By Dustin Dopirak —
The sudden departure of former Indiana class of 2020 target Matt Cross from the Miami (Fla.) basketball program raised a lot of questions. Reporters in Miami have started to put together some of the answers.
Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald connected with Cross on Friday, and he told her he wishes his teammates well, that he will stay enrolled at Miami through the rest of the semester and that he is considering playing football as well as basketball. Kaufman reported that she was told by sources that Cross’s departure did not come about because of any serious disciplinary reason.
Barry Jackson, also of the Miami Herald, reported that he was also told by sources that Cross did not violate any team rules or have any disciplinary issues, but that coach Jim Larranaga decided to let him go because he “had trouble getting through to Cross, had confidence issues and became detached when he wasn’t playing well.”
That intel might seem to raise a yellow flag for Indiana or any other program considering jumping into the Cross transfer sweepstakes, but not so much a red one.
A statement issued by his EYBL AAU program, Boston Area Basketball Club, said that he is interested in playing for a Big Ten or SEC program, although he would also be interested in staying at Miami to play football if that program would be interested. Indiana was one of Cross’ most consistent recruiters, along with Florida and South Carolina.
The 6-foot-6 Cross averaged 6.9 points per game this season at Miami and started nine of the 14 games he appeared in as a true freshman. He hit 20 of 50 3-pointers, averaging over 26 minutes per game. However, he was held out of Wednesday night’s loss to Florida State in what Larranaga called a coach’s decision.
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