I have to say...I'm confused by this move still. Did he make this move because he was concerned he wouldn't get the playing time coming off the injury that he would want?
If i had to guess I'd say he goes JUCO for a year to prove he can play. He's had 3-4 major knee surgeries already (2 ACL, 1 Meniscus, and I'm trying to recall but i thought he had another).
Porters note of "evaluating" the current roster makes me think he realized it'd be tougher to find a major role. Really sucks as he was likely our sixth man headed into next season. We've just added so much depth time would be harder to find for someone who'll likely be moving slower coming into next season.
I think there may be some personal reasons for his leaving as well. I am a student who still lives on campus and I rarely saw him with anyone else on the team around campus and there were many times where he looked very unhappy to be here.
jkreiner wrote:I think there may be some personal reasons for his leaving as well. I am a student who still lives on campus and I rarely saw him with anyone else on the team around campus and there were many times where he looked very unhappy to be here.
That's a bummer to hear. One aspect of recruitment that's worth considering is how non-traditional schools like LU (and even DePaul/UIC) are compared to many. There's a big adjustment to city life that many other schools don't have. The city is a huge draw but to many is also a major adjustment especially if you're not familiar with it. There's a faster pace, public transit, a relatively smaller campus feel (no campus town), and a lot of different challenges you may not face elsewhere. It's a different transition to a city school than to schools out in more rural/suburban areas.
I'd be super curious to see if there's a difference in transfer rates between city schools and other institutions.
Kids transfer schools, including me as a youngin', for many different reasons. Whether it was health, family, friends, location, we don't really know and I'm not going to speculate. He seems like a good kid, so I wish him the best wherever he ends up.
I really had a lot of hope for Chastain as a Rambler. I think that if he hadn't been injured 38 minutes into his Loyola career, he would have been a major part of a much more successful season this year at Loyola. Without him playing 10-16 minutes per game as a freshman, averaging about 5 or 6 points and 2.7 rebounds, the team seemed to run out of gas at the end of the year. He would have been the top bench contributor, and I think he was definitely capable of games into the double digits. It's no coincidence we lost 7 of our last 9 games (four of the losses by two points or less), dropped to 5th place from an almost certain 3rd place finish, and fell flat in the tournament. A healthy Chastain would have been happier, and also would have been happier if he was part of the success of a 22-10 team that might have had an outside chance at the NIT. (Fresno State, Georgia State, and Valpo all made the NIT as at-large teams with an RPI in the high 70s, and a win over ISU instead of a two-point loss coupled with wins at Evansville, Missouri State, and SIU might have gotten us there.)
I'm a bit late with this post. I am very sad to hear of Chastain's transfer. I have followed and always thought this young man was a SPECIAL player that would be a big part of the program. Since I will likely never know the reality of this decision, nor, I guess, is it any of my business, I have to just swallow it and get over it. I truly hope it was his call and wish him well going forward. Shattered. I hope he finds a spot to play and gets healthy enough to enjoy the experience. I am very sad at this outcome. Ramblerguy