A tumultuous February saw Louisville senior Chris Jones suspended, reinstated, and ultimately dismissed from the school’s basketball team. But on Wednesday, the guard’s college career came to a likely end with an arrest warrant charging him with raping one woman and sodomizing another, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
While it is unclear why Louisville chose to reinstate Jones after his initial suspension, he reportedly sent threatening text messages to a “sometimes” girlfriend following a late-night dustup where the woman was stood up at Jones’ apartment. While the woman did not press formal charges, she asked someone at U of L to counsel the point guard on his behavior.
Judge Sheila Collins released Jones after he met the $25,000 bond. The judge ordered him placed under house arrest. Jones’ attorney claims the guard has withdrawn from classes at and resides in a hotel.
The warrant had labeled him a flight risk. Jones, Louisville’s starting point guard over the last two seasons, averaged 13.7 points per game and led the team in assists.
The Memphis native came out of high school as an academic non-qualifier and originally aligned with home-state Tennessee before Volunteer headman Bruce Pearl’s sacking in 2011. Jones led Northwest Florida State College to the 2013 NJCAA championship game and ranked number one among all junior college players before transferring to Louisville in 2013.
On Monday, playing their first game since Jones’s dismissal, Louisville labored to score and struggled to find rhythm offensively in their come-from-behind win at Georgia Tech. The 17th-ranked Cardinals play at Florida State on Saturday.