Freshman guard Torres Roundtree and junior forward Christian Cornelius said they had left the SIU men's basketball team via two separate phone calls, confirming a report by WSIL-TV 3 Thursday.
The report said Roundtree cleared his locker after the Salukis' 59-51 loss to Northern Iowa on New Year's Eve, and went on to say Cornelius told the team he was leaving on Thursday.
Each player said leaving the team was unrelated.
Roundtree started four games for SIU this season and averaged 1.2 points and 1.7 rebounds per game. The Saint Louis native said he did not feel comfortable in the offensive system.
"The offense didn't suit me, and on the court I really didn't feel comfortable," Roundtree said. "The offense was causing my game to continually keep going down because I couldn't get comfortable and get a groove on the court."
Roundtree was one of four freshmen to sign with the Salukis last season, joining Kevin Dillard, Ryan Hare and high school teammate Anthony Booker.
Roundtree was a highly regarded prospect coming out of McCluer North High School in St. Louis and was a finalist for Missouri's Mr. Show-Me Basketball award. Recruiting web site http://www.scout.com lists the University of Missouri, Saint Louis University, the University of Southern California and Purdue University as schools that were interested in Roundtree before he signed with SIU.
The Florissant, Mo., native went on to say the team's future is bright, even though he did not fit in with Southern's style of basketball.
"Honestly we have the talent to score points, it's just that certain people can't play certain styles (of offense)," he said. "Certain teams are going to score more points but you have to get key defensive stops. Instead of a 50-42 game it would probably be a 75-66 game, it would be a faster paced game."
Roundtree said he was unsure if he would finish the school year at Southern Illinois.
Cornelius, who graduated in December with a degree in finance, played in 12 games this season and averaged 2.6 points and 1.9 rebounds per game, but did not play in the eight-point loss to UNI.
Cornelius said his reasons for leaving the team were health related.
"I'm not healthy, I've never really been healthy to be honest," Cornelius said. "The level that we play at requires you to be in top fit shape and it just wasn't like that for me with my knee surgeries. My reasons for leaving have nothing to do with the program. I have a lot of love and respect for Coach (Chris) Lowery."
The redshirt junior from Oak Park battled injury problems his first two years at SIU before getting a chance to play significant minutes at the end of the 2007-08 season and to start this year. Cornelius scored 15 points in 78 minutes of play at the end of last season.
Cornelius said he was not rushed to return from an injury he said his doctor believed was career-ending.
"I felt like I put a lot of energy coming back from an injury and I don't think I got the rewards of that, so to speak," he said. "I wish I could have stuck it out to the end of the year, but it was just troubling for me to go through practice every day with the knees the way they were. I expected more out of me."
The 6-foot-7 forward said even though the system makes for a difficult transition for some younger players, it has proven to yield winning results.
"It's a difficult system for a freshman to buy into right away, but you can see the results," Cornelius said. "We had a team two years ago that was a few seconds away from the Elite Eight. If the younger players buy into the system, then the sky is the limit."
Roundtree and Cornelius join Jordan Armstrong, Brandon Wood and Joshua Bone as players to leave SIU since the end of the 2007-08 season.
Lowery did not immediately return a phone message Friday.
Check out siuDE.com and gusbode.wordpress.com for further updates on this developing story.
Luis C. Medina can be reached at lcm1986@siu.edu.
