BYU: Delgado to transfer


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Guard Raul Delgado is leaving the BYU Basketball program, a little more than a year after joining the Cougars as a junior college transfer.

The school on Friday confirmed Delgado's transfer intentions, which were first reported by CBSSports.com, whose Jeff Goodman this week listed Delgado on his updated list of transferring Division I hoopsters.

On Saturday, Delgado announced via Twitter, that he will be transferring to DII Metro State in Denver.

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In discussing Delgado's signing with BYU last April, BYU head coach Dave Rose at the time said the Springville HS product was "extremely athletic; he's a guy we think can guard multiple positions, which is really good for how we play. He's an explosive guy; he's a guy who can rise up on his jump shot, make a play in traffic, over guys...he turned into a really consistent three-point shooter...will bring some real depth to our guard line, give us a lot of options."

Asked at the time if Delgado reminded him of any BYU players he has seen in the past, Rose chose Trent Whiting. "He's kind of the same guy; really explosive, athletic, great lateral quickness, and he can just rise up over a guy, and make a shot."

"For Raul, it will be a matter of how quickly he can learn our system--how comfortable will he feel with how fast we play."

As it turned out, Delgado's learning curve proved to be a steep one, and his shooting touch abandoned him at BYU. Suffering a nasty dislocation of his shooting elbow before the fall semester began, Delgado began his BYU career playing from behind, relative to a physical standpoint.

In an interview last week, Rose acknowledged that the injury hampered Delgado early in the season, noting that "his (situation) was complicated even more, because all of the basic fundamentals of our program and what we put in as the core--he missed all of that during the September period, then he was trying to play catch-up all the way through."

"I think the real issue was that were so many basic core fundamentals and principles of our system that he never really grasped, and he was never able to play free--he was always kind of thinking one step behind instead of thinking one step ahead."

Delgado played in 26 of 36 games, averaging only 6.6 minutes per game. He scored 1.8 points per game, shooting 35% from the field and 26% (8-for-31) from the arc. A player who once went 12-for-23 from the three-point line in a single game as a juco sophomore, Delgado never got into any kind of shooting groove at BYU, even when minutes were more available in the early part of the season.

Once conference play got underway, Delgado never played more than seven minutes in any game, and made only two of 12 three-point attempts in WCC competition. Delgado played two minutes or less in nine of his last 11 appearances; eight of his 10 DNPs came in league play.

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The 2013-14 roster continues to take shape, with the spring signing window remaining open until mid-May. At the present juncture, Rose has two open scholarships with which to work, but that could conceivably change in coming days.

BYU students took final exams this week, and Rose said that with the end-of-semester player interviews, "sometimes those conversations, when we come through those things, there is some attrition in that."

"When we've gone through all of the players and had all of our end-of-the-year interviews," said Rose last week, "we'll probably have a better idea of what our roster will potentially look like next season."

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Greg Wrubell

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