolved.

“When I talked to A.J., he had talked to Coach Gillispie and everything was fine,” Morgan said.

Internet traffic said that Gillispie had banished Stewart from Wildcat Lodge because the player failed to meet specified times in sprints during the team’s “Boot Camp” workouts this week.

“I didn’t ask him if he was living in the Lodge or off campus,” Morgan said. “He’d gone in and talked to Coach Gillispie because he hadn’t made the times in Boot Camp.”

After being told that Gillispie had not commented on Stewart’s situation, Morgan declined to comment on the player’s status.

However, Morgan, a standout for Jacksonville in the early 1970s and Stewart’s coach at Arlington Country Day in the same city, said the player wants to play for Kentucky.

“A.J. wants to be part of the team,” Morgan said. “And he’s going to work hard.”

As a freshman last season, Stewart played in 22 games. He averaged 8.6 minutes and 2.1 points.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 7:40 pm and is filed under players. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.