Wow! This is interesting.
From Ben Bolch via All Things Trojan:
Angelo Johnson is leaving the team because Coach Tim Floyd declined to guarantee him a spot in the starting lineup.
"He asked me with O.J. [Mayo's] departure if I could guarantee him a spot in the starting lineup," Floyd said Thursday night. "I told him, 'Angelo, you're going to play a bunch and could start on 95% of the teams in the country, but I can't guarantee you that. I don't think it would be fair to our new players coming in to guarantee anything to anybody.' ... He's made his choice and is going to explore his options."
The 5-foot-11 Johnson started 11 games last season and averaged 4.5 points and 2.1 assists, making 40.3% of his three-point attempts. He made several big shots off the bench and served as a capable backup to Mayo and Daniel Hackett.
"He was instrumental in a lot of wins for us," Floyd said. "He's a very, very good player and we'd love to have him, but unfortunately he's made another choice. I think it does impact us."
Pretty ballsy if you ask me; I mean all he has to do is look across the campus and see how the football team does it. If you’re good enough you’ll start. Why any player thinks they should be entitled is beyond me. Johnson is a great player and he really helped us win some games but he isn’t so great that he should put pressure on Tim Floyd to demand a starting spot.
Chris Penrose has a little more to this.
I've been waiting for this to break. This has been in the works for awhile. AJ thought he should be playing more, and a combination of him not liking school. As much as I liked AJ, I think Donte would have beatin him out of his spot. Donte will really have to step up now as he is the only backup pg we have.
I don't know what gets in these kids heads. There looks to be something more to this, we'll just have to wait to see how this shakes out.
It's too bad really...