Torres Roundree and Christian Cornelius both left voicemails for Lowery to let him know they were leaving the team.Torres told Lowery that he felt that he didn't fit into the program. Lowery called him "a kid who's talented but isn't used to working hard and not used to following the discipline side of life on and off the court. We wanted to save his life, and help him become a better person. Unfortunately, he left before we got a chance to do that. "
The voicemail Cornelius left said he didn't feel he could play at this high of level, but Lowery said he felt that Christian could. He was playing the best basketball since he had been at SIU. Lowery
is not sure if Cornelius is going to continue his career elsewhere.I asked Lowery if he was disappointed that the players quit via voicemail, he responded saying, "They're young kids. I tried to help them and counsel them in the right ways and understand how you have to be in any program where discipline and academics are stressed. Am I disappointed? Yes. But I also understand that these are kids too."
Roundtree's high school teammate, Anthony Booker, was not made available for comment but when asked if he thought Booker would stay Lowery answered, "He's here. Booker's parents are very instrumental in his life, so obviously he's in a different situation."
Lowery admitted that the two additional open scholarships for next season increase the need to add a JUCO player. He said they "without a doubt" have to add a JUCO big, and went on to say they will need to add two bigs and a guard for next year.
He said they have never stopped recruiting and have been recruiting players as if they would have open scholarships for next year. "It's the dark side of any program, you don't want people to leave, but you still have to recruit at a high level."
According to Lowery, walk-on Brandon Allen will be out of action for the foreseeable future. Allen needs to have his knee scoped and his status remains up in air.
Lowery seems to think the departures help with the rotation and team chemistry. With the two additional departures the team is down to 9 active scholarship players, plus redshirt Tony Freeman. It's great that Freeman gets more practice time now, but if anyone else goes down with injury the team won't be able to have 5 on 5 practices... unless they give Tony Young a jersey.
According to Lowery the team's response to these players leaving is a private matter. Lowery told reporters that Bryan Mullins said the team does not need to address it, and if the players want to leave then that's up to them. However, the coach says there is an extreme level of disappointment, because the players had grown close to each other and when one of them jumps ship, doesn't give anybody a reason, and leaves in the middle of the night, that's something they don't understand.
