Michael Gbinije has decided to continue his basketball career elsewhere and will transfer, the Duke men’s basketball program announced Monday afternoon.
The 6-foot-7 wing played in 19 of the team’s 34 games last season, averaging 1.7 points and 0.8 rebounds per contest.
Gbinije will leave Duke in good academic standing and is expected to transfer to another Division I school, though he has not yet announced which programs he will consider.
“We wish Michael [Gbinije] the best of luck and we will support him through his impending transfer,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a press release. “He is a talented player with a solid future ahead of him.”
Gbinije scored a season-high eight points Dec. 19 in the Blue Devils’ win over UNC Greensboro. Ranked 29th in the ESPN.com Class of 2012, Gbinije chose Duke over Connecticut, Wake Forest, West Virginia and Alabama. After Austin Rivers, he was the highest rated incoming Blue Devil in his recruiting class, which was ranked No. 2 overall by ESPN.com.
The Chester, Va. native would likely have competed for playing time with 6-foot-8 classmate Alex Murphy, who redshirted during 2011-12 after suffering a concussion early in the season.
“I wish Mike G the best of luck. Good kid from a good family,” associate head coach Steve Wojciechowski tweeted Monday afternoon.
Gbinije is the seventh player to transfer out of the Duke program during the last decade, and the first since Olek Czyz left for Nevada in the middle of the 2009-2010 season.
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