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Head Coach Barry Hinson of Southern Illinois announced that freshman forward Jordan Caroline will be transferring from the already young team at the end of the spring semester. In spite of his freshman status, Caroline started all but the first game of the season for the Salukis and was second in both points and rebounds.
In his only season in the NCAA so far, Caroline played in all 33 games averaging 25.6 minutes per game. He was his team's second leading scorer with 9.2 ppg on a team best .448 field-goal percentage and gathered the most rebounds of any Saluki with 6.2 per game. He was third in the Missouri Valley in offensive rebounds with 2.4 per game.
Caroline's production earned him a spot on the Missouri Valley Conference All-Freshman team. According to SIU's Daily Egyptian, Caroline wants to play at a "higher level," but does not know where he will be transferring to and has yet to receive offers from other programs.
Coming out of High School at Montverde Academy in Florida, the only other confirmed D-I interest was from the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers of the Northeast Conference, which he had committed to before switching to Southern Illinois. Although Caroline finished his high school career and played AAU ball in Flordia, his hometown is Champaign, IL. There were naturally rumors that he could play for the Fighting Illini, but no mutual interest was ever reported.
Earlier this month freshmen guards Chaz Glotta and K.C. Goodwin as well as junior guard Jalen Pendleton announced they would transfer, making Caroline the fourth player and third freshman to transfer. Pendleton started 14 games in 2014-2015 and averaged 22.2 minutes per game, but saw both his average points and rebounds per game decrease from the previous season in spite of more playing time.
The Southern Illinois Salukis were 12-21 last season, going 4-14 in the Missouri Valley.
UPDATE: Freshman guard Deion Lavender has also just announced that he will be transferring, bringing the total to five transferring out of Southern Illinois. Lavender played in all but one game of the season and averaged 22.9 minutes a game with 6.6 ppg with a .433 field goal percentage and .826 free throw percentage.