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University of Maine’s Wes Myers, right, goes to the basket past Central Connecticut State University’s Eric Bowles during their basketball game at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor in November 2016.
BDN
Former University of Maine guard Wes Myers — who was suspended from the team last February — will play his final season of college basketball next winter at the University of South Carolina.
The move was first reported by CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein on Wednesday morning.
Myers, a 6-foot-2-inch guard, averaged a team-leading 16.9 points and 4.5 assists while shooting 43.7 percent from the field last winter in his only season on the Black Bears’ active roster.
Myers missed the final five games of the 2016-2017 regular season, and UMaine’s opening-round loss at Vermont, after being involved in an altercation Feb. 14 in which he broke the jaw of teammate Marko Pirovic with a punch during an argument about the music being played in the locker room.
He subsequently was not invited to return to the team for the coming season, according to UMaine coach Bob Walsh.
Myers did remain a student on the Orono campus and completed his undergraduate studies this summer, making him eligible to play at South Carolina this coming season under the NCAA’s graduate transfer rule for Division I student-athletes.
“Getting the job done been working all summer. On and off the court. Ending my academic summer on a good note A, A-, B+ and a B-,” Myers said in a July 24 Twitter post.
According to The State newspaper of Columbia, South Carolina, the University of South Carolina had offered Myers a scholarship coming out of Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, New York, where he helped his alma mater win its first state title in 2012.
Myers instead signed with Niagara and spent two years there before transferring to UMaine, where he sat out one year before playing last winter.
He joins a South Carolina program that reached the NCAA Final Four last March, falling to Gonzaga 77-73 in the national semifinals.
Myers becomes the second graduate transfer added to the South Carolina roster during the offseason by coach Frank Martin, joining former Florida Atlantic guard Frank Booker.
The Gamecocks lost three senior guards from last year’s team, including SEC Player of the Year and L.A. Clippers draft pick Sindarius Thornwell. Sophomore guard P.J. Dozier signed as an undrafted free agent with the Dallas Mavericks.
Bernstein to Kent State
Former UMaine point guard Ryan Bernstein will attempt to join the men’s basketball team at Kent State as a walk-on next season, according to verbalcommits.com.
The 6-foot junior from Bronx, New York, played for two years as a non-scholarship player at UMaine, but left the program after last season in search of a scholarship opportunity.
Bernstein started 29 of 32 games last season, averaging 4.2 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists while shooting 33 percent from the field, 27 percent from the 3-point arc and 54 percent from the foul line.
He must sit out the 2017-2018 season and then will have two years of eligibility remaining.
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