Larry Drew II leaves UNC MBB

[ChicagoHeel]

Maybe he had some sort of revelation following the terrifying flight to Miami. He did tweet something about how the experience was one that would make you reexamine your life- or something to that effect.

[mkirsh]

Maybe he heard through the grapevine that Kyrie's toe evaluation was way better than expected and he's getting out of town now to save himself the embarrassment of a head to head matchup. One can only hope.

[superdave]

LDII was a decent defender and shooter. He had his moments the past year or so but was never consistent, which is pretty much emblematic of the entire team. But to quit now, for any reason, is bad. You either ride it out for 6 more weeks or you quit basketball altogether, but you dont quit in Feb to transfer. I dont care what the reason is, that's being a bad teammate. You transfer either in Dec or April/May.

LDII shot 6-29 on 3s for the season (.207) while Marshall is 7-18 (.389). Both are averaging around 4 ppg and 4 apg. This would seem like an upgrade, but playing 35 minutes per game is likely to hurt Marshall's efficiency. I think the upgrade is likely to be in chemistry though.

[Nrrrrvous]

Maybe he heard through the grapevine that Kyrie's toe evaluation was way better than expected and he's getting out of town now to save himself the embarrassment of a head to head matchup. One can only hope.

Quote of the Day...

That's definitely the story I'm going with!

[gam7]

If this is a basketball-related departure, contrast it with Greg Paulus's attitude and continued buy-in one he lost his starting spot. Greg may have been limited as a player but you have to respect his attitude and reaction to being benched.

[weezie]

turnover jesus

What's a "turnover jesus"?

[rsvman]

Maybe he had some sort of revelation following the terrifying flight to Miami. He did tweet something about how the experience was one that would make you reexamine your life- or something to that effect.

I suppose this is possible, but if he intends to play for another team at any time there is no way to escape the "frequent flyer" aspect of college basketball.

[bl33dblu3]

I'm kind of sad about this - as a Duke fan I really liked seeing Drew II in the UNC lineup

who will give the rock to third row fans?
maybe the university of phoenix has an opening

[OldPhiKap]

The press releases (available on IC) seem to support that the family was heavily involved in the decision. LD II also references (not an exact quote) that he was sorry he did not meet the expectations of the fanbase.

Shows again why it is important to remember that kids hear and read the trash fans fling around without much thought.

Another article (not the press releases) indicates that Roy was "blindsided" by the news from LD I that LD II was leaving. FWIW.

[ChicagoHeel]

LD II's statement:

"...I'd like to thank the coaching staff for giving me the opportunity to play at one of the nation's top colleges in UNC, and my teammates for their support as well. It is unfortunate my career didn't meet expectations in Chapel Hill, however I do look forward to continuing my collegiate and athletic career in the near future."

That second sentence seems revealing. Either the criticism, or his own sense of inadequacy, wore him down. If so, I can understand, but I don't think it justifies abandoning your teammates in the middle of a campaign.

[weezie]

I understand those who accuse JDII of being a "quitter" but I disagree. If your heart is breaking, and possibly his was, why wait?
We're still talking about a 19-20 year old man. Few of us can relate to that kind of disappointment, pain and humiliation.

[gumbomoop]

Having been very critical of Roy's emotional weirdness, itself an embarrassment to sensible Heels, I credit him both for bowing to the obvious in starting Marshall and for keeping LDII's demotion from leading to bad chemistry vibes. It's even possible that one should credit LDII himself for accepting a lesser role.

It appears that I spoke too soon. How to explain my obtuseness? Here it is: I said, "It's... possible..." So I'm in the clear.

A couple of weeks ago, when UNC was struggling and nobody could understand why Coach Williams insisted on starting Drew ahead of Marshall, I was told by an UNC insider that the reason was that Roy was afraid that if he benched Drew for Marshall that he would lose Drew ... apparently that fear was real.

I haven't got a clue what's going on, but it sounds like something ugly behind the scenes.

Since the beginning of the season,I have subscribed to the theory referred to by OF in the above first paragraph. All sorts of rumors this past summer re LDII's abandoning CH during the summer. Rumors he wanted to transfer last spring. A soap opera in the making. As it seemed clear to me, early this season, that Marshall was such a good passer and Drew's superior as field general - and further that it also seemed clear to UNC fans - it seemed likely that the soap opera would grow, with attendant bad chemistry. Roy was holding off starting Marshall, thought I, pretty cynically [me, about Roy], until after the first semester, thinking [me, channeling Roy] that once Drew stuck around for the second semester, he'd have to put off any further thoughts of transferring at least until season's end, possibly forever. No one would leave in the middle of the second semester; have to sit out way, way too long. Soap opera defused.

But [here OF's 2d paragraph is relevant] the soap opera wasn't defused at all. I'm guessing Barnes and Bullock in particular couldn't quite disguise their preference for Marshall. Marshall, not Drew, is their buddy, not to mention the vastly more relevant fact that Marshall gets the ball to shooters when and where they want it. Barnes and Bullock are shooters.

Although Drew's departure heightens the soap opera on the eve of the first of several big games for the Heels, it could well be addition by subtraction, at least on O. It further limits Roy's options for mass substitutions, which sure didn't seem to be working too well earlier in the season.

