Six players set to transfer from San Francisco; Dons left with six returning players

"What the hell, Coach Walters?"

Some strange news was released on Thursday night out of the West Coast Conference, as University of San Francisco basketball coach Rex Walters confirmed that six (6!) Dons are leaving the program and will transfer elsewhere. The transfer class is led by junior Perris Blackwell, who averaged 13 points and 6 rebounds last season. The news definitely puts a damper on an up-and-coming program -- one that finished 8-8 in the WCC, beat Gonzaga at home, and put scares (two with Saint Mary's, one with BYU) into the other two programs at the top of the conference.

The departures leave a huge dent in USF's future.


The full list of transfers is (with class of the year just completed):

POS	PLAYER	CLASS	MIN	PPG	RPG
F	Perris Blackwell	Jr	25.6	12.7	6.1
G	Michael Williams	Jr	29.4	11.1	2.3
G	Avery Johnson	So	9.5	1.5	1.0
C	Justin Raffington	So	7.8	2.1	2.2
F	Khalil Murphy	Fr	4.8	1.8	0.9
F	Charles Standifer	So	0	0	0

In addition, USF loses the following players to graduation:

POS	PLAYER	CLASS	MIN	PPG	RPG
F	Angelo Caloiaro	Sr	30.8	14.2	6.0
G	Rashad Green	Sr	29.4	11.8	5.2
G	Jay Wey	Sr	5.6	2.3	0.5

The total of nine departing players leaves Walters with just six returning players. Headlining that small group is Cody Doolin, who scored 9 points and dished 4 assists per game as a sophomore. The only other returning experience is fellow sophomores Cole Dickerson and Dominique O'Connor.

It seems absolutely crazy that so many players would transfer all at once, and judging by the quotes from Rex Walters (in the story linked at the beginning of this post), he doesn't seem too concerned or surprised by it. At least one of those things should not be true.

You don't have to look far for a program in the West that dealt with a similar exodus. Previous to last season, Utah lost a load of players when Jim Boylen was fired. The Utes finished 6-25.