He seems to think that Simpson was pushed out in favor of Davis, which is nonsensical and not supported by anything. Simpson's decision to leave would not have been impacted by Davis, because Davis wasn't going anywhere with Bailey coming in - it was always known that Davis would be here this year as soon as Bailey committed.
Simpson was thrust into a feature role (too early, imo) last year, because Mulcahy and Spencer unexpectedly bounced well after Pike could have adequately responded by bringing in B1G level guards from the portal. He struggled mightily in that role, but also had very little help at the guard spot. In short he was in over his head.
This year, with Harper coming in and Williams staying, and Pike finally having the portal opportunity to bring in another scoring guard that he didn't have the prior year (which ended up being Acuff), there was going to be a struggle for minutes. Pike also did not want to get burned like he did with Mulcahy/Spencer, so conversations were had very early about what the expectations were for this season and players must have been encouraged to make their stay/go decisions early enough for him to respond in the portal.
Simpson left - which was very understandable.
@G- RUnit seems to feel this was Simpson being driven out with pitchforks and torches, but that's hyperbole and isn't rational.
But what has happened?
Acuff broke his foot in the preseason and hasn't been what we needed from the portal through the first half of the year, which opened up guard minutes. Derkack wasn't working out as expected either, and the minutes fell to Davis.
If Simpson had chosen to stay, and had accepted a new expectation of 10-15 min as a 4th guard... those minutes would have gone to him, and we'd probably be in a bit better condition than we were with Davis. But he clearly didn't want that.
Simpson is now performing marginally better at St. Joseph's against a far easier slate of opponents. He's taking fewer 2PA (good) and has improved his 3P% (good)... but he's also on a team where he's the 4th option. This year, with the dashed expectations we have faced, he'd have been called on to be the 3rd option against much stiffer competition... and there's no way to know if that marginal improvement would have been seen in scarlet.
Either way, it's water under the bridge. If I could wave a magic wand and one guy who left to the portal last year instead bought into staying and succeeding at Rutgers.... it'd be Omoruyi, not Simpson. If I could keep two, it'd probably be Mag over Simpson by a hair.
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