Jermaine Lawrence Lands At Manhattan

Dec 17, 2013; New York, NY, USA; Cincinnati Bearcats forward Jermaine Lawrence (11) controls the ball against Pittsburgh Panthers forward Talib Zanna (42) during the second half of the first game of the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden. Cincinnati defeated Pittsburgh 44-43. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Former Cincinnati Bearcats basketball player Jermaine Lawrence has transferred to Manhattan University following his release from his scholarship. Manhattan beat out Iona and Hofstra for acquiring Lawrence.

Lawrence has said he decided to leave Cincinnati and transfer to a school closer to his home in Springfield Gardens, New York (Queens) to tend to his ailing father. Manhattan is certainly closer to Queens and not necessarily a bad school, they did make the NCAA Tournament last season.

In hist freshman year at Cincinnati Lawrence struggled to find his identity, missing 8 games with a toe injury and playing 15 minutes a game Lawrence was only able to score 2.8 points a game and 2.9 rebounds. Not the production the Cincinnati coaching staff expected out of the 6-foot-9 five star recruit.

Cincinnati coaches and fans certainly didn’t want to see Lawrence leave. There was a lot of hopeful people that Lawrence would add some muscle and turn into a Justin Jackson type of player.  A menace on the boards but a better scoring player than Jackson. That will not happen in a Bearcats jersey, it will be interesting to see how Manhattan uses him.

If Manhattan seems to ring a bell but you can’t really place why there is a reason. Besides the fact they made the NCAA Tournament last season their head coach was embroiled in a large controversy when he agreed to become the next head coach of the South Florida Bulls. Steve Masiello never received his degree from the University of Kentucky. USF requires coaches to have an undergraduate degree, they withdrew their offer and Manhattan agreed to allow Masiello to come back.

The Jaspers could very well make another run at the NCAA Tournament this season. Hopefully Lawrence can play a part in that.