We honored his scholarship when he was injured playing in a pickup game back home, I believe. Which is expected perhaps these days, but still a decent thing to do. In return, Ira seemed like a good teammate. It did seem odd he was back home in mid-August because the players are usually in school then, and pretty sure they were back then. Always wondered about that, but maybe it was an intersession visit or something.
And Steve points out Ira Lee might not have liked what he saw, which would seem to be a likely part of the decision. Whatever his aspirations are, this team might not help fulfill it and coaching and team play is weak.
  Whatever the case, he's entitled to his decision, but the timing was very unhelpful to us. We did get Gapare'd because we held his scholarship and like Gapare, lost two years of recruiting, when he signed and the early signing period this year. Lightning seemed to strike twice this year.
If it was the weather or traveling, or something. it would have been nicer if it were earlier.
   Respect FQ's comments because he saw him play, but as noted, he wouldn't be a savior on this team. If he grabbed some rebounds, he would have been valuable, but we should have filled one empty slot, at least, with another rebounder.
    Most of all, this can't be the excuse for this year's performance. We've seen this play before, with the out of conference horrors held over for the third year.
   
 

Thomas wrote:

Did Ira Lee really get hurt in a pick-up game in California? I thought he got hurt in a pick-up game(or practice) with the team on campus. Is Ira Lee planning on turning pro or playing at another school next year? Ira Lee definitely would have helped the rebounding and interior defense, but the poor shooting, the poor shot selection and disorganized/ pick-up ball offensive sets likely would have remained with him, just like it did last year with Moyer. 

A reason for optimism is, there seems to be plenty of BCS big men looking to transfer down, so it may not be that difficult for JC to find the next Matt Moyer and Ira Lee!

And with so many open scholarships he can try with two or three at once!

Joel Joseph wrote:

Yeah, GW would be #1 right now in the A-10 standings had we gotten Ira Lee, a player who didn't do much at Arizona.

We also would have won the NCAA Tourney 2 out of 4 years had Lonergan gotten Garza.

No harm in dreaming about what if's based on the last 5 years and the next 5 years.

Keep Raising High my friends!

Nobody is saying we’d be #1 with Ira Lee playing.  It’s easy to be smug and snarky when you are knocking down arguments that literally no one is making.