Taran Buie Hits the Road
April 19, 2011 at 10:29 am Ryan Jones 2 comments
This isn’t how we hoped Taran Buie’s story would turn out.
We assume most Alumni Association members recall our Sept/Oct 2010 cover story on Buie and his half-brother Talor Battle, the basketball teammates on whose talents Penn State’s 2010-11 season figured to rest. In that, we were half right: Battle wrapped up arguably the finest career in Nittany Lion history by leading the team to its first NCAA tournament berth since 2001. Buie? The highly touted freshmen showed flashes of promise early in the season, but was suspended indefinitely for violations of team rules at the start of Big Ten play. That suspension ran through the end of the season, leaving most observers to assume Buie wouldn’t be back.
Well, now it’s official. On Monday, coach Ed DeChellis ’82 announced that Buie has been released from his scholarship, leaving him free to play at another school. Buie’s history of minor legal scrapes—most recently, he was one of a handful of Penn State athletes charged with disorderly conduct following a scuffle last month—likely won’t prevent him from finding a suitor, particularly among college coaches who remember him as one of the most talented high school players in the country. It’s a shame he couldn’t follow his older brother’s example: Battle, by all accounts, has been a model student-athlete during his four years on campus.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Entry filed under: Nittany Lion basketball. Tags: Ed DeChellis, Talor Battle, Taran Buie.
Subscribe
1. Brian Slawin | April 22, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Hmmmm, kick a kid while he’s down, eh? I’ve been impressed by your writing before . . . not so much this one.
It’s a shame he couldn’t follow his older brother’s example: . . . We’re all entitled to mistakes and the chance for reprieve and this was a cheap shot.
2. Anthony G | July 6, 2011 at 11:19 am
the problem with your comment isnt that your wrong…..its that buie is one of the few kids in NY with a strong support system and an older brother to look up to to attempt to be like…as to where the rest who are “stars”(tiki mayben etc…) look up to the drug dealers on the street and have no real support system other than there friends who are trying to mooch everything they can from a kid in highschool/college so yea that was a cheap shot but wasnt it warrented?honestly brian this kid was handed a silver platter full of gold with his brother to learn from(small desparity in age) and dropped it on his toes! come on man just another kid with talent who throws it away