When one-time Kansas State commit Robert Upshaw announced his decision to attend Fresno State, the hometown kid was the most highly-regarded signing of Rodney Terry’s brief tenure at the Mountain West school.
But Upshaw’s freshman season was anything but smooth, as the 7-footer dealt with injuries and also ended up on the receiving end of two separate suspensions for a violation of athletic department policy. Even with this being the case, the hope was that Upshaw could progress this summer and help the Bulldogs improve their standing within the Mountain West in 2013-14.
That’s not going to happen however, as it was reported by the Fresno Bee late Wednesday that Upshaw has been dismissed from the program following a third violation of athletic department policy.
Upshaw finished the season with averages of 4.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per contest for the Bulldogs, who went 11-19 (5-11 Mountain West) overall. One of Upshaw’s best performances came in the regular season finale against UNLV, as he tallied six points and a career-high 11 rebounds in the Bulldogs’ 61-52 win in Las Vegas.
Then he was suspended before Fresno State’s Mountain West tournament game against Colorado State, ultimately their final games of the season.
Despite Upshaw’s low averages this is a tough blow for a program that entered the offseason hopeful that it could climb up the Mountain West pecking order. The Bulldogs also lost guard Kevin Olekaibe, who transferred to UNLV in order to be closer to his ailing father.
Fresno State does welcome back senior guard Allen Huddleston (9.7 ppg), the team’s leading returning scorer, and Braeden Anderson should be ready to go after playing in just ten games due to academic issues that delayed the start of his college career (Anderson was originally a Kansas signee).
Fresno State added four freshmen (forwards Soma Edo and Paul Watson being two of them), and former Oklahoma State guard Cezar Guerrero is now eligible to play after having to sit out the 2012-13 season per NCAA transfer rules.
