Dixon and Johnson gone!!!

[rcodeman]

Per Twitter...

Antwain Johnson‏@Tae_Johnson2
Today i was granted my release from Middle Tennessee, I will be looking to explore my options elsewhere. Thank you to all the fans for the great 2 years you have given me.

Rík‏@tyrikdixon0
thank you Murfreesboro

 

[SpaceRaider]

wow

 

[RaiderDawg78]

Typical player attrition after a coaching change.

It sucks, but not really that surprising. Thanks to these guys for what they did for MT and I wish them well in the future.

We knew we were going to have a rebuild this year, with or w/o CKD. Looks like the drop will be farther now, but I am very curious what we can build for in 2 or 3 years.

 

[raiders1975]

Timing is terrible unless this has been known for a while.

 

[blueboro007]

Heard a while back that Dixon was most likely gone (not necessarily his decision) but shocked at AJ

 

[C-Bow]

About a big a blow as they could have taken. 3 players gone within a week. Johnson was primed to have a huge year, too. I thought he could've played his way into POY consideration.

Wow.

 

[rcodeman]

I just wonder if Athletic Departments ever consult with current players to see their thoughts on hire. I realize this isn't the NBA where they have control of players for longer, but still. You had your best player leave and best recruiting class in school history fall apart. To me the input should be there from the student athletes since now they have more freedom to transfer.

 

[MTBig Blue]

Davion Thomas now transferring. McDevitt must have pissed off some people.

 

[BlueIsTheNewOrange]

Dixon has long been rumored but Johnson seems out of nowhere. Wow...going to be a very long season. Why now? What is happening?

 

[BlueRaider95]

 

[KenG84]

I don't mind Dixon or Thomas, Johnson hurts though....

 

[BlueIsTheNewOrange]

On the roster that is posted on the athletics page we have 7 players -
Donovan Sims
James Hawthorne
Therren Shelton-Smidt
Chase Miller
TJ Massenburg
Karl Gamble
Antonio Green

Um....wow.

 

[MTBig Blue]

Time to get Chase Miller some playing time!

 

[TrueBlue147]

Johnson is the main loss of the group. I'm pretty sure he saw his playing time disappearing with how well Sims played last year. Who decent can we even get to come in at this point? I guess we can pretty much guarantee playing time for whoever wants to transfer.

 

[MTLynn]

I fully expect McDevitt to sign a lot of transfers and/or late qualifiers - much like Stansbury at wku last year except McDevitt will bring in more 6'5 guys...

 

[sWiley]

Well......the run was fun while it lasted. Back to mediocrity we go.

On a side note, I'm sure at least one of them will end up at Ole Miss....

 

[MTOleBlue]

I’m sure we will find some random players somewhere to fill the holes. The question will be, how do we look when all is said and done and we step foot on the court next season?

 

[C-Bow]

Well then...

 

[mtfblue]

maybe just maybe he holding them to a higher standard. there are plenty of grad transfer kids and jc still looking for a home

 

[MTOleBlue]

Dismissals don’t just happen every day. Clearly something happened and to be honest if they violated not just team rules but university too then I’m glad to see it happen.

 

[sWiley]

Better have been one hell of a violation to dismiss the best player on the team.........

We will be lucky to win more games than we lose this year

 

[rcodeman]

Meanwhile,

Western signs a five star.

 

[MTFNBY5]

A real cluster---- of a Friday night news dump.

Johnson, qualified out of high school IIRC and was elegible to transfer from JUCO after one year so he should be close to getting a degree. Wonder if he is close to graduating and could be a grad. transfer? He will be missed.

Dixon, will have opportunities if the school is willing to give him 3 years for two on the court.

Thomas, a real disappointment in that he got very little time even after being red-shirted - he was one of Davis over-hyped recruits. Probably go JUCO for one year and then somewhere or drop down to D-2.

Good luck to them all and wish them well.

