Larry Drew

GONE!!!!!

 

See ya! Speaks volumes about him to do this in mid season. Fuck him, he was a turnover machine.

 

It really does speak about his character. I know he's terrible, but he was still a part of the team (playing 19 min last game.) Makes Jay Cutler look like the best teammate ever.

 

Speaks volumes about Roy. It isnt like he wasn't getting any playing time.

Thats 3 transfers and 1 dismissal in 9 months for old Roy.

 

Take Roy awhile to catch up with Kshitski in players transferring I'd say.

 

Not at this rate

 

I don't put as much on Williams as the Wear twins and Drew being spoiled little bitches and when their lack of maturity to recognize that it's better fror the team is to let someone with more talent start.

I'm not shedding one tear for any of the these guys that transfer. NONE of them will be playing pro ball in the US.

 

From ESPN Insider:
Well, I can't say I saw that one coming.

Guard Larry Drew II had become a defensive stopper for UNC.A couple weeks after losing his starting point guard spot to freshman Kendall Marshall, North Carolina junior Larry Drew II has decided to take his ball and go home. The news was first reported by ESPN.com's Pat Forde, and UNC made it official this afternoon with this rather wordy statement from coach Roy Williams:

"This morning I spoke to Larry Drew Sr. and he informed me that it was in Larry II's best interest to leave North Carolina at this time," says Williams. "Personally I hate this for Larry and our team because he was such an important part of our team and he has continued to improve and played well in recent games. He was our defensive award winner in two of our last four games and has handled the ball really well in our four-game win streak.

"But I understand that families and players have to make their own decisions as to what is best for them at a particular time in their lives. He contributed a great deal to our program in his two and a half years here, including being a part of a national championship team. I regret that Larry and his family feel this is the right thing to do, but again, each individual has to do what they think is best. He will be successful wherever he chooses to go. I appreciate what he gave to our University and basketball program in his time here."

Reading between the carefully worded press release lines is always a fool's task, but it's safe to say Roy doesn't seem very happy about the Drew family's decision. Drew II released his own statement alongside Williams', but he gave no specific reason for his departure. (The closest he got was saying it was "unfortunate my career didn't meet expectations in Chapel Hill ... ")

I'm loathe to play the speculation game, but in this case, it's not exactly a leap of the imagination to assume Williams' recent decision to insert Marshall into Drew II's spot in the starting lineup had something to do with Drew II's departure. Drew II entered this year with plenty of starting experience under his belt, and losing that role to a freshman no doubt stung.

But you can't blame Williams for making the switch. Marshall has been by far the more effective player this season; he's a much better shooter, a better passer, a more intuitive floor spacer, and his intelligent leadership has led to a much more effective Tar Heel offense in general. Marshall facilitates for his teammates -- guys like Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Tyler Zeller -- in ways that Drew II never did. UNC's suddenly effective offensive play is no coincidence.

For his part, Drew II seemed to have settled into a nice role as a defensive stopper; he's played as well in recent games as he has at any point during his disappointing UNC career.

Still, the timing of the decision, even when taken next to Williams' recent lineup change, is a bit strange. Midseason transfers aren't rare, but midseason transfers in February -- especially at North Carolina, and especially on teams tied for the ACC conference lead -- are. Why not wait until after the season is finished to make this decision? Why not try to settle into your new role? If Drew II sees himself as a starter, surely he could swallow that pride for a few more months? And if that's not the issue, then what is?

Whether Drew II's departure affects UNC's suddenly realistic chances of competing for the ACC title remains to be seen. Again, there's a reason he was benched; Drew II was the least efficient offensive player on Carolina's team, and his play frequently contributed to UNC's frequently stagnant offense. Maybe this is addition by subtraction. But it's just as possible North Carolina will miss Drew II's defensive contributions, even in a spot role off the bench.

For the Roy Bashers
Here's another interesting factoid about the decision, one that might or might not have any long-term implications: It continues the recent exodus of California recruits from North Carolina. As ESPN Research's Jonathan McDonald just passed along, Drew II is the fourth California recruit to transfer away from UNC in recent years, and the fifth (and maybe sixth, depending on how you'd characterize Deon Thompson's career) to underwhelm in Chapel Hill. To wit:

NOTABLE CALIFORNIA RECRUITS AND UNC
Larry Drew II is the fourth California recruit to transfer away from UNC in recent years.

Player Hometown Note
Larry Drew II Encino Left team today
Travis Wear Huntington Beach Transferred to UCLA
David Wear Huntington Beach Transferred to UCLA
Alex Stepheson* Los Angeles Transferred to USC
Quentin Thomas Oakland Career averages: 1.7 ppg, 2.2 apg.
Deon Thompson Torrance Started for national title team
* Transferred for family reasons

Compare that to Williams's career at Kansas, which included California-bred recruits like Paul Pierce, Drew Gooden and Jacque Vaughn. This is probably just coincidence, but it is notable all the same. For whatever reason, Williams just hasn't had the same success mining Cali talent to UNC as he did at KU.
Factoids aside, whatever the reasons for Drew II's decision, there's no question this comes at an awkward time. Just when this team had seemed to figure it out, it loses one of its rotation members to a February transfer. That's not something most teams will be dealing with this spring. Beyond the on-court stuff -- how Williams fills out his rotation and spreads Drew's minutes, for example -- how Williams handles this will play a major role in whether this UNC team remains the ascendant, suddenly impressive entity we've seen in recent weeks, or whether the Tar Heels take a step back at exactly the wrong time.

I'd wager on the former. This team should be fine. At the very least, though, this uncertainty comes at the worst of times.

