Reported by Jeff Goodman. So clearly our best player is gone. While he was the 6th man, I viewed DeAndre as arguably our second best player. So now it is a complete rebuild. We are losing 2 of our best players from a last place team. We can't get much lower- we did tie for 11th place so I guess we could. If everyone else stays and Darrell's adds some guys, maybe we can be competitive (.500?) but that is likely a stretch. Pretty sure my trip to New Orleans, next March, will again be to see only our women play. The job is now completely Darrell's although a couple of Wes' players remain. I felt like Wes could have done better with this year's group. But now we will get to see how Darrell can do with his guys.

I'm pretty bummed, but Rayjon played his butt off for us this season. No doubt he can go to a Power 5 school. I had heard how good he was from multiple sources, but he was even better than I expected. He deserves the opportunity to show his stuff on the big stage.

I guess whether it's Gafford not playing in the NIT or guys transferring their senior season, it really is "all about me" these days. What happened to loyalty or comradery toward your teammates and/or coach? I guess in our case the coach did not recruit these players. Also you never know how players really get along inside or outside the locker room. Maybe some were counting the days until they could get away from certain teammates. I do have a feeling that if we were 21-10 rather than 10-21, decisions about leaving may have been different.

Loyalty? Team mates? Don't delude yourself. College athletics is about the paycheck at the end. The only ones hanging around in any sport are only doing it to increase their value prior to making the move to pro sports. They don't go to universities to get educated. That's a nice side perk if they do show up for classes. They go to prep for the big leagues.

(03-20-2019 09:02 AM)sdcritter Wrote:  Loyalty? Team mates? Don't delude yourself. College athletics is about the paycheck at the end. The only ones hanging around in any sport are only doing it to increase their value prior to making the move to pro sports. They don't go to universities to get educated. That's a nice side perk if they do show up for classes. They go to prep for the big leagues.

I guess I still like to delude myself so I can continue to be a college sports fan, but I'm sure you are right for the most part. I still believe I can follow our women's sports teams without worrying about them leaving early for the pro's or making a "business" decision to transfer to another school. Education also seems to mean something to most of the women's athletes I have dealt with. And to be fair, we have had quite a few men's athletes who have graduated from "real" degree programs and have done well in the community after college.

per twitter:
Little Rock grad transfer Rayjon Tucker (20.3 PPG, 6.7 RPG) has heard from Arizona, Arizona State, St. John's, Utah, Ole Miss, Memphis, TCU, Nevada, Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, Miami, South Carolina, Auburn, UConn, Texas Tech, Maryland, West Virginia, Grand Canyon, Rhode Island.

Hope he ends up with Wes at Auburn. If they had a good relationship, I bet it happens. If not, I'd like to see him in the ACC. I think he is good enough to play anywhere, but would he be a starter on most ACC teams? As a 5th year senior, I think he might be, but I'm not sure.

If he went to Texas Tech, Coach Beard would have another Josh Hagans


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I love Josh, but I don't think he is in Rayjon's league.[/align]

I agree with you athletically but I would take Josh any day. He wanted to win more than anything and did whatever it took. In my opinion Rayjon was out for Rayjon on the court. I will agree he’s the most talented player we have had since Carlos Rogers but in the end he got us 10 wins. We can win 10 without him., or 7 or 4 or who cares if it’s below .500

(03-20-2019 07:05 PM)Karl B Wrote:  I agree with you athletically but I would take Josh any day. He wanted to win more than anything and did whatever it took. In my opinion Rayjon was out for Rayjon on the court. I will agree he’s the most talented player we have had since Carlos Rogers but in the end he got us 10 wins. We can win 10 without him., or 7 or 4 or who cares if it’s below .500

I think Rayjon wanted to win as well. He seemed to always give 100% and ended up on the floor regularly. At times, he tried to do too much out of frustration. I can't blame him for leaving a terrible team and don't consider him selfish for doing that. If we were 21-10 this year and had a chance to be an elite midmajor next season, with everyone back, I'd be pretty pissed and agree that he was only out for himself.

I agree that we can't really do much worth without him. Darrell needs to keep his freshman, add some young studs, and build this program from the ground up. I guess us Trojan fans are used to being patient- but we really need to see some improvement next season.

We will be better next season. Just mark it down.

In the first place, it won't be hard to be better, since we were terrible. In the second place, DW is getting his players to play his system (whatever it is). In the third place, we have some of the most talented freshmen we have had who ought to get the Sophomore Bump next season.

And IF (because I don't know) the attitude of this team was to watch Rayjon get it done, then we will be more of a team next season, and that is ALWAYS good.