Sheldon Jeter to remain at Pitt, per father

Former Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings was hired at Pitt to replace Jamie Dixon over the weekend. Many of us quickly wondered how the news would impact forward Sheldon Jeter, who left Vanderbilt while Stallings was there to transfer to Pitt. Even worse, Stallings refused to grant Jeter his release, delaying his arrival here.

Further compounding things was an interesting tweet from Jeter on Saturday night after news of Stallings' impending hire broke.

But if you're expecting that to result in another Jeter transfer, think again. His father said he's not going anywhere, per the Beaver County Times:

“He had mixed feelings at first,” Carliss said. “He didn’t know how he’d be received by the coach at first. It’s just one of those things where he understands he has a job to do. The bottom line is he needs to get an education. If it wouldn’t have been Kevin Stallings, it would’ve been someone else.

“He still would’ve had to prepare for him. He had to get himself together for preparation for his senior season and education wise. It didn’t make a difference what coach came in. It just happened to be that Coach Stallings got the job.”

Carliss said Jeter and Stallings already had a conversation. And while Jeter will likely graduate this summer, and would have options to transfer, Carliss said “he’s not going to run anywhere.”

“He’s going to stand up and do what he has to do,” he said.

Interestingly enough, as the article mentions, Jeter could graduate early and finish up this summer. That would make him eligible to be a grad transfer and go somewhere else to play immediately instead of needing to sit for a full year. But Jeter seems intent to stick with the program.

And guess, what - that's the sign of a mature player. He's not bailing on his team or allowing a really uncomfortable situation to get in the way here. Few would blame him if he left knowing the history between he and Stallings and to stick around to make things work here when he could easily bolt is just a stand up thing for him to do.

That's great news to hear and Pitt is a better team with Jeter on it. There's no doubt that there was some bad blood there at the time because Stallings never granted Jeter his release. But at the same time, it seems that Jeter's family has moved on and considers this a non-issue.

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