Jack Doumbia, who was a Raider for just one season, announced Friday he was transferring, leaving the program with few proven players.
He joins stars Brandon Noel and Alex Huibregtse, starter Keaton Norris and subs Drey Carter and Ben Southerland out the door, meaning second-year coach Clint Sargent and his staff will need to feverishly mine the transfer portal to try to replace almost half of their roster.
Sargent sensed the others were exiting, but Doumbia’s departure caught him by surprise.
“I was disappointed in how it was communicated. But these are young men now more than ever making life decisions. Jack had to make that for himself, and I’m going to make the best decisions for the program moving forward,” Sargent said.
“I’m going to make it very, very clear to the guys who are coming back what this is going to be and what this is not going to be. There has to be some major changes in the culture at Wright State, starting with myself.”
Sargent said some of the reason behind of the mass transfers is the pursuit of more NIL money. Wright State has an active group leading the charge in paying players with their 1903 Collective, but it likely can’t keep up with some of the money being thrown around.
“There is significant finances. People can see it all over social media and some of these larger schools and the amount of money being poured into players’ salaries,” Sargent said.
“I don’t want to fall into the group of coaches who are victimized by it all. We are not. We will have what we need to be successful. I’m completely confident we can restructure and retool this roster the way I think it needs to be done.”
Doumbia averaged 11.6 points (third on the team) and 5.7 rebounds (second).
In a first-round Horizon League tourney win over IU Indy, he had 23 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.
The Raiders have now lost their top four scorers to the transfer portal, leaving guards Logan Woods (6.9 points per game) and Solomon Callaghan (6.7) and forward Michael Imariagbe (6.7 points, 4.8 rebounds) as the veteran nucleus for next year’s team.
With five scholarships to fill, Sargent, who went 15-18 in his first season, will be valuing the intangibles as much as skill sets.
“We have to prioritize winning. I saw early in my tenure at Wright State, it was ripe to win, and we did it at a high level (three regular-season titles and two tourney crowns from 2017-22),” said Sargent, who was an assistant for eight years under previous coach Scott Nagy.
“Through nobody’s fault, we got entitled by that success, and then we became apathetic toward what it takes to win. We’re learning how to win again. You’re trying to restructure and get competitive kids who all they want is to win and let that be the most important thing.”
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