Welp. Happy Monday.
In things that will definitely ruin your Monday, Syracuse.com’s Donna Ditota is reporting that Syracuse Orange basketball forward Taurean Thompson has withdrawn from the school and the basketball program.
Let’s break this down in two parts: First and foremost, Donna’s article makes it sound like there are a varying many factors at play leading to Thompson’s decision, most of them personal. In fact, this is the totality of Jim Boeheim’s statement:
"We have been informed that Taurean is taking a leave of absence from Syracuse University," SU coach Jim Boeheim said in a statement. "My understanding is he wants to go to school closer to home due to some family health issues."
That’s it. We can only hope that whatever it is that’s ailing Thompson or someone in his family gets resolved quickly. There’s no faulting a 20-year old kid for wanting to make sure his family is taken care of.
That being said, the second factor is that this is really bad for this year’s basketball team. There was little front court depth and this takes away the arguable best front court player on the team. Unless Paschal Chukwu has a major breakout, the team will be mismatched with almost every team in conference and the better non-conference teams.
Last year, Thompson scored 9.2 points per game with 3.8 rebounds, but key to that is it was on 55 percent shooting from the field (and in just 18 minutes per game).
Here’s hoping there’s still some of the Boeheim magic dust laying around. The team’s gonna need it now (if it didn’t already).
UPDATE:
Source: Taurean Thompson is on Seton Hall's campus with him expected to announce his transfer to SH within the next week.
— BarstoolReags (@BarstoolReags) August 28, 2017
Thompson will head to Seton Hall, per a report from Barstool Sports. Last summer, he chose between Syracuse, Seton Hall and Michigan State before going with the Orange. Thompson’s from Jersey City, N.J. -- less than 30 minutes from SHU.
This was already a big blow for SU, and it’s made worse by him going to a regional former conference rival. Still, best of luck to Thompson in the future and in dealing with his family health issues.
