Well we already knew Henry was transferring out of the program. Coach Martin has made it official today with the announcement that Henry, Sheppard, and Theus will no longer be part of the men's basketball program at USC.

Official Program Announcement

This leaves the program with either 8 or 9 scholarship players, depending on if former walk-on and rising senior Brian Steele has a scholarship or not. I believe Steele was given a scholarship last season, but haven't seen much reported on it so don't know for sure. Anyways, like with football a scholarship given to initial walk-ons are typically one-year deals and often can be revoked to make way for a 4-year player to be added, if necessary.

USC has 3 incoming players signed for next year in Dozier, Silva, and Gregory, and a 4th in C Travon Bunch that's expected to sign once he gets in a qualifying SAT/ACT score. That would be a total of 4 newcomers, which would make the total roster 12 or 13 scholarship players, depending on Steele's status. I think we can all take the position that if Steele had a scholarship last season, he won't have one next season. 13 scholarship players are the maximum for men's CBB...

So the word is that Blanton's recovery from his hip injury and surgery is moving along positively. Sounds like we'll have one final scholarship offer left to hand out, and the staff has been & is aggressively recruiting other prospects ranging anywhere from another true center and/or power forward type (Clifford, Cook, Cobb, Carter, Holman), to another shooting guard type (Ellison, Dixson, Mack). Wonder who it will be??