I'm not sure how to respond because I can't tell if you're trolling us or not.
To be fair, the NCAA (until today) hasn't done a great job of publicizing that this year will not count toward anyone's eligibility. They've gone a step further for fall athletes (likely winter to come) that the extra year will also
not count towards scholarship limits.
I think this is just an issue of him being realistic about future PT. If none of the current seniors elect to use their free 5th year, there's Sanogo, Akok, and Johnson in the frontcourt. Beyond that, there's 7 guys at the 1-3 spots who will need minutes. At some point, it's just a matter of you can only play five guys at once. He'd need to develop at an astronomical level to jump these guys.
And that's
before we factor in the potential of Whaley, Carlton, and Polley taking a fifth year.
Looking further, the potential of Clingan staying in-state and arriving in fall 2022 would mean another two years of more frontcourt competition.
I don't look at this as him giving up whatsoever, it's him being realistic that we don't have the minutes to help him develop in games - that's a very mature thing to do. I wish him the best and hope he finds the program with the availability for him to develop.