The Red and Black

COLE [Click to enlarge]

According to an Associated Press report, Cole said he is apathetic about the ongoing situation in Athens.

"I don't feel anything either way about the situation with the Harricks," Cole said in an interview with the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

"(Initially) Jim Harrick Jr. was suspended with pay. And coach Harrick, if he is fired, he'll receive the million dollars or so left on his contract," Cole said in the report. "But look what they did to me."

"I have a life to live, too. If I had not pursued this, everybody would say, 'Harrick's not going to take any crap. You see what he did to Tony Cole.' But I wasn't going to let him walk over me. It wasn't right. I didn't do anything."

The report, released Thursday, came out just a day after Georgia students and players attended a protest donning signs and shirts that said things such as, "Tony Cole sucks" and "Tony Cole can't read this sign."

According to the report, the Times-Picayune said Cole has been in seclusion in his hometown of Baton Rouge, La., since the controversy broke two weeks ago.

He also told the Times-Picayune: "Trouble may follow me, but I have success wherever I go. I can't blame anyone for my situations, but my upbringing has always been in the 'hood."

Cole lived with various relatives and in foster homes after his mother was institutionalized with mental illness when he was 7.

"There's nothing that's going to change me. I know I'm intelligent. I'm always trying to gain knowledge, wisdom. If you ask me, I never was supposed to get this far," he said.

Maybe not, but Cole is much closer to the SEC tournament in New Orleans than the Georgia basketball team is.

It appears that the fight for postseason play is over for good with the NIT and the NCAA declaring that they would only invite eligible teams and that the NIT would not hold a spot open to see if Georgia was forced to play.

Mary Byers, one of the attorneys representing Steve Thomas and Ezra Williams, said the injunction hearing still is planned for Monday morning but that it doesn't look good for the players.

"We're obviously really disappointed because there's not much we can do," Byers said. "At this point, it's pretty much pointless."

Byers said her clients aren't going to give up and that they still will show up to the hearing Monday.

"We're at a loss for what to do," Byers added. "We feel the University behaved cowardly and that they exploited Ezra for four years. They let the players down. They made millions off the players, and then they just let them down. We're stunned at the University."

-- Contributing: ESPN.com

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