Could he have packed it up and gone elsewhere? He was injured and had zero impact in his career. Who was going to take him? I’m sure DH came in and tried to get him to transfer and tried to get others to take him and there was zero interest. Pitino tried to get Billy Donovan to transfer when he got to Providence because he was 25 lbs overweight and sucked on offense. No one would take him. And Donovan wanted to transfer. When no one would take him, he had the honest convo with him, told him what he needed to do but said he’d work with him personally. Donovan bought in and became one of the keys to his final four run.
I believe he tried to get some of the Ollie guys to go and I’m sure some of them wanted to go. I’m sure some of them had no good options (or the options involved sitting out a year and for AG, that would be a very bad option).
So NO, AG couldn’t pack it up and go elsewhere. He is getting an education and he owed the program his hard work. He can’t decide when he plays or not. Has he been hurt? Yeah. And for that he has all of my sympathy. But he’s gotten a world class education along the way and it’s not like he’s going to leave here empty handed. Maybe he doesn’t make it to the NBA (no one is guaranteed that). Boo hoo.