This is a case of a kid making the selfish decision. He's no NBA player. Period, End of Story. If Cooper wasn't, no way he is. What's he really going to gain at Michigan? Exposure argument is a farce. He's a fringe NBA player to begin with, who bailed on his team.

Long run, we're fine. It's just a let down feeling for fans right now.

I also don't buy the exposure argument. Jaaron will never play in the NBA. From his two playing years at OU I got the impression that Jaaron was a fierce competitor but this year, once Tone went out, he seemed to change a bit in terms of his personality. I felt like he had to shoulder a TON of responsibility and at times looks tired and frustrated that he had to do everything. His buddy Kenny is gone so he doesn't have him. At Michigan Jaaron will average 9 points and 6 assists per game, win 25 games, play in front of huge crowds and play 25 minutes a game. Maybe he is relishing that. I don't hate him for leaving and I also will not put him in my OU basketball pantheon with Trent, DJ, Walt, Geno and Hunter. Those are guys who were 100 percent Bobcats. Jaaron was exciting and used us for 3 years for a degree and a Michigan jump. No hard feelings from me but I'm also not going to root for him at Michigan.

In terms of our team this year, I think we are still set up pretty good. Now it will all come down to Kirk and Butler and if they're ready for primetime. We know we have a shooter in Dartis. We have a glue guy in Block. We have a rising athlete in Laster. We have a bruiser in Doug. We have two bigs with potential in Vander Plas and Gareri. We have an unknown in Gollon and we have a potential Player of the Year in Carter. I still like a starting lineup of Dartis, Carter, Block, Kirk and perhaps Mickle with Laster, Doug and the freshmen off the bench. And...we have an extra scholly which I trust Saul has been prepared for. I'm hoping Jaaron didn't make this decision quickly.

Love your optimism BigTilly....but even you have to admit....this will be tough to overcome. This is a punch straight to the stomach.

How can you justify needing a big now when we just lost our best player who was a PG?

Neither was I excited at the signing, simply based on articles/stats that were supplied along with the notion that I'd like to save those spots for an unexpected homerun hitter option (Offutt, Simmons types that may unexpectedly pop up). However, you got to think that if SP had a better option, he'd have taken them instead. I just gather he didn't and doesn't--so he grabbed somebody. Out of the 144 transfer options, you got to think he was in the bottom quartile of guys teams were targeting.

Speaking of new players/recruits--most coaches live & breath on every new recruiting class, but this is highlighted to the 100th degree this season for SP/OHIO. With so few impactful assets on the current roster, this recruiting class coming in for SP is probably going to be his OHIO career definer. It's make or break IMO. I mean, we're all guessing at starting rotations/subs and we're listing guys who are in high school and we've never seen play as many of the guys we're counting on. If this were MLB and trades were permitted, I think the only guy on our roster we'd say is untouchable is Carter, right? The rest are open competitions. Fortunately most on here feel great about the class coming in, so hopefully it will be the start of a good run.

Arkley mentioned how this opens up a scholarship for Campbell, even though it's a long shot he gets his waiver.

Would you take losing Jaaron for getting Campbell back? I would probably say yes.

I thought it was a little strange that he mentioned that in the article. Previously, he'd seemed pretty dull on the prospects of that actually happening. Maybe he still is, just doesn't seem like his style to throw stuff like that into articles out of nowhere.

I don't see Simmons leaving if Campbell was coming back. While I hate it and disagree with the move I can't begrudge him or hate him for leaving. My view would change if he were to bail on a teammate like Campbell in his situation. Maybe it doesn't make sense but just my thoughts.

Care to question my sources now?

Trust me, I'm livid that I even heard this talk coming out of both, but at the same time I'm not shocked that this was going to go down, especially when I knew he was getting looks from Ann Arbor and Columbus.

This is pretty much where I'm at.

Also, somehow this is all Jim Christian's fault. I haven't figured out exactly how, but I know it is.

Agreed, I would have thought if Campbell was coming back Simmons would have stayed.

When Campbell went down Saul gave the keys to the car to Simmons - and he responded. Without the injury Simmons doesn't have nearly the season and is not nearly as attractive as a grad transfer. That injury appears to have hurt us in more ways than expected.