Seven including signees lost, Seven listed on the squad and one is walk-on Miller, a fan favorite but clearly not a D-1 player. My biggest concern is that McDevitt has been on the job a couple of months and we don't have one, not one, signee that we are assured will be eligible to play next year. This is looking worse than I could have imagined when McDevitt was hired.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

Per Twitter...

Antwain Johnson‏@Tae_Johnson2
Today i was granted my release from Middle Tennessee, I will be looking to explore my options elsewhere. Thank you to all the fans for the great 2 years you have given me.

Rík‏@tyrikdixon0
thank you Murfreesboro

No Johnson, you were dismissed. One of you tweeters ought to retweet what happened and ask him what he did.

Regardless, don't be angry at CNM, all of this is CKD doing. He is the one that left, he is the one that recruited the existing players.

All these changes will hurt as we create a new identity...I am excited about it. While we have won a lot the last 5 years, it felt like smoke and mirrors. We were so lucky with the grad transfers, all of them were special.

 

[sWiley]

Meanwhile,

Western signs a five star.

Quoted for emphasis.

Our streak against WKU will assuredly end this season.

Shame to see our basketball program literally fall apart before our very eyes despite all the recent success. What a shame.

When you factor in the new signees lost, we've gone from having a promising young team to a roster devoid of any real talent.

There's pretty much nothing to be excited about at this point and nothing to indicate things are going to get any better. Ever since McDevitt took the job it's been bad news followed by bad news........

 

[RandallThomason]

Clearly we are starting over. Come November, we will have a yet to be determined Blue Raider squad take the court. I will be there to cheer them on.

This will be a test of our fan base to continue supporting this program while CNM works to put his stamp on it. We need to show him that the fans are there to help him push the boulder up the hill.

 

[cipman2000]

And we all thought this board was going through a dead period for summer. Dumpster fire .. onto a 6-6 football season..

 

[rcodeman]

Clearly we are starting over. Come November, we will have a yet to be determined Blue Raider squad take the court. I will be there to cheer them on.

This will be a test of our fan base to continue supporting this program while CNM works to put his stamp on it. We need to show him that the fans are there to help him push the boulder up the hill.

Why should the fans have to put up with that? There is no benefit to tanking. You want somebody to keep building not tear it down and build it back up. I'll pay my money to BRAA and support, but that doesn't mean I have to like it or be ok with it.

 

[sWiley]

Clearly we are starting over. Come November, we will have a yet to be determined Blue Raider squad take the court. I will be there to cheer them on.

This will be a test of our fan base to continue supporting this program while CNM works to put his stamp on it. We need to show him that the fans are there to help him push the boulder up the hill.

It's kind of bull$hit that we have to start over though. We are a program on the rise trying to build momentum. Gonzaga, VCU, and Butler never "started over" and I honestly can't recall the last time any of them had a "rebuilding" season. VCU and Butler have gone through multiple coaches, too.

If we truly want to break onto the national scene, if we truly want to be the next Gonzaga, Butler, VCU, etc. then we must be a great team year in, year out regardless of the circumstances. Everything can't go to $hit just because we changed coaches.....

 

[rcodeman]

No Johnson, you were dismissed. One of you tweeters ought to retweet what happened and ask him what he did.

Regardless, don't be angry at CNM, all of this is CKD doing. He is the one that left, he is the one that recruited the existing players.

All these changes will hurt as we create a new identity...I am excited about it. While we have won a lot the last 5 years, it felt like smoke and mirrors. We were so lucky with the grad transfers, all of them were special.

To be fair he said he was leaving before he was dismissed officially, Is that like you can't fire me if I quit?

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

Clearly we are starting over. Come November, we will have a yet to be determined Blue Raider squad take the court. I will be there to cheer them on.

This will be a test of our fan base to continue supporting this program while CNM works to put his stamp on it. We need to show him that the fans are there to help him push the boulder up the hill.

It's kind of bull$hit that we have to start over though. We are a program on the rise trying to build momentum. Gonzaga, VCU, and Butler never "started over" and I honestly can't recall the last time any of them had a "rebuilding" season. VCU and Butler have gone through multiple coaches, too.

