:ooks Like UTEP Is Getting a Memphis BB Transfer

[Stallion]

Cooper searches for greener pastures at UTEP
Memphis sophomore Kareem Cooper will begin a visit to UTEP Thursday afternoon with a plan to transfer into the program now led by John Calipari's former assistant, Tony Barbee.

"I just want to look at him eye-to-eye and we're going to have a heart-to-heart," Barbee told CBS SportsLine.com on Thursday morning. "He's got to be willing to change."

Barbee was on the staff that lured Cooper to Memphis along with other Laurinburg (N.C.) Prep stars Antonio Anderson, Robert Dozier and Shawne Williams. Packaged with Chris Douglas-Roberts, that recruiting class has led the Tigers to back-to-back Elite Eights, but Cooper is the one player who has never flourished on or off the court. Instead, he's struggled with his weight and discipline so much that Calipari no longer wanted the 6-foot-11 center on his roster, which precipitated the transfer.

Still, Calipari wants to help Cooper (not to mention Barbee).

That's why sources said he'll sign a waiver that will allow Cooper to transfer to a fellow Conference USA school without further penalty. Under normal circumstances, a student-athlete moving from one league institution to another must sit out two years. But if Calipari signs the waiver Cooper would miss just one season, meaning he'd be eligible to play for UTEP in the 2008-09 campaign.

"Last season I was the biggest guy on our bench," joked Barbee, who replaced Doc Sadler in August. "So Kareem has something we don't have here. At least we'd look the part."