Two UConn Players Who Were Expendable

Transfers are hardly a new thing in college sports. In fact, they’ve become so commonplace they hardly even merit attention in the media anymore.

It is for that reason you might have missed two high-profile transfers from UConn this past week. The first to go was Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, forward for the men’s basketball team. The other was wide receiver Dwayne Difton from the football team.

If you read most of the news reports on the transfers that was about the extent of the information – simply that they transferred. Thanks for coming boys, didn’t work out, best of luck in the future.

It is worth noting so much more than that.

I wrote a little about Coombs-McDaniel a couple weeks ago after he was arrested for marijuana possession. The rumors of a possible transfer were already swirling at that point. Why? Not because he had said he was interested in transferring. Not because Jim Calhoun had said he was exploring the possibility. It was because he was expendable.

Jerome Dyson was arrested for marijuana possession as a junior and he was not dismissed. He was not expendable.

That is college sports in 2011. Five points per game. One indiscretion. One ticket to a mid-major. Buh-bye.

During the Final Four, Calhoun said one of the most surprising things I’ve ever heard a coach say about recruiting. Everyone ignored it, because they were on possibly the most surprising national championship run in men’s history. Obviously you wouldn’t expect anyone to talk about anything else. But what he said was shocking to me even then. 

“Quite frankly, Jamal was the throw-in,” Calhoun said. 

Six words. Words I have never, ever heard a college coach mention. He was talking about the recruitment of high school teammates Coombs-McDaniel and Alex Oriakhi. Calhoun backtracked slightly, saying Oriakhi was the “limelight guy” and that the staff had to always “reassure [Coombs-McDaniel] that we really wanted him.” But those first six words are an admission that linger.

It’s nothing new for college coaches to recruit a star player and take on a slightly lesser player in order to secure the star. But it is never spoken outright. And certainly not when the player is still on the team.

Now, of course, he’s not. But how much was really Coombs-McDaniel’s choice? We’ll never know for sure. Only Calhoun, Coombs-McDaniel and a few select confidants will know.

“Jamal and I met recently and, although he loves the program, he would like more playing time,” Calhoun said in the press release announcing Coombs-McDaniel’s transfer. Don’t take that as fact. It’s the stock answer for every player that transfers from any college program.

UConn fans are expected to move on. Oh well, the player didn’t work out. Who can we replace him with? It’s a sad reality of college sports. UConn will be down a scholarship next year under the NCAA-imposed sanctions and they now have an open spot. Reports are the assistants are already hot on the recruiting trail.

They are looking for a big-time recruit, of course. The kind of guy Dwayne Difton was supposed to be. 

Depending on the football recruiting service you pay attention to, Difton was the best recruit to ever commit to UConn football. He was fast, had good hands, great elusiveness and came from a great program. If he’d been a little taller he would’ve gone to Florida or Alabama. He came to UConn where he was expected to be the top receiver immediately and a star within a year or two.

Reality had different plans. He played two years and was essentially non-existent in both. He had 22 catches for 195 yards in his career. If it were the NFL, he’d be categorized as a bust.

But this isn’t a professional sport. At least that’s what we’re told. It’s OK to disparage pros, but college kids should be off-limits. If only college coaches (and not just Calhoun or Edsall, but the vast majority) could be held to the same standard.

Difton is a different transfer story than Coombs-McDaniel, the “throw-in” who became expendable. Difton was the star before he stepped on campus and the disappointment the moment he did.

Both will become footnotes in the UConn athletic history book. Footnotes that are every bit as human and every bit as worth remembering as Chapter 1, sentence 1.