A week after deciding to return to school for his sophomore year upon receiving feedback from NBA teams on his draft stock, 2015 McDonald’s All-American guard and SLAM 2014-2015 HS Diarist Malik Newman has notified Mississippi State that he will be transferring to another program. Trust issues are cited as the main factor for the move. He averaged 11.3 points per game last season as freshman after choosing MSU over Kansas and Kentucky, among other suitors.
Malik Newman will transfer from Mississippi State, his father told the Clarion-Ledger on Monday.
The decision comes less than a week after Newman opted to return to school for his sophomore season rather than enter the NBA draft. Sources told The Clarion-Ledger that the former McDonald’s All-American was considering transferring after second round projections dashed his one-and-done NBA dreams.
The considerations and eventual decision to play elsewhere evolved from trust issues between MSU coach Ben Howland. The family told the team on Sunday.
“I think it was a trust issue. I don’t think that Malik trusted Ben. Not saying he’s a bad coach or anything to that nature. We’d be crazy to say that he’s a terrible coach,” Horatio Webster told the Clarion-Ledger. “But he wasn’t the coach for Malik. I don’t think Ben trusted Malik so I think the feeling was mutual. I don’t think they trusted each other.”
Mississippi State made the transfer official later Monday afternoon.
“I really hope his time at Mississippi State is going to help him moving forward in terms of the areas that’s he’s going to get better at to really help him reach his full potential as a player,” Howland told The Clarion-Ledger.
