"Guard Josh Wright will not return to the Gee-Gees men's basketball team next season.Wright was a treat to watch, but there were a few along press row at the Final 8 who felt he did not make Gee-Gees combo guard Josh Gibson-Bascombe a better player.
"The six-foot-one transfer from Utica, New York who played half a season in the CIS is hoping to secure a professional contract in Europe.
" 'It's something we thought would happen,' said Gee-Gees men's head basketball coach Dave DeAveiro. 'It was his goal to play pro somewhere.'
"Wright, 22, scored just under 17 points per game over 12 regular season games with uOttawa after joining the Gee-Gees in December, 2008 following three seasons at Syracuse.
"It is not known where Wright intends to play. A call to his home in New York State was not returned." — school release
The Gee-Gees will be a bit of a X-factor in the OUA in 2009-10. Carleton has the automatic entry into the Final 8, so once again an OUA East team will have two shots to qualify for nationals, either be winning the division or a third-place game. Ottawa will have new starters at the 4 and 5 spots, since David Labentowicz and Dax Dessureault have graduated. Forward Nemanja Baletic and centre Louis Gauthier each started to come on at the end of last season.
Sophomore swingman Warren "Worldwide" Ward is going to have nights where he takes your breath away, while third-year man Jacob Gibson-Bascombe and fifth-year senior Donnie Gibson are still in the backcourt picture.
Cross-posted to cisblog.ca.
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4 comments:
I'd make a joke about what a complete sham the entire Gee-Gees program is at this point, but I'm sure Big V will come along to do it better than I could.
A sham because of one player? coach D has recruited well over the years and developed many players that stayed for five years.
Take Desserault for instance. His first two seasons he looked like a skinny kid who did not have what it takes. Coach D. turned him into a player that win several awards. Dax also was a four-time CIS Academic all-Canadian, and earned the Ontario conference Ken Shields award after speaking to school groups about goal setting and values --with a number of team-mates-- in addition to a field placement with Operation Go Home, a drop-in center for Ottawa street youth, as part of Criminology studies. Currently Gibson, the Gibson-Bascome brothers , Ward, Clarke ,Gauthier et al are fine student/athletes.
That being said, I hope a lesson has been learned here. Transfers are fine, but they should be transfers that are serious about graduating from the university. "One year wonders" is not the way to go and I hope this incident has shown them that.
OttawaFan
Kinger
Did not Queen's have a hockey goalie a year or two ago, who had played for the 67's-- was a student courses at uOttawa--and then transfered to Queen's--played for the Gaels for one season--then left without a degree to play minor pro somewhere--same as Wright is now doing?
Does that make the Gaels hockey program a sham? I think not.
P.S--I think the player I mentioned was Brady Morrison, but Brady Olsen and Ryan Gibb , although not transfers like Morrison, also "pulled a Wright" and left Queen's without a degree to follow their dream of playing pro. Hockey in their case, unlike Wright who wants to play pro bouncy ball.
Anon 6:16 - I'm talking about the whole Gee-Gees department, since their football team has done the same thing with one-year transfer players.
Anon 6:55 - You could not be more wrong. Brady Morrison has played for two years, not one, with Queen's and is still with the team - plus he had been pursued by some of the great eastern schools and was never committed in any sense to Ottawa, I don't think. Brady Olsen graduated with a four-year degree in economics before going to the Central League. Ryan Gibb did leave after two years, not one, but didn't transfer to Queen's. Do your research.
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