More on the story from Rosetta.... Scout.com: A needed change Academic troubles at LSU seem to be the unusual cause of MD's withdrawal. Will have to sit out a year per transfer rules unless he ends up at a Div II school. Doesn't seem to be a Trent related issue at all, but yet, just seems terribly odd with the kind of kid Matt was and the family he's from. The only new spin here is the bit about Matt seeing what the LSU coaches were able to do with Justin Hamilton (hopefully that's some silver lining that's encouraging to take away) and what good a year off did for him. Despite the one and done craze, and the recruiting negativity, perhaps there's something to the fact that kids like Eddie or Matt D, or even guys like Jalen Courtney, might be better off with redshirt years to really develop. I wouldn't personally have any issues with Trent taking some flyers on good solid recruits and getting in place a system to redshirt these guys with "potential". They obviously have to buy into his system and have the potential, but you wonder if a few of those guys, even in this 2012 class (I'm talking about recruits beyond Gathers, Felix, Morgan--what about a kid like Jamal Samuel, Sydie London, or Joel Pinchon?) would fit the bill.
Matt's transferring to Dayton. Former LSU basketball player Matt Derenbecker will transfer to University of Dayton | NOLA.com
Dayton Follow Up Don't know if this is an idictment of Matt, John Derenbecker, LSU or some of all of them, but here's the complete follow up on the story... the Derenbeckers certainly didn't seem shy when talking to the Ohio press. DaytonDailyNews: Dayton, Ohio, news and information In any case, I think is probably a situation a little bit where clearly the kid needed to grow up, and well, you have a Dad who wants to control the environment in which he does so. You also have a kid that may very well turn out to be pretty good in a mid-major environment. I hope this is a lesson learned for Trent, his staff, and the kind of kids they recruit.
Yep, I don't see any kind of indictment of LSU or TJ in this article. Got to be major culture shock to go from a small, private high school to a university with an enrollment of 25,000+. Not everyone can thrive in that kind of environment. Whether Dad is helping or hurting him by supporting the transfer instead of telling him to gut it out is a matter of opinion. But I don't see this as a failure on TJ's part.
