We all knew this year would be rough for Cal basketball. It just got rougher. Diamond Leung of ESPN reports.
Cal freshman guard Gary Franklin is leaving the team and will transfer.
"He's leaving," his father, Gary Franklin Sr., said Wednesday.
Franklin had his shooting woes through the first year and was understandably benched for the Hartford and Stanford contests, but he seemed to perform better in a sixth man role in those two contests. However, it's possible that Franklin was unhappy with coming off the bench and couldn't accept the fact that he was no longer starting. Perhaps Franklin wanted more playing time, and thought he deserved the starting spot, and figured he could start somewhere else. It might be a tough road for him; despite taking the majority of shots, Franklin's offensive rating was 75.4, worst on the team. It's sad that we won't be able to see his development, and will be very tough for the rest of our team to adapt with his departure.
(It also makes you wonder what the hell the coaches are doing down at Mater Dei. That's eight transfers total by six of their kids [including the Wear Twins and twice by Taylor King and Mike Gerrity apiece] over the past five seasons. Huh?)
Mike Montgomery deserves some blame here as well: Having a kid transfer like this midseason is simply baffling and unacceptable. Unless there are serious issues going on, losing one of your primary scorers (no matter how inefficient) is going to seriously cut into this team's ability to compete in the Pac-10 throughout 2011, perhaps even through 2012. Monty needs to take some heat for recruiting a player who wouldn't react well to his coaching style.
The question is where do the Golden Bears go from here? Nigel Carter will almost certainly be pressed into more minutes, and transfer Jeff Powers might start seeing action--neither Alex Rossi nor Emerson Murray are ready to play Pac-10 opponents. Cal might have to go for a JC shooting guard next season, because we're down to only eight scholarship basketball players.