Photo credit: @KyleNeddenriep 

By: Ana Kieu

After an extended recruitment process, San Jose State forward Ryan Welage tweeted an unexpected announcement Wednesday afternoon.

https://twitter.com/ryanwelage32/status/984220786905907200

Three years out West was apparently enough for Welage, who will be heading back to the Midwest and being much closer to his hometown of Greensburg, Indiana. Xavier University is located in Cincinnati, Ohio, and their men’s basketball team, the Musketeers, were the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Oh yeah, and they’re a rival of the Butler Bulldogs of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The former Greensburg High School star didn’t necessarily have to transfer to another school, but it’s a decision he made and I respect it. I’ll never forget the first time I watched Welage shoot hoops at San Jose State. I wasn’t a sports journalist as I was still enrolled at SJSU as a senior in 2015-16, but I attended a Spartans basketball game and enjoyed watching him dominate on the court. He finished that season in third place with 10.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game in 31 games played and 26 starts. He was fun to watch.

Welage went on to continue his dominant ways in 2016-17. He averaged 13.2 points and 4.5 rebounds in 30 games played and 27 starts. He scored a career-high 22 points in SJSU’s win over Southern Utah on December 21, 2016.

Things continued going in Welage’s favor in 2017-18 as he was named an All-Mountain West honorable mention and became the sixth-leading scorer of all-time in SJSU history with 1,258 points. He also became the Spartans’ all-time leader in three-pointers with 155 made threes after he hit a three against Utah State on February 28, 2018. In addition, he led the Spartans in scoring a whopping 19 times.

Welage was not only a tremendous offensive player for a new era of college basketball, he was also an intelligent young man who was named an Academic All-Mountain West honoree twice and a CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII honoree once in 2018. Not only that, he was a friendly, low-key guy who was normal and healthy as he didn’t let the extra attention get to his head.

After Welage leaves, the SJSU hoops program isn’t going to be the same. Sure, there will likely be another star who will help out the Spartans, but this team is trying to find its identity and that might take some time. Let’s not forget that head coach Jean Prioleau will enter his second year at SJSU this fall, so he still has a lot of things to figure out as his team is currently taking a turn for the worse.

The Spartans need more than just a new star who will light up the team. They need to revamp their defense and offense. They also need to be more consistent, especially against teams who are below them and/or on a longer losing skid.

But in the meantime, I wish Welage the best of luck with his new team.