I don’t want him to go, but it’s not insane for a kid who is likely looking at a career overseas to transfer after his junior year. He can sit out a full season from games, but during that same time he can be working on the parts of his game that need improvement, like anything he does with the ball in his hands. Furthermore, and this is the real reason why I think a player who is averaging 2 ppg might transfer to another school: he can get a grad degree from a school like Boston College, the University of Florida or Cal - might be well worth it.
That said, I’m really impressed with his improvement on defense this season. I feel like it’s unfair for anyone to expect him to start playing like Walter Berry. I see a very Donald Emanuel (maybe better) senior season in Red and White for this hard working kid.
No doubt there are reasons why transferring might benefit a junior and the ones you cite are valid. Despite which I can't think of too many who have. If a junior were looking to improve his game it might make more sense to red shirt or maybe work harder - as opposed to uprooting himself to go somewhere where he's going to play ten more minutes a game for a year. On the other hand maybe he hates his coach and his team mates and he's dating some hewer he cant' stand or maybe he just has wanderlust. He's a teenager from Mali, I'm not going to pretend to have the vaguest idea what he's thinking or how. But unless you (royal) know him personally and he told you hey I'm thinking of transferring, it's all projection: well, if I were Yawke and I was looking at playing 20 minutes a game and players X Y Z were coming in I might transfer, so Yakwe must want to transfer too. Yeah well, if I were Yawke Yakwe'd have a nice 15 foot jump shot and he wouldn't have to worry about playing time and he'd be drowning in so much pussy he'd never want to leave.
Again, it annoys me - as many things do - that the sky is always falling. Just this morning I've read that Lovett's maybe leaving, and then Trimble's going, and if that happens and Yakwe leaves that's about a third of the roster, that kind of leaves the team in a bind, unless maybe Alibewotz has another year of eligibility.
Yakwe is frustrating. His freshman year I thought he was going to be an all BE player. Now I don't even know if he is a BE player. He shows flashes of what he could be in a sea of what he is. I don't care about the points so much but I don't understand zero rebounds in 20 minutes versus St Joe's and three rebounds in his last four games. That's just unacceptable.