Date Posted:10:56:53 03/19/04 Fri Author: jfb96 Subject: Fingleton gone?
Can anyone confirm the rumor that Fingleton is transferring to a Division II school? My friend's roommate is the head coach at a D III school in RI and he said that Neil is leaving to "get more playing time" at a D II school. Anyone else hear this? I consider this source very dependable.
I'd find this almost impossible to believe. It's also a little contradictory too if you think about it. Neil's been criticized by some on this board, unfairly in my mind, that he doesn't have ENOUGH interest in basketball. Why would someone like that transfer to get more playing time if he doesn't care about the sport in the first place?
Second, Neil is a hometown hero in Worcester. I live here in RI and most people have never heard of him (except through me).
My personal understanding is that Neil puts a high value on getting his degree and he's already transferred once before from UNC to HC. I just can't see him transferring again. I believe he is happy with his Holy Cross experience. If he wasn't, he easily had his chance to get away when he left school at the end of the first semester this past year. If you recall, the newspaper had that he wasn't ever going to come back to Worcester/HC.
This sounds like someone speculating. Interesting that the alleged source of this rumor is a D3 coach hearing that Neil will be going to some unnamed D2 school.
First, Jim Maley is going to play beeball for the Cross next season. Now our big Neil is going to leave HC and Worcester to transfer to a D-2 college for his senior year. I also find the latter hard to believe. If there are no official announcements about these matters soon, then these are indeed just rumors that no one will remmember in a few days' time.
People in Worcester know and love Neil, and if he gets healthy and works hard, he will certainly get more playing time and could become a very useful weapon to Coach Willard and the program. His size alone has got to be extremely intimidating to opponents.
Neil's whole purpose to come to the US was to develop his basketball game to play professionally in the US or Europe. How would that fit with his transferring out of Division 1? The reason Neil has not played is he was either injurred or ill. When he was healthy, his playing time increased from game to game. If he is unable to play due to illness or injury it doesn't matter what division he is in. He won't play.
Under D-II rules, a student-athlete who has previously transferred from one four-year school to a second four-year school, and then transfers to a D-II school, must sit a year in residence at the D-II school before he is eligible to participate. The fact that the SA may have also sat a year in residence at the second four-year school is irrelevant. Were Neil to transfer to a D-II school, he would not be immediately eligible.
I don't believe that Neil would have to sit if he transferred. Case in point: Jimmy Moore. If you remember this character who played his high school ball in Worcester, he played one year at Youngstown State before transferring to Albany. He was enrolled in classes and on campus for, literally, four hours before he announced that he was going to transfer AGAIN. He ended up at Saint Anselm (a DII school) and played quite well for them this year, all without having to miss a year of eligibility. The only difference betweeen the two cases is that Neil played for both of his DI schools while Moore never donned an Albany jersey.
b. It's a win-win situation for HC, if you think about it. If he left, maybe they get someone late they couldn't have offered. If he doesn't leave, any contribuion he makes is gravy because no one expects anything out of him at this point.
