Rasheed Sulaimon is preparing for his senior season at Maryland with the distinction of being the only player ever kicked out of Duke by coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Sulaimon was dismissed in January for what Krzyzewski called being "unable to consistently live up to the standards required to be a member of our program."
Apparently, those words didn't sit well with Angela Sulaimon, Rasheed's mother.
"He said on TV when he let him go, 'It's a privilege to go to Duke.' He needs to take that back. It's a privilege to go to college - period," Angela told Don Markus of the Baltimore Sun on Monday. "It was a privilege to have Rasheed. I promise you that not all of his players have the GPA that Rasheed had. If he had kept him on the team, he would have graduated in December."
While at Duke, Rasheed also faced anonymous allegations of sexual assault. Although the accusations didn't result in charges, Angela believes her son became an inconvenience to Coach K.
"He didn't want to deal with it. He wanted to go on with the season. But there was no record, there were no formal charges. Nobody said, 'Yes, he did it.' The Duke newspaper tried to call me and one of them said, 'Why can't we talk to you and get your side of the story? Maybe we made a mistake with Rasheed.' But I never answered."
Duke reviewed the claims, but nothing materialized. Maryland also looked into the allegations before he transferred to the Terps, with the same outcome.
Angela believes Krzyzewski may have wrongfully perceived her son's competitiveness as an attitude issue.
"He's not the kind of kid who backed down and that was a problem with Coach K. I taught him to have a voice and to have an opinion," she said. "He has always been a very competitive kid. He wants to compete at the highest level. I wouldn't say he's on a mission (now). That's Rasheed. He never backs down. He doesn't like to lose. Some people might take it wrong, but he just likes to compete."
Rasheed, a guard, averaged 7.5 points per game for the Blue Devils last year before getting the boot.