Wisconsin Reverses Course on Uthoff Transfer Request Considering the growing public antipathy to an N.C.A.A. system that treats players like indentured servants, the recent string of coaches amplifying that situation has grown startlingly long. And likely explains why Wisconsin did an abrupt U-turn on Thursday and reduced the restrictions basketball coach Bo Ryan had imposed on freshman forward Jarrod Uthoff. Shortly after Ryan had gone on an ESPN radio program and explained why he made 26 schools off-limits to Uthoff, the school announced that Uthoff was free to transfer anywhere outside the Big Ten. Ryan's comments did not likely help his cause. He told ESPN.com's Andy Katz, "There are rules of a scholarship. I didn't make them up. Later, he added, "This is something that all coaches do. I didn't make the rules. I'm just following them. But Ryan was rightly perceived as the latest to thumb his nose at the idea that athletes should have any control over their fates because he isn't required to restrict where Uthoff could transfer, he chose to. Uthoff had decided to transfer after red-shirting his freshman season at Wisconsin and deciding he did not fit into Ryan's system. Ryan, perturbed about something in Uthoff's request, not only ruled out the Big Ten but also the entire Atlantic Coast Conference, Iowa State and Marquette. Uthoff, a 6-8 freshman forward from Cedar Falls, Iowa, expressed his frustration with Ryan's move, which comes not long after St. Joseph's Coach Phil Martelli was roundly criticized for what appeared to be a vindictive refusal to release Todd O'Brien from his scholarship so he could use his final year of eligibility at Alabama-Birmingham. This was despite O'Brien having already graduated from St. Joseph's and not actually figuring in Martelli's plans for the coming season, and it struck a lot of people, including Joe Nocera of The Times, as preposterous. Last week, Utah Coach Larry Krystkowiak gave this trend a disturbing new turn when he asked Josh Hearlihy, a recruit from Studio City, Calif., not to come to Utah, despite having signed him to a scholarship last November. Krystkowiak's change of heart on his recruit clearly put Hearlihy in a terrible spot, because all the other schools he was considering had long offered all of their scholarships. Hearlihy has since agreed not to come to Utah, The Salt Lake City Tribune reported. Uthoff's plight was the latest to spark an outcry over the unfair treatment of athletes under N.C.A.A. rules. Coaches have fought reform proposals that would make scholarships a four-year commitment to a player and not just for a single year and that would pay for the true cost of college attendance. Yet coaches can move from program to program with no restrictions, leaving players stuck and at the whim of the university administrators. Had Ryan not gone on the radio and made his decision sound even worse, Uthoff would have been bound by his decision. It seems like the latest argument for reform.