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Myke Henry Talks About Why He's Transferring

Henry says he's looking for a "fresh start."

Jamie Sabau

Illinois hasn't released him from his scholarship yet, so it's not official, but it's pretty damn official that Myke Henry is transferring. First it was his high school coach talking about his transfer on Thursday, and now Henry himself is talking about it.

Henry explained to Chicago Hoops why he's leaving Illinois.

"First and foremost, I want to thank the University of Illinois and the coaches down there, including Coach Weber and Coach Howard who recruited me to Illinois," said Henry. "I believe in Coach Groce and his staff, but I decided to leave Illinois because I felt I needed a fresh start. I have nothing but positive things to say about everything down there. Some of my closest friends play there, and I'm still going to be cheering from afar.

"I'm looking for a school that is going to give me an opportunity to really showcase my skills and let me play on the wing. Since I've been back home, I have been putting a lot of time in the gym and really just trying to get my confidence back. I've been working with Kimrossi Taylor, Jimalle Ridley, my old coaches at Orr, and some others."

So, essentially, it boils down to what a lot of people were speculating about the last few weeks during this entire drama. Myke Henry wants to be a wing player and odds are he'd have been filling more of a stretch-4 role here like he did last season. So if that's what Myke is looking for and he wasn't going to get it here, I don't begrudge him for making the decision to leave. That doesn't mean I like the decision, or that I necessarily agree with the decision. I hope that he's happy wherever he ends up.

As for where he'll end up, Chicago Hoops says schools from the Big East, SEC, Missouri Valley and Mountain West are expected to be interested. While I don't know for sure, I'm just going to go ahead and say that the Big East team is DePaul because it makes a lot of sense.

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