re: Jalen Cook's Waiver Denied

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They were recruiting, and pulled, multiple guards out of the transfer portal at or around that same time. Pinson & Adam Miller.

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Miller wasnt coming here until a bit after Cook entered the portal. He committed May 1 and Cook entered weeks before that.

Pinson was to replace Smart leaving.

Cook was never forced out here and is just a narrative people run with for whatever reason. He was behind Gaines and both were in the same class, he decided to get more playing time elsewhere because he was an all offensive type of player and Wade wanted to play more defense than he had been in the past and Gaines filled that role better than Cook. That was always the issue with Cook.

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He was behind Gaines and both were in the same class, he decided to get more playing time elsewhere because he was an all offensive type of player and Wade wanted to play more defense than he had been in the past and Gaines filled that role better than Cook.

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The team finished 286th out of 355 teams in points allowed. I would agree with you if we were talking about the following season, there was clearly a commitment to defense that year, but most definitely not the season we are talking about. Cook would've fit even better if he would've stayed because we had the players to "hide" him defensively. We definitely were not committing on the defensive end with Smart, Thomas, Watford on the roster. Those guys didn't play a lick of defense so there's not really anything that justifies telling him he should go find playing time somewhere else, it was just a bad move.