We all liked Q a lot. He seemed like a good teammate and his enthusiasm was infectious. He was flashy, although "flashy" doesn't always equal "good" and his 1.4:1 assist to turnover ratio attests to that.
He may not have started, but he got a lot of playing time and was generally on the court during crunch time.
Red was in a bit of a bind with his starting lineup. He wanted to play man, but once Benny imploded and Maliq played exclusively in the middle, he had to have someone who could guard opposing power forwards. Justin wasn't a perfect solution, but better than Q in that setting, and Red probably hoped Taylor could provide better offense than he did.
I will say that Copeland's mouthing off to the refs got worse as the season progressed and on more than one occasion, the ball went the other way while he was preoccupied with complaining.
Who knows what his 1 on 1 conversation with Red was like this week. Some things have been mentioned about his off the court issues by posters whose info is generally rock-solid. I mean, if dasher posted that Maliq was leaving SU to star as Dumbledore in a Harry Potter remake, I might think "Gee, that's an odd career choice for Maliq." But I'd give dasher the benefit of the doubt on his info.
As with all guys who leave, my attention span on their careers will border on milliseconds. Joe and Jesse are alums, so I paid a little more attention to them. So I will wish Q good luck unless he plays against SU or other teams that I care about, thanks for the highlight film memories, and I'll move on to whomever else will probably be here for an equally short time. Between NIL and the portal, it is hard to get too attached anymore.
