Let’s be clear about something. In 95% of the cases (yes, a made up number) any player who completed his junior year does not “voluntarily” transfer or leave a D-1 program unless there are criminal, academic or personal issues. That player is stuck dropping down to D-2 basketball if they want to get a scholarship and play. Their eligibility at the upper-level is shot because at D-1 a transfer has to sit out a year. They can play immediately if they drop a level.
So, I’m not even going to pretend that Pitt coaches weren’t doing everything they could to convince Cassin Diggs to leave the basketball team. It may not have been with the direct coldness of a Jim Calhoun forced exit, but it was done. I can’t say I’m comfortable with it, simply because it means falling back on the old chestnut of “well it goes on everywhere else.”
At the same time, the rationalizing part of my brain that knows how this helps Pitt by freeing up that scholarship to a player who may be more productive and may fill that immediate need at shooting guard. It continues with the point that this is only the first time it has happened, and only the second transfer under Dixon.
To say nothing of a reflexive defense when Diggs unloads a bit.
Diggs said the split from Pitt was not amicable. He had wanted to remain with the team, but the coaches repeatedly encouraged him to transfer. After a while, he relented and decided to leave because it became obvious he was not wanted.
“They basically wanted me to leave because they wanted to sign someone else,” Diggs said.
Diggs, a Williamsport, Pa., native, went on to say the Pitt coaches were “manipulators” because they made it seem like he would receive more playing time during the recruiting process.
“The walk-ons were playing more at the end of the season than I was,” Diggs said. “[The coaches] made it seem like it was because of my injuries, but it wasn’t.”
Again, the defensiveness of the program screams, “The walk-ons were playing more because even they were better than you!” I also feel the need to dispute the “manipulators” accusation. Diggs is the first player leaving Pitt under Dixon to complain bitterly. Dante Milligan left because of a lack of playing time, but hardly went crazy about it (of course he still had plenty of time to his eligibility).
The final thing about this, from a planning standpoint is that it only leaves Pitt with 3 scholarships to offer for next year — Fields, Young and Biggs — rather than 4 (barring any other transfers). That’s a little frustrating, especially if Travon Woodall Darnell Dodson (remember him?) is still in Pitt’s plan after his JUCO stint. He would be part of the 2009 signing class.
On the plus side, Jermaine Dixon’s signing will give the team a scholarship opening in 2010 where at present there are none.
