Chris Jones sent threatening text

ByJeff Goodman ESPN logo
Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Louisville guardChris Jones, who was dismissed from the program on Sunday, sent a threatening text message to a woman with whom he has had a relationship for much of the past year.

University of Louisville campus police released a report that the woman went to Jones' apartment around midnight on Feb. 16. He let. She said she waited for him, but he did not return. She "messed up" Jones' room, according to police, and left around 3 a.m.

According to the report, aound 2 p.m. on the afternoon of Feb. 17, Jones texted that he would "smack TF out of" her, with "TF" interpreted to mean "the f---".

Louisville coach Rick Pitino suspended Jones for the Cardinals' game the next day at Syracuse but reinstated his starting guard for the following game Saturday against Miami. Jones scored 17 points in the victory over the Hurricanes.

Pitino has not said why Jones was dismissed. But after Louisville's 52-51 victory Monday night at Georgia Tech, the coach said, "Unfortunately, we've got to move on. They're like your children. You don't like to see anybody be hurt. But there's also accountability and doing the right things. He didn't. He didn't. Now he's got to get his life together, get on with life.''

The woman decided not to prosecute Jones and told police that she preferred someone talk to him about his behavior.

The Dean of Students was to be notified of the incident, the report added.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that Jones plans to meet with former NBA player and coach John Lucas to work on his anger management, however, a source with Lucas' camp told ESPN.com that although that might happen, nothing has been finalized.

Repeated attempts to reach Jones were unsuccessful.

Asked after the Miami game Saturday why he thought he was suspended, Jones said, "it was Coach's decision. It is what it is. I learned from it. Coach called it my selfish behavior of what happened between a situation. It's just something I learned from -- you've got to stay away from things like that and that's what I'm going to do."

Jones was averaging 13.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.6 assists. The Memphis native played two seasons in the junior college ranks before arriving at Louisville.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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