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Malik Newman will transfer from Mississippi State, the school announced on Monday.
“I appreciate all of Malik’s hard work, and I wish him the very best moving forward,” head coach Ben Howland said. “I want nothing but the best for Malik and his family.”
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Assuming Newman transfers and sits out the 2016-17 season, he wouldn’t play Division 1 ball again until the 2017-18. He would remain eligible for the 2017 NBA Draft but it’s unclear how attractive he would be to NBA scouts after sitting out a year.
He’s currently projected at No. 35 in 2017 by DraftExpress.com after he fell to No. 52 in the 2016 mock before withdrawing. He tested the NBA Draft waters and then opted to return to campus.
Newman was once projected as high as the No. 4 pick by DraftExpress.com.
Horatio Webster, Newman’s father, recently told SNY.tv he wasn’t happy with how Newman was handled by Mississippi State coach Ben Howland.
“I don’t know if he was used the right way, either,” Webster said. “Fifty percent of the time he was just sitting in the corner, which I think Ben is a phenomenal coach. Ben did whatever he could to make your team win so I’m not knocking him for that but I just think Malik is really good with the ball in his hand and he didn’t get a chance to show that part of his game, either.”
Newman initially chose Mississippi State over Kansas and Kentucky but told me at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago he didn’t regret his decision, saying injuries kept him from living up to his potential this past season.
“Of course not because everything that I went through at Mississippi State made me the person that I am right now today,” Newman said. “And so who says that I go to Kentucky or even [Ben Simmons] goes to Kentucky and our seasons still don’t turn out the same? So I mean just because it was a thing of it’s Kentucky and Kentucky is a blueblood school…I feel like a school is a school and it’s up to the team to prove how far that team goes.”
