San Francisco point guard Cody Doolin elects to quit basketball during senior season

It’s not every day that we see a starting point guard in one of the top college basketball conferences in the nation simply decide to “retire” from the sport in the middle of his senior season, but that is exactly the case for the San Francisco Dons.

Cody Doolin, a 4-year starter at the point guard spot, has left the team mid-season, according to a university press release, and he has no plans to rejoin them. Here is the text from San Francisco head coach (and former NBA player) Rex Walters on Doolin’s choice:

"“I respect Cody’s decision to devote more time to other matters in his life that will require his attention away from basketball. Cody has been such a big part of the basketball program since the day he arrived at USF. I want nothing but the best for him and truly appreciate the time, energy and passion he had in his time here. He did great things on and off the court and I know that he will do great things after graduating in the spring. We will miss him and he will always be a USF Don.”"

It’s encouraging to see that Doolin will remain in school on track to graduate, but his departure leaves what is a solid team at USF in a bad spot. His second-to-last game on November 15th against Nevada yielded a career-high outburst of 33 points, and by all accounts, he was playing the best basketball of his career in helping to lead the team to a 2-2 mark before his initial absence.

As the conference season approaches in the WCC, it’ll be very interesting to see how the Dons respond, but I’m betting that we won’t see another situation quite like this during the 2013-2014 college hoops campaign.