That's what he's said publicly. Privately he might feel different. I don't know. All the early press after his transfer broke talked about his desire to play in the NBA. He'd just pulled his name out of the draft a few weeks earlier. Maybe you don't talk about transferring to a winning program because it's insulting to the program you're abandoning? We'll see, I guess, what his motivations are.
We all know that White tossed his hat into the NBA draft in order to pursue his dream of playing professionally. His production at Nebraska was solid, [17 ppg, 6 rpg, 41% from three, 60% TSP], he produced playing against B1G caliber competition, and he has the right size / athletic profile to be a legit NBA prospect. Despite that, his evaluation came back as indicating he would most likely go undrafted -- so not even a second round pick.
Given that, the way I see it, White has a couple of prospective paths to pursue his NBA goals:
- Go somewhere where he'd be THE MAN, and the focal point of the offense. Team that fits this option best: Nebraska
- Transfer down a level, seek to average ~25ppg in hopes that being this prolific garners additional attention: Best options: Richmond / VCU
- Become an important cog in a great team poised to make a deep run, and garner the additional attention / publicity that ensures: Best option: Syracuse
Maybe there's another option out there that I don't see, if anybody wants to nitpick that list. I'm guessing that Miami and MSU were considered as options for bullet #3 above, but were found to be less desirable because the path to minutes / PT was less clear, and because his role on those teams might not be as a featured option. At SU, he's stepping into bountiful opportunity for PT and shots, given that we have a lot of perimeter productivity to make up for, we lack a natural 3 on this roster as currently constituted, and White is an experienced guy to plug-and-play prospect.
I'm sure that he was looking to play full time 2, but probably didn't get the answer he was looking for from Miami [who have lots of young, exciting players at the 2 / 3], or MSU [which reportedly wanted him in a hybrid 3/4 role], or here [Battle would be the likely 2, White would play mostly 3]. On that latter point, I have no doubt that a significant reason for him checking out MSU and Miami despite his generally good visit here was due to his camp not getting perfect answers to what they were seeking in terms of him playing guard here. But that after considering other alternatives, on most other dimensions we proved out to be the "best" option in terms of PT, shots, his role, and the team being poised to make a deep run if he comes here -- moreso than either Miami or MSU.
