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AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Auburn point guard Tahj Shamsid-Deen is ending his college career because of injuries and center Trayvon Reed also won't return.
Tigers coach Bruce Pearl said Friday that Shamsid-Deen won't play his senior season after battling shoulder problems. He had surgery on both shoulders after his sophomore season and played only five games last season, when he separated his right shoulder on Nov. 27 against Northwestern State.
"Tahj gave it all he had," Pearl said. "He continued to fight and come back many, many times and that shows how tough he is. The doctors say he has been though a lot, and it is time. He is a true student-athlete with the student being first.
"There is no telling what kind of a season we could have had had we not lost our starting point guard, our best perimeter defender and a true leader."
Reed, a 7-foot-2 sophomore from Mobile, Alabama, played in 23 games as a freshman but was redshirted last season after rejoining the team in December. He received a 15-day sentence in Maryland in 2015 for a misdemeanor assault charge.
Shamsid-Deen said he's on track to graduate in December with a finance degree and will pursue an MBA.
He had missed the final 11 games of the regular season as a sophomore. Shamsid-Deen started all 30 games as a freshman in 2013-14.
"It has been tough," Shamsid-Deen said. "It is probably my first injury I ever have had. For those to be the first injuries and to end my career is pretty devastating. My parents built the foundation where school would always be a backup plan for me."
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