Former Penn State basketball player Rasir Bolton, who played one season with the Nittany Lions, has entered the transfer portal after spending the past two seasons at Iowa State.
Bolton played for PSU during the 2018-19 season, averaging 11.6 points per game. He transferred to Iowa State, then word eventually came out about why.
Former Penn State coach Patrick Chambers had used the word “noose” when talking to Bolton, as detailed in this 2020 story by The Undefeated. That story helped spark an investigation into Chambers by the PSU administration.
From that story:
The day after the Wisconsin game, Chambers told Bolton he knew the freshman was under a lot of pressure and wanted to help him. Bolton recalls Chambers, who was on the hot seat due to the suspension and a 7-8 record at that point in the season, saying, “I want to be a stress reliever for you. You can talk to me about anything. I need to get some of this pressure off you.
“I want to loosen the noose that’s around your neck.”
A few months after that story was published, Chambers was forced to resign in late October. There has never been anything made public about exactly what Penn State found in its investigation of Chambers.
Bolton, meanwhile, moved on to Iowa State and played well the past two seasons. He averaged 14.7 points during the 2019-20 season and led the Cyclones in scoring at 15.5 points per game this past season.
But Iowa State had a disastrous season, going 2-22 overall and 0-18 in the Big 12. Coach Steve Prohm was fired, and the school hired coach T.J. Otzelberger from UNLV.
Bolton appeared to be committed to Iowa State and posted the following on Twitter on March 11:
🌪🌪🌪 pic.twitter.com/2SdLM8g0N6
— Rasir Bolton (@rasir_45) March 11, 2021
But something must have changed for Bolton since then, and he decided it was time for him to move on from Iowa State. He tweeted the following on Tuesday, and it later was confirmed in published reports that he had entered the transfer portal.
All Love🌪 pic.twitter.com/TujyFYSAqF
— Rasir Bolton (@rasir_45) April 6, 2021
Bolton undoubtedly will draw great interest from a lot of teams while in the transfer portal. He’s an experienced player and quality scorer who has proven himself in two of the nation’s toughest conferences.
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