In any game the rest of this season- and quite possibly next, as UNC has no incoming PG - in which Strickland underwhelms as Marshall's backup, we should expect that Roy will refer, obliquely, to Drew, and explicitly to... Kyrie.

[swood1000]

The press releases (available on IC) seem to support that the family was heavily involved in the decision. LD II also references (not an exact quote) that he was sorry he did not meet the expectations of the fanbase.

Shows again why it is important to remember that kids hear and read the trash fans fling around without much thought.

Another article (not the press releases) indicates that Roy was "blindsided" by the news from LD I that LD II was leaving. FWIW.

If the episode of the Wear twins is any indication Roy will have a way of squelching anything approaching a full disclosure here.

[sporthenry]

Again, LDII was 3rd in the league in A/TO. He averaged a TO every 15.33 minutes of play compared to Nolan every 13.13 minutes (I know there are other things in play for Nolan but he still turns it over more than Drew does), or Marshall who averages a TO every 9.6 minutes. In addition, Marshall has 6 steals to Drew's 10 in league play while Marshall is averaging 5.7 points to Drew's 3.1 points.

And perhaps more condemning news, since taking over the starting job, KM has only seen his minutes go up less than .75 minutes while Drews went down less than .5 minutes however the efficiencies have changed dramatically. Perhaps KM padded his stats against team's reserves b/c his assists have dipped from 5.66 in non-starts to 4.25 while his TO's have gone up from 1.33 to 2.75 (sure it is a small sample but the gap is fairly large not to mention he is a freshman potentially hitting a wall). His scoring has also dropped from 6 to 5.5. Meanwhile, Drew has gone up as he is only averaging 1 TO a game compared to 4.75 assists and points went up from 2.66 to 3.5.

Maybe it is a bit of an over analysis but since taking over the starting job, KM averages a turnover every 7.73 minutes compraed to Drew averaging 1 every 19.25 minutes in KM's starts.

[miramar]

Concordia University

LOL.

Amazingly enough, TK is shooting 45%, but only 34% on threes. I always wondered about his athleticism and defense, but on threes I thought he was going to be JJ with more range. My mistake.

http://www.cuieagles.com/stats/2010-...)/teamcume.htm

[brevity]

What's a "turnover jesus"?

The nickname for the Notre Dame student section on the defensive end.

Back to Drew: I think you all have it wrong. Imagine a world (a parallel, Twilight Zone world, maybe) where you wake up one morning and realize you've been wearing the wrong shade of blue. You've been maligned by your own fans for more than one season, lost your tenuous (some might say fictional) grasp on a starting job, and can't get rid of the taste of tire rubber in your mouth from your head coach's repeated deflecting actions. You'd want to get out of that situation immediately, right? No matter how awkward the timing may be?

So let me be the first to congratulate Mr. Drew on coming to his senses.

[Rudy]

I understand those who accuse JDII of being a "quitter" but I disagree. If your heart is breaking, and possibly his was, why wait?
We're still talking about a 19-20 year old man. Few of us can relate to that kind of disappointment, pain and humiliation.

I feel for the kid, even if his disappointment is the only reason he's leaving. However, life is full of disappointments even at the highest level. Think of John McCain or even Al Gore, for pete's sake. The right thing to do is to suck it up, learn what you can from the experience and consider the character it can build to strive under adversity.

If he wanted to play somewhere else the thing to do would have been to play out the season, support his team as best he could and continue to strive to get better. Oh, yeah and continue his free college education while he's at it. Quitting now does nothing to improve his ability or to improve his standing to go to another program. It's selfish and self-destructive. No college is going to give him a scholarship to sit one year and play one year. He might as well sulk off and play professionally in Europe. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what he ends up doing.

Roy was holding off starting Marshall, thought I, pretty cynically [me, about Roy], until after the first semester, thinking [me, channeling Roy] that once Drew stuck around for the second semester, he'd have to put off any further thoughts of transferring at least until season's end, possibly forever. No one would leave in the middle of the second semester; have to sit out way, way too long. Soap opera defused.

Makes sense to me, particularly if LD had stopped listening to Roy's advice. Maybe that thinking would be self-serving for the coach but had it worked it would also have served the kid better than what happened.

[ChicagoHeel]

I am a little dubious that Roy purposely held off benching LD II as some sort of nefarious trick to keep him from transferring. A constant complaint of UNC fans about Roy is that he is slow to bench under-performing players with seniority (a complaint we used to make about Dean Smith too). Everyone was going nuts last year when Ginyard kept starting. It was most likely Roy's stubbornness combined with his concern about the effect benching would have on LDII's play- and the team itself- that explains his unwillingness to start Marshall.

[timmy c]

My first thoughts are complete conjecture but i thought i'd share anyways...

The timing is very interesting. The next two UNC games will be the toughest part of their conference schedule - vs. Florida St., @ Duke. If UNC goes 0-2, LDII could make the narcissistic suggestion that they needed him and never appreciated him.

[IBleedBlue]

UNC fans always point out that Nolan plays heavy minutes. Now, we will see how they will handle the PG minutes and resposibilities with Kendall. Now, he has to take care of offense and defense. This will put a lot of pressure on him...