Is this the real reason Omer Yurtseven decided to leave NC State?

Most expected that Omer Yurtseven (NC State’s star big man last season) wouldn’t be around this season.

They were right. However, not many expected that his departure would be by way of transfer.

At the end of the season, Omer Yurtseven was averaging 13.5 points and almost 7 rebounds per game. He was NC State’s go-to-guy in the middle and was a big reason they shocked the ACC and made it to the tournament in Kevin Keatts’ first season.

After almost declaring for the NBA draft after his freshman season, it seemed as if it were a foregone conclusion that he would do so after showing so much promise in his sophomore season.

Yurtseven did declare, but did not hire an agent. Then, the news started to leak that he wasn’t going to return, even if he chose to come back to school.

Then the news broke that he was pulling himself from the draft and transferring to Georgetown. The N&O reached out to him for an explanation and he basically said it was because he wanted to play for Patrick Ewing.

If you were following during that time, then you know we were a bit confused. Sources were telling us that Yurtseven had no beef with the NC State staff, so to us it seemed as if he may have seen the writing on the wall. Keatts wanted to implement his style of ball 100% this season and that style doesn’t really compliment a slower, more methodical type post-player like Yurtseven.

And that’s where it was left. Until now.

Yurtseven recently spoke with The Georgetown Voice and shed a little more light on the situation.

According to Yurtseven, there were “a few events” that caused him to feel uncomfortable in Raleigh. (TGV)

While they don’t have specific quotes from Omer about what those ‘few events’ were,  it seems to be hinting that his Muslim religion may have weighed in on the decision.

“Knowing that a place respects my religion is definitely important,” Yurtseven said. “It just comforts you. (TGV)”

You can go and read the article, but we won’t post anymore here because some may take some of the quotes as slights to North Carolina and it’s policies, and here at PackInsider.com, we don’t allow politics (either side) on our site.

The takeaway here is that maybe we didn’t get the full story the first time around. Maybe it isn’t all about the NC State basketball program. Maybe it was a culmination of things that led Yurtseven to decide a change of scenery would feel more comfortable to him, part of which was likely playing for Ewing.

“Omer is already a very good player and will be a valuable addition to our team,” Ewing wrote to the Voice. “I want him to add a few more things to his game, but I want him to get the joy back into playing basketball again.”

Either way, we hope Omer finds what he is looking for. We wish him well and honestly believe it is probably a better fit to play under someone who will invest in a traditional-style post player.

As for NC State and their fans, we believe moving over to Keatts system ASAP is the right move. Basketball is changing and the traditional post player is being left behind. We wish Omer well, but we are very confident in the direction Keatts is taking this ship.

**Note: We’ve been doing this long enough to know that some of you may not like us reporting on guys who have transferred. If you follow us closely, you’ll realize that we rarely ever do. The reason we are writing this is because there were unanswered questions around Yurtseven’s decision and after the transfer situation we just saw with Gottfried, we thought a little more info around this topic could help squash any rumors that had been floating around.