Last week, redshirt freshman Armond Battle was dismissed from the Tulsa basketball team for breaking team rules. The rumors are that Battle just couldn't put it together in the classroom. Wojcik can't be blamed for a player who won't study, but this is just the latest disappointment in the disaster that was the recruiting class of 2008. Battle is now the 4th player from that recruiting class to leave Tulsa just one year after they all arrived on campus and outside of Joe Richard miraculously developing an offensive game outside of 5 feet, that class was a complete waste.
The bigger travesty is that this leaves Tulsa with just 9 scholarship players to start the season, 3 of whom are true freshmen, which is a precarious situation for a team with the aspirations that Tulsa has for this season. Wojcik is on tenuous ground as it is with the Tulsa faithful thanks to his ill-advised criticism of the fanbase and blowout losses in big games. A coach can be excused for these transgressions if he's winning at an acceptable level, but 4 years without a trip to the dance is too long at Tulsa. As it stands, anything outside an NCAA tournament bid is a failure in 2010. The consensus right now is that Tulsa is a real bubble team for this year, but they're skating on thin ice and one injury could pop that bubble well before Selection Sunday. If that's the case, then Wojcik will have failed to make the tournament despite having 4 years with the best center in Tulsa history and for many Tulsa fans that would really be the last straw.
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