Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Help on the way

The Gamecocks' basketball roster has been depleted by injuries, defections and scholarship limitations, but they will be getting more bodies for their weekend trip to Murray State and UT Martin.

According to the team's game notes, two walk-ons who have been working with the team all season will make their debut in uniform -- guards Roderick McReynolds (Douglasville, Ga.)
and Jonathan Merit (Decatur, Ga.).

Their availability gives the Gamecocks 10 players to face a team they have never beaten (Murray State) and one that has beaten them six games in a row (UT Martin).

On a related note, former Gamecocks guard Jay-R Strowbridge may be looking for another place to play after leaving the team last week, but he's still attending classes at JSU.

"I decided to come back and finish school here at JSU and see what happens," he wrote in an e-mail.

4 comments:

JSU Gamecock Sports said...

Al- what's the reason for all of these guys leaving the program? If we had Stowbridge, Crawford and Robinson I would think JSU could contend for a conference championship.

al muskewitz said...

If you read the interview with Strowbridge the day after he left, he said he was (a) looking for a place where he could play his game and (b) came to JSU in the first place to honor his commitment to Antoine Pettway and hung in after he left despite not knowing the new staff until he decided to do something for himself for a change. Crawford left (a) becuase he was playing out of his comfortable position and (b) he thought he could play at a bigger level (kind of like the Prattville quarterback who reneged on his commitment the summer before his freshman year).

JSU Gamecock Sports said...

Missed that interview. Sorry for the duplication. Stowbridge will be on his 3rd team in three years. I guess maybe he will be eligible next January though. I wonder what "his game" is? I sure do miss these guys. Put them w/ Hall and Marshall and you really have a formidable lineup

al muskewitz said...

You're right, it would be his third team. He's going to classes at JSU this spring semester, so the transfer would happen after this school year. It might have been interesting to see him with Crawford and Geddes Robinson and Marshall and Hall, but like James Green said when I asked him Strowbridge could have been the kind of lead player he thought he should be, "we'll never know."
You know, guys leave places for a variety of reasons -- some self-induced, some not -- life goes on.