Basketball starter Shy McClelland quits team, cites tension with Smith

Junior guard Shy McClelland, a starter for USD men’s basketball who has played 21 games this year, is done playing basketball for USD.

On Tuesday, McClelland announced he would no longer be playing for USD in a tweet.

McClelland, who has averaged 11.5 points per game for USD this season, has been serving a suspension for the last two weeks for undisclosed reasons.

Brian Boettcher, assistant athletic director for sports information, confirmed McClelland is no longer part of the team and said the starter is suspended “indefinitely.”

“(The reason) will remain confidential,” Boettcher said.

After practice Tuesday evening, Smith told reporters the loss of McClelland hurts the Coyotes’ depth.

“The good news is we played two games without him last week and were able to figure some things out, so it’s next man up,” he said.

Smith declined to go into further detail about why the starter is no longer playing for USD.

“Shy decided he wanted to go in a different direction and we wish him nothing but the best of luck in whatever endeavor he decides to choose,” he said.

McClelland said in an interview with The Volante Tuesday evening that he wasn’t suspended from the team, but quit due to tensions between him and Smith. He said Smith suspended him for two games after finding out he was looking at schools closer to his home in Milwaukee to be closer to his grandmother who has cancer. McClelland’s father died from cancer two years ago.

“I explained the situation to him that it’s always been on my grandma,” McClelland said. “My grandma is all I have and if she passes away, I don’t have nothing.”

He said Smith told him he needed to “get his thoughts together” and suspended him for two games.

“He pretty much didn’t understand that. He pretty much strung me along,” McClelland said. “It started as ‘you’re suspended and we want you to take a step back and get your thoughts together for the next two games,’ and then after that we were supposed to meet Monday, but he cancelled that meeting to talk to radio shows.”

On Tuesday afternoon McClelland said he met with Smith and was told he would be suspended another two games. That’s when he quit.

“Today he told me I would serve another two-game suspension for basically caring about my (grandmother),” he said. “I don’t have anything outside of my grandmother and Craig Smith does not understand that.”

McClelland said he loved playing basketball for USD and wishes the team well.

“I love USD, I love playing for USD. There’s nothing better in the world than wearing a Coyote jersey, but the simple fact was that he was like I wasn’t allowed to be at practice, I wasn’t allowed to come to the games while I was suspended,” he said.

He also added that he didn’t feel like Smith cared for him as an individual.

“The simple fact (is) that he made me feel like he really didn’t care about my wellbeing and as a coach you’re supposed to care about a player that you brought from a couple thousand miles away — that has no friends, no family. You’re pretty much my whole family, you and the team — and he (alienated) me when I needed him the most.”

Smith said he takes student-athletes’ wellbeing seriously and that the talk between him and McClelland was “very diplomatic.”

“Shy was suspended seven days ago for reasons that will stay within the team that way,” Smith said. “We take our student-athletes’ wellbeing very seriously and I can assure that if any student-athlete was suspended, it was warranted.”

Smith said he stands behind the action to decision McClelland.

“We stand behind our actions that way and we wish Shy certainly nothing but the best of luck in (his) student-athlete experience,” he said. “Their (student-athletes’) wellbeing is certainly of the utmost importance to our basketball program and certainly to the athletic department at the University of South Dakota.”

Sports editor Max Tushla contributed to this report.