Andy Poling has left team, will transfer

It has been confirmed by the Spokesman Review's Jim Meehan that redshirt freshman Andy Poling will be transferring from Gonzaga.  We had heard rumblings about this happening last night via Matt Bouldin's twitter and a few other sources but this is the story's first confirmed source.

Meehan confirmed with Andy's mother that the decision came down to playing time.  After a successful and healthy redshirt season, Andy was expected to make significant contributions this season but that never came to fruition.  Poling was one of the casualties of Gonzaga's huge 2009 recruiting class and was pushed to the back of the big man rotation.  Elias Harris, Kelly Olynyk, and Bol Kong had all jumped Andy in the rotation and they have been impressive thus far.  Senior center Will Foster and sophomore Robert Sacre were also obviously ahead of Andy.

With this teams' plethora of youth, Andy's transfer comes as little surprise to us.  The first indication that Andy wasn't cutting it was the fact that Kelly Olynyk wasn't redshirted this year.  Before the season began, we expected KO to redshirt and Andy to play but those two have swapped roles thus far this season with Andy only seeing time when games were well out of reach. 

He had only seen action in six out of Gonzaga's 14 games and, as his mother told S-R's Jim Meehan, he expected more time. 

Andy's mother said that he will be looking at schools closer to his home in Oregon.  He wants to play division one basketball and will enroll probably within the next week or so.  We'll continue to track Andy and we hope that he has great success wherever he winds up.

As far as Gonzaga is concerned, this obviously frees up a scholarship that can be used for immediate consumption.  Andy's decision has been reflected in our scholarship chart and as you can see, this gives the Zags some nice flexibility.  With three scholly's available for the 2010 class, we still only expect one to be offered and the other two to be withheld for 2011.  It's no secret that 2011 is loaded and the 2010 prospect list is really dwindling.  We'll keep you updated on how Gonzaga recruits from here on out as well as any developments in Andy's future.