Senior Wright quits program at BGSU

2/23/2006

BOWLING GREEN - The losses keep piling up for the Bowling Green State University men's basketball team.

Senior Steven Wright, the Falcons' second-leading scorer, has left the program.

A one-sentence statement released by the athletic department said his departure was mutually agreed upon with coach Dan Dakich.

Dakich did not return a phone message seeking further comment on the reason for Wright's departure.

It's a costly loss for the Falcons. Wright averaged 11.4 points, 3.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game.

The Falcons are 9-17 and have lost seven of their past eight games. In Tuesday's loss to Kent State, Wright had five assists and two steals in 28 minutes, but had six turnovers.

Tuesday night in a postgame interview on the Falcon Sports Network, Dakich alluded to problems within his team in

nswering a question about freshman Erik Marschall's improved play.

"He kind of has given himself to me, he's given himself, 'Coach, what do you want me to do?'●" Dakich said. "We work on it.

"Unfortunately, there's just too many little issues with our team going on that precluded from everybody getting with me. We're going to get it straightened out, we're going to keep working at it."

Wright's departure is another loss in a growing issue of Dakich not retaining players. In the last three years, nine players have left the program.

After sitting out his freshman year as a non-qualifier, Wright started all but three games in his sophomore and junior seasons. He said last month he had completed enough classwork to earn another year of eligibility.

He missed the first six games of the season with a broken foot. Upon his return he was inserted into the starting lineup, but primarily came off the bench in conference play.

BGSU has three regular-season games remaining, with the next Sunday at 2 p.m. at Buffalo.

- Maureen Fulton