Offseason attrition has become one of the major stories for Gonzaga basketball in the past few years and it appears that we are off to a quick start in 2012. Small forward Mathis Keita will transfer, according to CBS Sports' Jeff Goodman. The sophomore small forward appeared in sixteen games this season, mostly always in 'mop-up' time. He only logged double digit minutes in three contests.
In his freshman season, Keita's role was significantly larger. He appeared in 23 games including 22 minutes played against Xavier and 28 minutes against Wake Forest. In that game against Wake, he was a huge reason for the win and amounted a career high twelve points. His minutes began to significantly decline in February of last season and he was never really able to re-establish himself as part of the rotation.
Keita's transfer will likely not come as a surprise to most given the description of his career at Gonzaga I just laid out. Last year he proved to be a solid spark plug at times but at other times, it was woefully obvious that he wasn't prepared for this level of basketball. His biggest downfall was his lack of a consistent outside shot. With the arrival of guys like Gary Bell Jr., Guy Landry Edi, and Kyle Dranginis and the likely addition of another wing this offseason, the writing was more or less on the wall for Mathis.