Rumors are swirling around the North Texas Program concerning Charles Carmouche, G, 6-2, 175, leaving the University of New Orleans (UNO) program and wearing the green of the Eagles. Late in 2009 New Orleans announced they were dropping all sports from Division 1 to Division 3. As a result many of the players in all sports are now looking for new homes. Upon the announcement several basketball players immediately said they were transferring except for Carmouche.

North Texas was the benefit of the move by picking up one of UNO’s commitments and now may have the opportunity to pick up one of their starting guards. The question is does North Texas want to pick up a guard from a program that went 8-22 last year?

Before answering, here is some information about Carmouche and his situation because he is between a rock and a hard place in the deal.

He is from New Orleans and wants to play in his hometown so he can represent his city. He was affected by Hurricane Katrina being forced to move to Lafayette then Houston before returning home to New Orleans for his last two years of high school. He got his diploma at the age of 17 from McMain High School. He stayed home to play for UNO so he could play for his hometown and he liked what UNO Head Basketball Coach Joe Pasternack was putting together. He wanted to be part of a team that would take UNO back to the NCAA and NIT Tournaments.

Part of the concern about Carmouche coming out of high school was how he would he play at the next level. McMain was not a very good basketball program plus he graduated when he was seventeen.

Pasternack saw something he liked in Carmouche and recruited him to UNO. Once on campus, the coach was surprised at how well Carmouche improved over his career for the Privateers. During Carmouche’s freshman season he wasn’t even part of Pasternack’s plan to be a starter. Before the season ended, Carmouche ended up starting 15 games.  He was the starter to open up the 2009-2010 season helping the Privateers to get off to a 5-2 record before the news hit about downgrading the program. Since then they have gone 3-20. All the losses can not be attributed to all the question marks concerning the fate of the program, there was an ankle injury to Carmouche, an injury to the leading scorer plus the inside game was struggling.

UNO officials felt they had little choice in making the move to Division 3. Enrollment dropped from pre-Katrina of 17,200 students to its present 11,750. Each student pays $100 per semester to support athletics, the lost of about 6,000 students meant over $1 million revenue gone per year. Throw in the state budget cuts to the university things got worse. When 52% of the students voted against raising the $100 athletic fee to $200 per semester the fate of the sports programs were sealed.

When told about the change Carmouche answered "It's part of going through life. I'm just trying not to pay attention to it right now. I'm focused on trying to have a successful season this year and trying to get this accomplished this season. You can't do anything about the future today. You have to focus on now and not worry about later."

Apparently Carmouche did keep focus during the turbulent times. It was the UNO guard play that kept them in most games. Their main problem was inside play. They were inconsistent in defense to the point in some games the guards were the leading rebounders. On offense, the guards could not get the ball inside and forced to shoot long distance. In one game the guards had to hit 13 three pointers to be competitive in the game. The 13 three point shots was one short of the school record.

While never a high scoring team, because of Pasternack’s moderate tempo game, for the first ten games they averaged 64.4 points a game. Then after the announcement and injuries they only averaged 56.6 points a game. In ten games they were held to under 50 points even with the starting lineup

In their final Sun Belt Conference game, the reality of what was about to happen took hold and the air was gone from the team. They had 25 turnovers resulting in 35 points in a 58-83 loss to Western Kentucky. They were one basket short of tying a NCAA record for fewest field goals in one half when they went 2 for 17 for an 11.8% field-goal percentage and scored just ten points in the first half. The bright spot was Carmouche who had 21 points to lead all scorers in the game.

While not announced, it appears Carmouche is now looking to move on. If he wants to stay at UNO he will do it without a scholarship. One interviewer talked with his grandmother who she stated that next year he would not be playing for a Division 3 team.

Sources close to the UNO program stated Carmouche wanted to stay home and play for Tulane but he apparently does not meet the Green Waves high academic standards. As a private school, they have much higher standards which does hurt them in recruiting players in all sports. So this is nothing new for them or their recruits. Carmouche does have the grades to get into almost any other public school so there is no concern there. So part of Carmouche’s desire to play for a team which represents the City of New Orleans is gone. Now he will have to represent his city in his heart and in his deeds wherever he plays.

Can he be a player? According to his coach, "Charles Carmouche definitely has the ability to (be a scorer), but he's got to be consistent game in and game out."  He has become more consistent as the season went on and ended the season averaging 12.8 points per game with 4.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists. He must wait till after June 30 before he can transfer to another Division 1 school so he will not have to sit out a year.

Now, should North Texas Head Basketball Coach Johnny Jones go after Carmouche and sign him? First, Jones and his staff have not made many mistakes in recruiting players as a matter of fact he has been extremely successful. Second, see #1 so the answer is yes.