Rodney Purvis Transfers From NC State

What had sounded alarmingly imminent proved true Monday when NC State shooting guard Rodney Purvis announced his decision to transfer.

"I have enjoyed every moment of my time here at NC State," said Purvis. "All of the people involved with the program have been great. However, I feel like it's time for me to make a fresh start, step outside of my comfort zone and continue my career in a new environment."

While I can't speak with complete certainty here, it appears things went sour for Purvis at some point during the regular season, maybe when he fell out of the starting rotation. T.J. Warren emerged as a much better offensive threat, and as Tyler Lewis improved, it became tougher for Purvis to find his place. He didn't log more than 20 minutes in any of the Wolfpack's last five games. His on-court demeanor always seemed positive to me, so I'm surprised that attitude might have been a factor in all this. But when a five-star prospect ends up riding the pine, this is what can happen.

So where will he end up? UConn is one school to keep an eye on; Purvis said last year that the Huskies were the runners up for his services. Additionally, there was a potentially telling thing that happened over the weekend: an NC State fan on Twitter noticed that UConn head coach Kevin Ollie was following Purvis and called the coach out on it, saying something like "hope this doesn't mean there's any tampering going on." Ollie quickly unfollowed Purvis. I wish I had screenshots of all this, but none of us on Twitter at the time thought about it. The whole thing could have been completely harmless, but it did raise an eyebrow.

Anyway. I wish Rodney the best wherever he lands, and I hope he gets his career going in the direction he wants.