Larry Drew Jr. leaves North Carolina

With only one year remaining in NCAA eligibility, former Woodland Hills Taft guard Larry Drew Jr. abruptly left North Carolina's team on Friday and announced he would transfer to an undetermined school.

Drew was the City Section player of the year in 2008 when he led Taft to the City Division I championship. His brother, Landon, plays for Los Angeles Fairfax. His father, Larry Sr., is the coach of the Atlanta Hawks.

Drew's departure continues a trend of former Southern California products signing with North Carolina and then leaving. Former Santa Ana Mater Dei standouts David and Travis Wear left North Carolina and are redshirting at UCLA. Former North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake standout Alex Stepheson left the Tar Heels and is now playing for USC.

Here's a take from Sports Illustrated on the transfer.

Drew would have to sit out next season under NCAA rules, then have one year of eligibility remaining.

-- Eric Sondheimer

Comments

[Bk]

One word: quitter. He'll be the classic "Iverson" type teammate...emphasis on I, I, I. To not even inform your teammates to their face is the ultimate act of cowardice...I don't care who he was benched for. Dude is a baby and will forever be in my eyes.

[FV]

The one thing I can say about the Drew family is that they consistently run away when things don't go their way. First, Landon leaves Taft since they stopped catering to him after finding out the propaganda created by the parents was not true (I'm sure its only a matter of time before Kitani figures out the same). BTW it appears Taft will win the city without him while Fairfax struggles to make it to the playoffs. Now the so called all american is having problems and they quit NC? Interesting way to teach family values.

[Nice To See A Good Game]

Also, I forgot to add that Larry Jr. could probably change his major and walk on to UCLA's or USC's teams at the end of the year. That would bring him back to his family here. But, I think hanging around in Atlanta makes the most sense.

[Nice To See A Good Game]

Larry Jr. should skip the last year of college ball, go work out with the Hawk's practice squad for a year and then make himself eligible for the draft or go play in Europe. What's the point of wasting a year before continuing at the collegiate level?

LA kids going to North Carolina...hmmm, what could be the problem there? That's like putting a catholic altar boy at BYU...

[UNC4ever]

BBallman, what about Chase Buford and C.J. Henry, bench riders who were forced off the KU team by Bill Self so he could replace them with better players? Or did they just quit? I'm sure there are more but I don't feel like googling for them.

Larry Drew quit because his mama was upset that he lost his starting role. Same with the Wear brothers - their dad thought they should be starters. Good riddance.

[BBallMan]

No doubt some kids aren't prepared for college level basketball, but this is a problem with UNC. It's a pattern at a school, not with the kids. Other elite programs are not having this problem. Heck, the Jayhawks have multiple McDonalds All-Americans riding the bench, and still have other kids (like Jeff Withey from Arizona University) transferring to KU. This is clearly a problem with Roy Williams and/or UNC.

[Dave]

To those not in the know with UNC basketball, he was recently benched as our starting point guard in favor of a freshman. This was his impetus for quitting.

[Just]

Basketball purist you are right on. Many players don't like to earn their playing time, you need to man up. Other guys are better so they can't hang with the big boys..

[basketball purist]

Sounds as if all these star high school basketball players were pampered until they got to college. Then the college coaches made them earn their playing time & at the first sign of struggle, they jump ship. Mater Dei has a long history of players transferring while in college.

[dan the man]

Nobody is saying why he left.