If we truly want to break onto the national scene, if we truly want to be the next Gonzaga, Butler, VCU, etc. then we must be a great team year in, year out regardless of the circumstances. Everything can't go to $hit just because we changed coaches.....

We were never close to Gonzaga, Butler or VCU. - these teams made final fours and played for national championship. We won a couple of first round games - night and day difference.

I think it’s obvious that CKD felt like we might take a step back. I think if we were honest all of us would say we might take a step back with the roster we had coming back regardless of who was coaching.

Have a little perspective and give the new coach a chance.

 

[rcodeman]

I gave him a chance to keep the recruits...

I gave him a chance to keep a mass exodus from happening for transfers.....

We also thought last year we wouldn't be as good and were better than expected.

 

[rcodeman]

Issue is we have no proven players, and he ran off the best player on the team. No positives have come since he's been hired. If we want our program to be an upper echelon mid-major then we need to progress. It took us a long time to get this point. I understand we aren't going to compete for championship every year in conference, but if we finish below .500 huge step back.

 

[RandallThomason]

It's kind of bull$hit that we have to start over though. We are a program on the rise trying to build momentum. Gonzaga, VCU, and Butler never "started over" and I honestly can't recall the last time any of them had a "rebuilding" season. VCU and Butler have gone through multiple coaches, too.

If we truly want to break onto the national scene, if we truly want to be the next Gonzaga, Butler, VCU, etc. then we must be a great team year in, year out regardless of the circumstances. Everything can't go to $hit just because we changed coaches.....

VCU just went 18-15 in the first year of new coach Mike Rice. Butler had a losing season in 2014 in the first year after Brad Stevens left for the Celtics. Gonzaga hasn't had a coaching change in almost two decades. It's an elite program with an elite coach, and with a university athletic department singularly focused on keeping men's basketball in the top echelon.

 

[rcodeman]

But look at the conferences they play in....

 

[RandallThomason]

Why should the fans have to put up with that? There is no benefit to tanking. You want somebody to keep building not tear it down and build it back up. I'll pay my money to BRAA and support, but that doesn't mean I have to like it or be ok with it.

I want to "keep building" as much as anybody. The good thing and the bad thing about college basketball is that fortunes can change in a hurry. I don't think CNM is "tanking" on purpose here. I don't know the reasons for why Johnson and Dixon are leaving, but I don't think CNM is intentionally blowing up the roster for no reason.

This type of roster turnover was always a possibility when the coaching change happened. I hoped it wouldn't happen, but it did. I'm sure McDevitt knew it was a possibility as well, and even though we haven't seen a mass influx of new signees to this point, I refuse to believe he is just sitting on his hands with no idea of how to build a team. I hope by November we can have a competitive team on the floor, and that he and his staff can build for a quick move back up the pecking order.

 

[TrueBlue147]

You guys need to calm down. The only real loss here is Johnson. Dixon was most likely going to lose his spot to Sims. Tree was a bust in my opinion and was not going to contribute much. Them leaving now gives Mcdevitt the opportunity to bring his own guys in. We don't have to worry about having lockerroom problems with these players, plus we get to free up the deadweight that tree and dixon would be holding with their scholarships. Look what Western did last year with all there transfers. They only had one starter that had been there the previous year and they had a pretty good season.

 

[rcodeman]

If Anybody cares about the gossip regarding this departure....

Giddy Potts‏
@GiddyPotts_20 1h1 hour ago
@tyrikdixon0 @Tae_Johnson2 @d_thomas355 y’all go out there and show the world what y’all are really capable of!!! They will never understand what’s really been going on!! I’m here if y’all need me!! I love y’all boys!!

 

[sWiley]

You guys need to calm down. The only real loss here is Johnson.

"Only" Johnson? Only the best player on the team....and we've got like 7 players on the roster now....

I'm not sure things could have gone any worse than they have thus far.....

Nothing but negatives since McDevitt was hired.

 

[SpaceRaider]

David Farrar didn't walk into as big a mess as this.