Simple fix, stop recruiting in California. Pussy's want to play close to home or can't separate their umbilical cords from there twins

 

http://northcarolina.scout.com/2/1045909.html

Deciphering Drew


By Greg Barnes
Inside Carolina
Posted Feb 4, 2011



| More

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Larry Drew’s midseason decision to leave the North Carolina basketball program concludes a tumultuous career ripe with harsh criticism, transfer rumors and a recent benching, but most of all, it highlights a young man’s inability to fully connect with a program some 2,500 miles from home.

Drew struggled through his 17 starts as North Carolina’s floor general this season, averaging 4.6 points on 37.1 percent shooting (21.4 percent on 3-pointers) and a 3.7-to-2 assist-to-turnover ratio. Following UNC’s 20-point loss at Georgia Tech on Jan. 16, head coach Roy Williams inserted Kendall Marshall into the starting lineup at point guard and relegated Drew to the bench.
There was legitimate concern that the move would damage the junior’s confidence, but Drew flourished in his new role, posting a 19-to-4 assist-to-turnover ratio while knocking down roughly 44 percent of his field goal attempts. On Tuesday night, Drew delivered a 9:1 assist-error mark in North Carolina’s 106-74 blowout victory at Boston College.

The Tar Heels did not practice on Wednesday due to a late arrival back into Chapel Hill that morning. Practice resumed on Thursday afternoon, and by all accounts, everything seemed normal.

And then Drew was gone.

Williams told reporters on Friday afternoon that he had received a message to call Larry Drew, Sr., the current Atlanta Hawks head coach and Drew’s father.

“I called Big Larry a little bit after 9am, and at that point, he informed me that Larry was leaving,” Williams said. “We had a long discussion – most of which should be kept private – and basically there was no arbitrating, there was no trying to see if we could rectify anything. It was that was the decision that was made. He thought it was in Larry’s best interest.”

No one saw this coming. Not Williams and certainly not Drew’s teammates.

Marshall admitted to reporters that he was upset to learn the news from Facebook instead of from Drew himself, adding, “It’s a decision he made – I wish him the best of luck in all of his decisions and where he ends up going from here.”

Marshall also expressed shock in the timing of Drew’s decision.

“If it was up to me and I’m sure 99 percent of the people in the world, we would have liked to have seen him wait until the end of the season,” Marshall said. “But Larry’s a grown man. He makes his own choices.”

North Carolina’s press release announcing the departure included quotes from Williams and the Drew camp that suggested the move was a family decision, but the eighth-year UNC head coach refused to be drawn into a discussion about parents’ roles and how that might affect his recruiting philosophy going forward.

Even so, it’s hard not to focus on the fact that four of Williams’s six California recruits while at UNC – Alex Stepheson, Travis Wear, David Wear and Drew – all left the program with family playing a significant role.

Larry, Sr., joins David Wear, Sr., as parents that broke the news of their children’s departure from UNC to Williams, who had still not talked to Drew II as of 2:15pm on Friday.

When asked if it was disappointing that he heard the news from a parent instead of the player, Williams responded: “I’m disappointed in the fact that he’s leaving – that’s the biggest disappointment. Everybody has different feelings and different ideas, but… That’s probably best to leave it there.”

Williams also had discussions with Drew I and Drew II following rumors last season suggesting the then-sophomore was considering a transfer back home. But while Drew denounced those rumors during and after the season, sources close to the situation indicated that some of his teammates didn’t expect him to return to Chapel Hill this season.

The UNC staff was also aware that Drew might leave after last season, as they were contacting the remaining uncommitted high school point guards in the senior class as an insurance policy. Furthermore, assistant coach Steve Robinson missed the NIT opening-round game against William & Mary to scout junior college prospects.

This season, Drew's parents were not happy with their son's current role and diminished playing time, according to sources close to the situation. But the vocal dissatisfaction and involvement goes back much further.

Sources confirmed to Inside Carolina that Sharon Drew, Larry’s mother, called the basketball office irate back in 2009 upon hearing news that Williams had a conversation with then high school senior John Wall right before the Final Four.

Mrs. Drew made news again last May. The L.A. Times reported that Landon Drew, Larry’s younger brother, was kicked off the Woodland Hills Taft High School basketball team due to Mrs. Drew’s involvement.

Taft principal Sharon Thomas told the Times a day later that the younger Drew could not be removed from the team for “adult behavior.”

"Mrs. Drew and [Taft head coach] Derrick [Taylor] need to work it out as adults. It's the most ridiculous thing," Thomas told the paper.

For his part, Drew has received criticism over the past two summers for returning to California to work on his game instead of staying in Chapel Hill to play pickup ball with his teammates. And that likely highlights the prevailing reason behind Drew’s decision to leave UNC – while his body may have been in North Carolina, it was as if his mind was always in California.

Multiple sources indicate that the knock on Drew from those close to the team is not that he was a bad teammate or that he maliciously undermined team chemistry, but rather that he wasn't fully invested. He was more of an absentee teammate than a bad teammate.

Sources also claim that the coaching staff expressed disappointment behind the scenes about Drew's commitment level - the lack of a gym rat's mentality to go the extra mile on his own time.

The absurdity of the situation is that by leaving the program in February, Drew loses the spring semester of eligibility and will have only one season of eligibility remaining. A transfer just four weeks ago would have allowed the junior time to find a new school and provided an opportunity to potentially play in two more NCAA Tournaments.

As it stands now, Drew will not be eligible to play Division I ball again until the ‘12-13 season after sitting out next year as specified by NCAA bylaws.

 

fuck the tarheels.
and fuck you too.