Freshman player decides to transfer

It may not have been too hard to read Daryl Pegram's unhappiness. With just two early season game appearances for the IU men's basketball team to his credit, the freshman forward spent the last couple of months on the bench, dressed in street clothes.\nEven during practice Pegram was attired differently. While the team wore the typical practice jerseys, he was usually dressed in a sweat shirt and gym shorts. And most of Pegram's time lately was spent in the training room rather than on the court. When he did emerge from the trainer's, he headed to the bleachers and watched, with his chin on his hands.\nYet it was still a surprise when IU coach Mike Davis announced Saturday that Pegram had left the team in mid-season and planned to transfer after this semester.\n"Daryl is a mature, hard-working player who has decided that he would like to pursue other options," Davis said in a statement. "We respect his decisions and sincerely wish him the best."\nPegram arrived at IU as a member of a highly anticipated freshman class that also consisted of guards Marshall Strickland, Roderick Wilmont and Bracey Wright. While Davis decided to redshirt Wilmont prior to the start of this season, Wright and Strickland have both made immediate impacts on the team. Wright, who was sidelined briefly because of a back injury, leads the team in scoring with an average of 17.4 points per game. Strickland, who has one start to his credit, has seen action in all 22 games this season and averages just over 20 minutes per game.\nBut while his two roommates, Wright and Strickland, enjoyed first-year success, Pegram's season has been less than satisfying, seeing action in a mere two games and totaling five minutes of court time.\n"I don't think he saw an opportunity here for him," Strickland said. "He did have nagging injuries and he had to deal with all that. It was a choice he had to make."\nThe two games that Pegram played in were the Team Nike exhibition on Nov. 16, where he sank a three-point jump shot and had one block in two minutes of play and the University of Illinois-Chicago game on Dec. 7. Pegram played a mere three minutes in the IU win, picking up two points and one rebound.\nBut thanks to a reoccurring knee injury, Pegram has experienced a limited chance to develop at the same rate as his counterparts.\n"I see him every day and he looks like he's fine with it, but I know deep inside, he's really feeling hurt," Wilmont said. "It's a big decision to do something like that. But we told him if we were in his shoes, we would have just stuck it out because you don't know what might happen over the summer."\nTwo other possible reasons mentioned as to why the 6-foot-9-inch Pegram decided to leave the team included being far from his family during his injury, and not developing his game or bulking up as rapidly as he would have liked.\nThe California native is expected to pick a school in his home state to be closer to his family, especially as he continues rehabilitation on his injured knee.\nPegram arrived at IU after averaging more than 15 points per game and grabbing over nine rebounds at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts. Similar to senior forward Jeff Newton's ability to shoot the long-range shot, Pegram made 42 three-point shots in his senior year. \n"It was something he had to do," Wright said. "He was injured for awhile, so he wasn't playing. I don't think it hurt the team that much, but we lost a good friend"