Right.

Lead recruiter was Sonny Dykes.

Good for him. Hope he does well.

A stellar program that went 15-17 last year

oskidunker said:

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A stellar program that went 15-17 last year

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15-17 sounds good. Doesn't it?

No

NYCGOBEARS said:

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oskidunker said:

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A stellar program that went 15-17 last year

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15-17 sounds good. Doesn't it?

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Lol

Right on. Good luck Darius.

I always liked him. Humble. I think he had a few games where he got hot in the first half and his teammates stopped giving him the rock. Good luck Darius!

Blame WJ for Darius. He recruited austin to play PG for two years and said, in effect, concentrate on playing SG for the next two years.

Darius wasn't even supposed to come to Cal. He signed with Iowa State originally.

helltopay1 said:

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Blame WJ for Darius. He recruited austin to play PG for two years and said, in effect, concentrate on playing SG for the next two years.

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So, as a student, what do you think happens to the classes that he is currently enrolled in?
Does he stay and finish out the semester or just withdraw from the University immediately and forget about those classes?

KoreAmBear said:

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helltopay1 said:

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Blame WJ for Darius. He recruited austin to play PG for two years and said, in effect, concentrate on playing SG for the next two years.

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OK. That's like blaming Monty for Gary Franklin Jr.'s transfer. Both Darius and Gary had all the playing time in the world they wanted at a power conference. No blaming any coach here.

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The difference being that I have no memory of Gary ever making a basket.

Darius is transferring from one disaster of a program to another. This last season SMU was 15-17 overall and 6-12 in conference. They do have a nice dedicated 43,000 sq. ft. basketball practice facility, though.

Since he was gracious in his parting remarks, I can do the same:

Darius, best of luck going forward. Your scoring and steals leave us with some good memories. Go Bears!

Big loss

I liked his game and think he will be a more complete player as a junior/senior

Good luck to him

i think its a tough loss. we need shooters/scorers. he will improve smu.

High five to his parents/handlers/family for leading him to an equally crappy program with certainly way less exposure and a certified academic downgrade. Nice job parents, niiiiice job.

At least it's close to home. That makes it understandable. I bet the basketball decision is this:
1) I am 6'2/6'3
2) I like playing point guard
3) I'm a little too short to make money in basketball as a shooting guard or wing
4) SMU said they will let me play point guard
5) SMU is close to home and is a nice campus with facilities

I like Darius and wish that he'd stayed. His departure message was classy and he seems like a straight up guy. I wish him great success at SMU...genuinely.

But let's get something clear. He is absolutely not a point guard. Lead guards need to do a few things well where Darius was very weak: 1) create scoring opportunities for others. 2). Create scoring opportunities for yourself. 3). get to the line. 4). Apply ball pressure to the opponent's lead guard (less relevant for our defense last year). McNeill's assist numbers were always really low. He seldom created his own shot and benefitted mostly from assists from others. And his free throw rate (FTA/FGA) was in the .15 range when most good lead guards are in the .3-.5 range. If anyone can find a point guard with a lower FTr, I'll buy you a pie.

Darius brought some good elements to the team and I'm bummed to see him go but being a lead guard was just not in his game.

Darius may have some competition for PT in the backcourt with another former Cal signee, Tyson Jolly who obviously never made it to Berkeley. Sounds like Jolly has been doing the JC thing since leaving Baylor and is now heading to SMU after committing yesterday.