Seton Hall Athletics
Jaren Sina and the Seton Hall men’s basketball team have mutually agreed to part ways, according to Seton Hall Athletics.
The two sides came to terms on the decision after meeting Wednesday morning. According to Sina and his father Mergin, the sophomore’s tenure as a Pirate is over, effective immediately.
The news comes just hours after Seton Hall suffered a devastating loss to Georgetown, falling 86-67 at home. Sina was pulled from the starting lineup for the first time this year and the team was hampered by locker room issues, namely between Isaiah Whitehead and Sterling Gibbs, for the second straight game.
Now, it appears Sina has had enough of it.
“I tried my best,” the sophomore guard told Jerry Carino of the Asbury Park Press. “I think I was a good teammate. I’ve always been positive. I’ve always worked hard. I always gave it 100 percent. It’s not a good situation for me right now. At the end of the day, I think it’s best for me and my family.”
A standout player in high school at Gill St. Bernard’s in Gladstone, N.J, Sina will now seek a transfer. He would require a waiver in order to play next year, otherwise he would have to sit out until the 2016-17.
Sina was averaging seven points, 2.3 assists and 27 minutes per game for the Hall.
“I appreciate all the hard work and determination Jaren has put into our program over the last two years,” head coach Kevin Willard said in a statement released by the program. “He is an outstanding young man, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”
Sina’s departure is just the latest in a series of setbacks for Seton Hall. The team has lost three straight conference games and seven of its last 10. Once the 19th-ranked team in the country, Seton Hall is now on the wrong side of the March Madness bubble.
As first reported by The Setonian, Whitehead and Gibbs nearly came to blows Tuesday night while in a team huddle, according to multiple sources involved with the team. Those same sources also confirmed that both Sina and Gibbs did not enter the locker room following the game. Whitehead had also been casting a rather daunting presence on his Twitter account, replacing his Seton Hall-themed profile pictures with a black background.
With Sina gone, speculation surrounding the futures of Whitehead, Gibbs, Angel Delgado and others is ever-growing, as it is regarding the fate of Willard.
In response to such speculation, Whitehead tweeted, “I AM & ALWAYS WILL BE A SETON HALL PIRATE," shortly after the news about Sina broke. He also put back some of his Seton Hall photos.
Willard refused to talk to the media about the team’s chemistry issues following the loss Tuesday night and players were not made available to the media.
Gary Phillips can be reached at gary.phillips@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @GPhillips2727.
