Reports are out of that Romero Osby will be leaving the Mississippi State basketball team and intends to transfer, although he is not sure where.
Kyle Veazey reached Osby by cellphone today:
Reached by cell phone this afternoon, Osby said he held no ill will against State or its coaches, but just felt like his talents could be displayed better elsewhere. "It's just a lot of stuff that was in the way of me being able to showcase what I really can do," Osby said. "It's no knock on Ravern (Johnson) or Kodi (Augustus)."
Brad Locke has a little more on his blog:
"It wasn't that I wasn't being used to my best potential, I just felt like the system wasn't the best fit for my game," Osby told the Daily Journal. "The players that were playing in front of me, that was no knock on them. I just felt like I didn't really have an opportunity because of the system."
Osby, a 6-foot-8 rising junior, averaged 4.2 points and 2.6 rebounds per game in his two seasons. He posted 4.3 points and 2.5 boards per game this past season, when State won the SEC Western Division title and reached the second round of the NIT.
Osby recently met with Rick Stansbury and the rest of the coaching staff, and he said they understood what he was doing, and he said there was no problems between him and the coaches. It wasn't an easy decision for Osby.
"It was a pretty tough decision. Like I said, I love Mississippi State, and my dad went there, my grandmother went there. But sometimes in life you have to sacrifice certain things. So it was something I had to sacrifice and find a better situation for myself."
So what would be his ideal situation? Something that allowed him to use his array of abilities. While he was used mainly in the post, Osby has a good outside game - he shot a team-leading 41 percent (16 of 39) from 3-point range this past season.
"I felt like my versatility needed to be a little more displayed and showcased, and that's what I'm looking for in the next program I go to," he said.
Locke also points out that this solves the scholarship issue that Mississippi State could have been faced with next year after signing high school guard Jalan Steele put them 1 over the NCAA limit.