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Dewayne Russell leaving NAU

N

NorthEndZoneDan

Well-known member
DONOR
CBS is reporting D Russell has left the NAU program. Thats a shocker and a half. Let me see if I can figure out how to post a link to the story.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24195929/highscoring-soph-dewayne-russell-leaves-northern-arizona" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Wow, that's a killer for NAU. To lose him right at the beginning of the season like this is rough. I thought with him being there for the next few years they might actually climb back up and challenge for the Big Sky title like they once did. That was a huge recruit for their program and I'm sure was looked at by their fans as a sign of much better things to come.

Russell had 27 points in their 7 point exhibition win over Arizona Christian. Looking at who is back for them this year, it doesn't look like they have a lot of high scoring left on their team...

Their leading returning scorer is post Max Jacobson (9 points a game) who started most of their games last year. They lost starters Rogers, Russell now, Dunn who started some and Saldivar who started most of their games. Only starters that return are Jacobson and Bewernick (6ppg 5.9rpg).

Hopefully some of their new guys will step up so they don't fall back down to where they were a couple years ago in the Big Sky. That's a huge void to fill though losing Russell so late like this.
 
this may set northern arizona back a bit, but they have a dynamite recruiting class coming in. i saw kris yanku of taft high school play against mario dunn's team, and i can tell you, yanku is a deadeye shooter. his espn rating was 74, v. 67 for mario dunn. ako kaluna out of hawaii is a 6'7" 260 pound post player with an espn rating of 70, while shooting guard chris miller averaged over 20 points a game. their new coach can recruit. there are two other kids in this class as well with good credentials--one with an espn rating of 65.

i think dewayne russell initially committed to usc before opting for northern arizona. he may just want to take his game to a higher level.
 
From this article it sounds like he and the coach didn't see eye to eye. He also didn't start for their first exhibition game, but scored 27 points off the bench.

"“I decided [to leave] after Coach Murphy and me weren’t seeing eye to eye, we both just kind of decided it wasn’t for me anymore,” Russell said. “I thank Coach Murphy for everything he did for me while I was here, I just felt like it was time for me to go.”"
 
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