Gant on his decision to transfer

Posted on: March 5, 2019 at 10:26:22 CT

https://www.iberianet.com/sports/three-of-a-kind-ul-trio-have-strong-bond-on/article_3d650388-3d77-11e9-9253-43707253d751.html

Gant was high school teammates with former Ragin’ Cajuns star Jay Wright (with whom he would be roommates with at UL), and he played on the same AAU team, Southern Stampede out of Augusta, Georgia, with Stroman.

“I told Marcus that we could come down here and win,” Gant said. “We could play together like we did in AAU ball. We could have our chemistry and just work off of that.”

The thought of playing with his AAU teammate and good friend though hadn’t crossed Gant’s mind when he signed with Missouri out of his high school. Back then, the mindset was how many times Gant would face his friend on the hardwood in the Southeastern Conference.

Gant turned down offers from Florida, Miami, Florida State, Georgia and South Carolina among others to play at Missouri of the SEC. The first season with the Tigers, Gant was forced to miss the first nine games due to an eligibility review, and played mainly as a backup. The next season Gant appeared in 30 games while averaging 5.1 points and 3.8 rebounds as the Tigers once again suffered through a losing season.

It was during that season that Gant felt that it was time for a change.

“When we started repeating the same things that we did the season before,” Gant said of when he knew it was time to leave. “All of those teammates that I came in with were gone or leaving. So I had to make a decision about my future. I decided to leave.”