Khalid "The Lid" El-Amin has now officially
flown the coop, and now we can begin to get a sense of what
conferences are being affected by this year's early departures: so far the
big losers are the Big East and the Big 12. The Big East has lost two premiere
point guards in El-Amin and Erick Barkley; Iowa State has lost Marcus Fizer and
a JC recruit who would have helped to replace him; DePaul has lost a guard, and
may yet lose Quentin Richardson, and Cincinnati lost DerMarr Johnson.
Joel Pryzbilla of Minnesota is also leaving early and has the funniest story
of all: after being suspended by his coach for not being consistent enough about
class, he said he would have stayed had Clem Haskins still been his coach.
Haskins of course is gone, largely because of an academic scandal, so it's
reasonable to guess that Przybilla would not have been hassled about going to
class under the former regime.