Koron Davis

Koron Davis, who the University of Louisville has announced is transferring from the program, at the Louisville women’s basketball game on Dec. 13, 2023. Davis says he didn’t tell the program he’s leaving.

 ERIC CRAWFORD

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- This is the kind of story that only happens in modern college basketball, I guess. Koron Davis, a junior college transfer who never played in a game for Louisville and was kicked off the team in December, has entered the transfer portal, according to On3Sports.

How do you write this story?

Fans were confused when Davis was signed out of Los Angeles Southwest Junior College, an unranked player who didn't even have an available profile from many of the recruiting services.

Once at Louisville, he clashed with head coach Kenny Payne (though there was no physical altercation, as rumored). Sources close to the program said he further drew the ire of the coaching staff by being critical of coaches with his teammates. Payne removed him from team activities, hoping to work with him until he could return to the team with a more productive approach.

It didn't happen. U of L sources say he told the program he planned to transfer, and that's what the release said at the end of the first semester.

The only headlines Davis ever made at Louisville came next, when he posted on social media that he had never told coaches of an intent to transfer. That prompted a second release from U of L, saying that Davis had been dismissed from the team.

Davis kept coming to games. Occasionally his image found its way onto the big screens at the KFC Yum! Center.

It was a bizarre chapter in the middle of a sad chapter for Louisville basketball. Davis was moved from the players' residence in Denny Crum Hall after his dismissal, but remained in Louisville.

So, again, I ask, how do you write this story?

RED WHITE Koron Davis

Louisville’s Koron Davis pump fakes before going up for a shot during the team’s Red-White scrimmage at the KFC Yum! Center on Oct. 11, 2023.

Davis declined a chance to talk at the time his whole dismissal/transfer mess was going on, and at least one other request.

His teammates liked him and spoke well of him both before and after his dismissal. And Payne famously said of Davis, when he showed up for a game in the stands, "Koron Davis is not in trouble. I didn't know he was at the game, but if he was, that's fine with me. He's a part of this team right now."

Repeatedly, Payne would say Davis is "not in trouble."

He also wasn't in basketball games, or practices.

In the end, I guess that's what you write.

Koron Davis, a 6-foot-6-inch guard from Gary, Indiana, who averaged 0 points, 0 rebounds and 0 assists because he played in 0 basketball games, has entered the transfer portal a little more than two months after he was dismissed from the team.

He is not expected to be the last, with Payne and his staff having been let go.

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