He showed up on campus, didnt have the grades for scholarship so he paid his own way for a semester. Pearl realized he wasnt SEC caliber and sent him packing even though he'd already paid his way for a year.
He had to get his entire community together to raise the money to pay his own way, and after making decent grades in his semester here--with Pearl telling him and his father multiple times that everything would be fine and there would be a scholarship waiting for him--suddenly, his scholarship is gone with basically no explanation and he is essentially forced to leave.
I will not say that Pearl is blameless in this incident, but if West shows up with his grades in order to begin with, this is a non-issue. No one to blame but himself in the end.
This is a very fun game to watch. Rhode Island doesn't have the bodies to stick with Pitt. They're out of energy. West has 4 pts, 6 dimes, 3 steals, and 6 TO.