Sophomore forward Kuran Iverson will transfer from the University of Memphis at the end of the semester. He will stay in school for the Spring semester, but choose a new school in the fall.
“Kuran (Iverson) and I visited and he will be transferring at the end of the spring semester,” Coach Josh Pastner said in a statement. “We thank Kuran (Iverson) for his contributions to the program and wish him well in his future academic and athletic endeavors.”
Before his decision to transfer, Iverson was suspended on Jan. 6 for the second time in his tenure at the U of M. Instead of taking his suspension and moving on, Kuran took to Twitter, retweeting a fan who said “"Josh Pastner is a fraud of a coach and uses players as scape goats due to his lack of coaching ability. Stop the fraud." Iverson is not the only player to be suspended or transferring from this year’s team, but is the only one transferring due to a suspension.
"We've got a good group of guys," Pastner said. "Something that's very important to me for a core value is I just don't want any negativity and I won't allow negativity to infiltrate our program. I don't want it and I don't want to be around it. So our guys know that and I'm proud of our guys.”
Iverson was averaging 4.6 points and 1.9 rebounds in 11.8 minutes per game. He only appeared in eight games due to a serious concussion sustained in practice early in the year. Coach Pastner used Iverson as a spark plug for the bench upon his return from injury. His playing time dipped due to concerns about his position and other players stepping up to fill his role.
"It's not easy. Every guy wants to play 40 minutes. That's just normal as players,” Coach Pastner said, “And in a place like this where the intensity is such and the coverage is so intense that there are no secrets if a guy gets a little upset here and there. But that's part of it. I'm really proud the guys have stayed positive.
It's not always an easy thing, but the guys have really rooted for each other, and that's been an important thing for us."
Iverson will have several suitors considering his skillset and length. He was number one is his recruiting class in his sophomore season, but fell to different spots in the top 35 in his junior and senior seasons.
The Tigers haven’t lost a game since Iverson’s departure with three big wins over University of Cincinnati, University of Houston and University of Central Florida.
