UCLA has lost several transfers recently, but the latest was one of the biggest surprises. Freshman guard Matt Carlino recently announced he was going to transfer, shocking coach Ben Howland because there were no signs of his unhappiness.
Carlino, who is a point guard but was likely to play shooting guard for the Bruins, left over a lack of playing time. He acted swiftly by reportedly choosing BYU less than two weeks after deciding to leave UCLA. For a brief period of time it appeared he would join former Bruins Chace Stanback and Mike Moser at UNLV, but that fell through.
Carlino joins Moser, Drew Gordon, and J’Mison Morgan as players to leave the program within the last year. Though that may reflect poorly upon the program, the reality is players come to school thinking they’re going to win the starting job or at least play significant minutes. When that doesn’t happen, they get discouraged and figure transferring somewhere they can play more minutes will be better for their career. Maybe Carlino will find an opportunity at BYU that he didn’t have at UCLA.
Pic via Scout
