Sophomore point guard Trey Dickerson is apparently leaving the Iowa basketball program, if his Twitter account is any indication. The first report came via Joshua Vinson, a guy out of Chicago who covers the Bulls on his own site.
Trey Dickerson, JUCO All American transfer, is leaving Iowa...more details to come soon
— Joshua A. Vinson (@TheJoshAVinson) February 23, 2015
Normally, we'd treat that level of reporting with the low level of credibility that an unaffiliated NBA guy from Chicago deserves on the subject of an Iowa basketball player. That is, until this happened:
Any experienced Twitter user will tell you that retweets are not necessarily endorsements, but when the retweet is news about yourself and you're not actively working to rebut it, it's a fairly explicit endorsement. His account also says that he's "Queens to Iowa City to LA," which might tip his hand as to his next stop.
If there was any doubt, it was extinguished by 247's Andrew Kuhla a few minutes later:
Just talked with PG Trey Dickerson who told me the rumors are true. He will be leaving the #Iowa #Hawkeyes.
— Andrew Kulha (@Hawkeyes247) February 23, 2015
The program confirmed soon after that:
Sophomore Trey Dickerson granted release to transfer. http://t.co/bgC7K0mEPk
— Iowa Basketball (@IowaHoops) February 23, 2015
Dickerson joined the program last spring after a circuitous journey that had taken him from New York City to Los Angeles, Dallas, and North Dakota. At Willison State, he was a JUCO All-American and arguably the top JUCO point guard prospect in the country. Iowa beat out Nebraska, Arkansas, Washington, Washington State and a host of others for his signature.
Dickerson played considerable minutes in Iowa's first two games of the season, but he sat for most of the Hawkeyes' trip to New York City. By conference season, he was only seeing action during garbage time; in the 17 games since Iowa faced Iowa State and the schedule got serious, Dickerson has played exactly 32 minutes, with less than half of those in games that were decided by less than 25 points.
The benching obviously didn't sit to well with Dickerson, no pun intended:
"@BHGP: No Oglesby today probably means more Jok and Clemmons. Maybe another Trey Dickerson sighting?" Lol
— Trey Dickerson (@Dat_boy_TD) February 8, 2015
We saw that tweet and thought it might be coming. Today is just confirmation.
In the short term, Dickerson's transfer has minimal effect on Iowa. But the transfer leaves the Hawkeyes in yet another point guard conundrum. Since landing three point guards in his first recruiting class, Fran McCaffery has swung and missed at every ballhandler he's targeted. Dickerson was a stopgap, as many JUCO transfers are, but he gave Iowa a second option at the point in 2015-16, and an eventual replacement for Mike Gesell. Without him on the roster, Iowa will have two senior point guards (Gesell and Anthony Clemmons) and nobody behind them. McCaffery had been focused on bringing in a power forward or center during the spring signing period, but his shopping list just got longer at the worst possible time.