Khemical Waste

10 games. That's is all it took.  Khem Birch, the highly touted freshman recruit, has decided to leave Pitt just 10 games into his rookie campaign.  Birch was just the second McDonald's All-American coach Jamie Dixon has ever recruited to Pitt and great things were expected from him from the moment he signed his Letter of Intent last year.  When Birch reclassified from the 2012 class to this years 2011 class, Pitt was ecstatic to be getting him a year earlier than expected.  From early on this season, you could see that Birch just oozed athleticism and given the right amount of time to adjust to big time college basketball, he would be ready to thrive possibly as soon as Big East play started in late December.

When Dante Taylor was injured for a few games earlier this season, Birch was called on to start and filled the void very well.  His breakout performance was against Penn where he had 15 points and pulled down 10 boards in 28 minutes.  Birch has shown flashes of brilliance and was ready to make the jump to the next level, but in the blink of an eye he was gone.  Birch blind-sided his coaches, his teammates, and the Pitt fans with his decision to leave the team and head back to his native Canada.  Twitter nearly broke with all the speculations and rumors floating around Thursday night, but all were confirmed when Birch did not attend practice Friday and bolted home later that day.  Dixon has the reputation to make his freshman wait out their time on the bench and earn their playing time, and when they finally have earned it then he has given them the chance to get on the floor.  Birch, being a freshman, did not see the minutes he thought he deserved.  He was still growing and Jamie would have rewarded him with more and more minutes if he continued to improve, but he didn't want to stick around to find out.  Sam Young almost transferred to Memphis after his sophomore year because he wasn't getting the time he wanted, but he sat down with Jamie and trusted his opinion and continued with the gameplan.  This worked out pretty well for Young who went on to tear up the Big East in his junior and senior seasons and lead Pitt to their first elite 8 in many years while averaging 23.5 points in 4 NCAA tournament games.  He helped his draft stock mightily and was taken in the 2nd round of the NBA draft by the Memphis Grizzlies.  

If Khem just would have trusted Jamie and the coaching staff, he could of had the same fate.  He could of had a solid freshman season, chipping in when called upon, and waiting his turn to become Pitt's next great star.  Next season would have been a breakthrough year for him, and it still might be, but just not in a Pitt uniform.  Apparently, Khem never really got accustomed to Pittsburgh and was very homesick.  This, along with the lack of playing time, are the only 2 reasons uncovered so far.  Khem was starting, on a top 15 team, in the best conference in all of college basketball, but that still wasn't enough for him.  Even his high school coach at Notre Dame prep stated, "This situation is painting him as something he is not.  The problem is he is being led down a road by so-called advisors.  It's going to end poorly for Khem, and that is sad for me because I care about the kid.  This is not going to end well for him."  No-one knows if Khem plans to transfer or if he plans to enter next years NBA draft, but this I do know.  Pitt will win with or without him.  His loss.