It's official: Cameron Rundles, Zach Graves and Dave Vanderjagt will not return
It's been speculated for a while now—especially with Zach Graves and Cameron Rundles—but as of Tuesday evening, it's official: these three players will not be returning to play basketball for the 2008-2009 season.
Most Griz fans never got a chance to see what "Big Dave" or Zach could do. Everyone raved about Graves' athleticism and Vanderjagt's potential presence inside but it was never realized. With Cam, it was different.
Cameron Rundles was recruited by Larry Krystkowiak as a point guard, a gritty floor general. But the point guard spot already had depth in senior Bryan Ellis and junior Matt Martin. At the beginning of the season, these two started at the guard positions but by the ninth game Rundles made the starting lineup. In a December 9th, 72-65 win over UC Riverside, he scored 13 points in 32 minutes.
By conference play, he was a major contributor. He earned Freshman of the Year honors and was the Big Sky's best three-point shooter, beating out Stephen Sir with a .481 clip during the regular season.
On top of the numbers, there were all the intangibles. From the beginning, it seemed as though he would inevitably become the leader the Griz needed. Maybe that had something to do with his downfall. Every time I spoke to him, he referenced being a leader, a coach on the floor. It'd be near impossible to get upper-classmen to listen to a struggling sophomore.
The slump was bad, no one can deny that, but I never thought it'd do him in. This kid once re-entered a high school playoff game and rallied his team from a 12-point deficit after suffering a concussion and gashing his face but he can't overcome a run-of-the-mill sophomore slump? Come on.
To him, it's undoubtedly more than that. There's probably some tension between he and Coach Tinkle over playing time and the like. To this Griz fan, that complaint seems unwarranted. Unlike some other players—see: Zach Graves, Matt Martin—he got minutes when he played well. You don't need to look any further than end of the last regular season match-up against Idaho State and the two games that followed to see this is the case.
Fans will bash his sometimes immature ways and poor decisions but no one can deny that he played with a lot of passion and tried to spread it to others. It usually looked like he was having some fun. He always took the big shots, the daggers. When a statement was needed, he'd try to make it.
I'm not going to lie, I think it's a terrible decision. I do not know what goes on behind closed doors so my judgement could be far, far off but I believe if he averaged 15 and 5 (assists) in limited minutes in the early games next season, a starting guard spot would his before Thanksgiving.
In summary: his freshman season was amazing, the slump was too much and both sides will regret this happened.
are any of them going to play else where?
Whats done is done. I know you are a big fan of cam but I think he was overrated and had way to many holes in his game. We need alot of help at the guard position and maybe michael taylor will help along with stockton.
I could never figure out why graves didnt get a shot. He seemed to me to be the athlete we needed.
Vanderjagt was not a true post and might not be good enough to play the 3 or 4. With selvig coming in we can get by without him.
It will be interesting to see if we get some athletic help with the new recruits. Lets hope so. we need some speed and ball handling upgrades to get tinks to play a more up tempo game both on offense and defense. It would be nice to see us get some fast break buckets and get more turnovers and steals with some tight defense and some full court pressure. Havent seen much of this since krysco left.
Maybe Coach T could take a lesson from these guys.
There's a better fit for you someplace else, Coach. The grass doesn't just look greener, it really is. C'mon, Coach, go for it!
Good job Cam. It is the perfect time to get off the UM Tinkle, Marso and Hill sinking ship. Let Stauds and Junior paddle their little row boat into the rough and merky waters since those coaches apparently thought they were the only guards with talent anyway.