Rumors that junior guard Cavel Witter would be leaving the Jays at the end of the season have been rampant for weeks. Now that those rumors have been corroborated by actual sources contacted by actual reporters, and Witter has in fact made it official that he will transfer for his senior season, its no longer mere speculation, so lets examine it a bit further.
Witter transfered into Creighton from the Kansas City area, a juco player in the same recruiting class as Booker Woodfox -- although Witter played just one season in juco. Lost in all of the Booker talk was the fact that, before this past season, if you had to pick a player to have a breakout season, you'd have likely tabbed Witter over Woodfox. I know I would have. Their 2007-08 campaigns showed Woodfox to be a solid if unspectacular player, and Witter to be an explosive if inconsistent player.
Unfortunately, we know how the story ends: Woodfox became the MVC Player of the Year and an All-American, while Witter became buried on the bench and will not even finish his eligibility at Creighton.
He was never a fabulous defender, and his style of point guard play was a change-up from the standard pass-first style Dana Altman traditionally recruits, but man, could Witter score when he was hot! For a player who was never a regular starter, his ability to score played a huge role in three of the biggest wins of his two seasons at Creighton.
The obvious game that everyone remembers is the 111-110 double-overtime win over Bradley last March. Witter scored 42 points off the bench, including 18 in the overtime periods, to nearly single-handedly guide the Jays to victory on Senior Night. It was an exhilarating performance that, as a sophomore, made one wonder what he might have in store his next two seasons.
But there was also the Rhode Island win in the NIT, a 74-73 win in game where the Jays' only lead came after a buzzer-beater by Witter. Coming just two weeks after the 42-point outburst, Witter's clutch shot seemed to bode well for the future.
His junior year got off to a rough start, as Witter suffered a lower-body injury in preseason practices and spent the first couple of weeks playing through pain. The plan was to shift him to the two-guard anyway, with the thought being that without having to worry about distributing the ball, he'd be free to get open and create shots. Whether it was the injury or the adjustment to the new position, Witter never looked comfortable and by mid-December, seemed to be playing tentative and was not the same player.
Witter's minutes decreased steadily as conference play approached, and he became almost a forgotten man in many games, entering for brief periods only to exit quickly. When he did play, he was prone to turnovers and mental mistakes, almost as though he was trying to do too much to earn back minutes.
Despite his struggles, against Southern Illinois he hit three clutch free throws with virtually no time on the clock to tie the game and send it into overtime. He also was the only player willing to stand up to SIU's Kevin Dillard when he made the curious decision to talk smack despite losing the game. Witter, unprompted by his coaches, apologized in the media the next day, giving us a glimpse at his character.
A streaky but at times prolific scorer, a hard worker, by all accounts a great stand-up guy and a solid student, Witter bore the brunt of criticism from fans for his turnover-prone ways but was a good player to have playing for your team. In his second season, he struggled to adjust to moving to the two-guard, saw his minutes decrease, and given the stellar freshman guards coming in next season, perhaps saw the writing on the wall that his minutes weren't going to go up despite Dotzler's graduation.
Altman's comments to the Omaha World-Herald seem to indicate as much.
"Cavel indicated he wanted an expanded role next season. I told him I could not guarantee him anything."
Here's where the stories diverge. Creighton is saying officially that Witter asked for an expanded role, they wouldn't guarantee it to him, and upon hearing this, Witter asked for his release. Witter's side seems to be indicating, through message board posts from former coaches and through other social networking sources, that Jays' coaches essentially told him he wasn't welcome back for his senior season -- that his scholarship wasn't being renewed. Witter's side also is saying he wanted to come back, but was not given that option.
Now, the pragmatist might point out that this is certainly within their rights. Scholarships are a one-year rolling contract, and can be pulled at the end of each academic year. The realist would counter that pulling a scholarship of a player who busted his ass for two years, from all reports gave everything he had in practice, dealt with injuries, played out of position his second year, and from everything I heard was a classy and honorable representative of the University -- before his senior year, when his transfer options will be limited -- strikes me as a bit, how do you say it? Low. Cold, even. Its certainly not the Creighton I know.
You don't cut seniors. You can cut bait on Freshman or Sophomores, and it happens all the time (twelve players at last count just in the last six years right here at CU). Once you reach your senior season, players who've done everything that has been asked of them deserve the opportunity to finish their career and to graduate. Its my opinion that to do otherwise stinks.
The indication from Witter's side is that Altman wanted him to play like Dotzler -- be a pass-first point guard. Here's my issue if this is true: that's not Witter. Its never been him. Why recruit him if you want to change who he is? And if you do bring him in, you sure as hell don't cut him before his senior year because he's not who you thought he was.
We don't know if that's what happened, and we'll never know the real story, I suppose. Here's what we do know: Creighton seems to jettison one helluva lot of players. Maybe the truth in this case is closer to the middle of the two stories than we'd like to believe. I don't want to believe the Jays would essentially "cut" a player who'd done everything right before his senior year. But recent history doesn't seem to indicate we ought to give them the benefit of the doubt here.
After typing that, all I can say is Good Lord, I need a beer.
Thanks for giving us three memorable performances that none of us who were there in person will ever forget, Cavel. I for one looked forward to watching you bounce back and have a great senior season, and find it a shame that won't happen in a Jays uniform. Best of luck wherever you wind up, and on behalf of the many Jays fans who have expressed the opinion to me either in person or via email the last couple of days, know that we appreciated your time in Omaha.
You bet.
