Birch No Longer With Pitt

Seth Davis>HOOP THOUGHTS

Khem Birch has not formally asked Pittsburgh for his release to transfer to another school.

By any measure, Khem Birch was having a promising freshman season. A 6-foot-9 forward at Pittsburgh who was just the second McDonald's All-American to play at the school, Birch was averaging 4.4 points in 15 minutes, but he was leading the team in blocks and had started the last six games, making him just the third freshman to start during Jamie Dixon's nine years as head coach. Those aren't lights-out numbers, but given the potential Birch had shown, and given Dixon's history of developing talent, Birch had every reason to believe that at some point over the next few years he would have an excellent chance at a lucrative professional career.

So imagine Dixon's surprise when Birch called him last Thursday to tell him he wanted to transfer. Birch had missed practice that day, but that didn't cause any alarm because several players were missing practice because of final exams. Dixon and Birch had another conversation the next day, and by Friday night Birch was headed back to his native Canada. He did not formally ask Pittsburgh for his release to transfer to another school, which leaves a smidgen of hope that he will return. But it's unlikely.

Reached by phone on Sunday night, Dixon offered little by way of comment, except to confirm that he was surprised by Birch's decision. "We discussed it, but we didn't really get into the reasons. There's nothing I can say as far as what his thinking was," Dixon said. "The kid has made a decision and moved on, and so have we."

Birch does not neatly fit the mold of the trigger-happy undecider. Yes, he played for three high schools before coming to Pitt, but one of those was an American prep school that de-emphasized basketball after Birch got there. Still, Birch's shocking decision to leave midway through his freshman year is on pace with the larger defects that have plagued college basketball's culture over the last decade. Players are routinely shepherded through a grassroots system that caters to their every need, where there's always another high school or AAU team ready to accept them at the first sign of adversity. No wonder so many of them bail on college. For the first time in their lives, they're being held accountable. And they can't handle it.

Yes, there are good reasons to change schools, and coaches are often at fault for over-promising during the recruiting process. But leaving mid-semester of your freshman year? When you're starting? Former Pitt guard Brad Wannamaker said it best on Twitter after Birch announced his decision: "Guess everybody ain't built for tough coaching and competing for minutes."
Birch's foolish move is the latest example of how the rush to the NBA can warp the minds of young players and, especially, the adults who are in their ears. "If you become a senior in college, in many regards you're seen as a failure. That's the starting point," Arizona coach Sean Miller says. "If things aren't going according to that timeline, if there's any type of learning curve or process or hardship or obstacles, then many times the answer becomes, I've got to change my environment."

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/seth_davis/12/19/Khem.Birch/index.html#ixzz1h9lnWN8Q