Make that Brown AND THAMES leaving WSU

COUGFAN.COM has confirmed that a second Washington State freshman is leaving the Cougar basketball team. Point guard Xavier Thames is transferring, according to two reliable sources close to the program. Thames himself, when contacted by CF.C Saturday night, declined to answer questions. "I can't talk about it at this time," he said.

Both reliable sources, who asked not to be identified, said they didn't want to speculate as to Thames’ reasons for transferring. Common sense, though, would suggest more playing time was a driving force.

Thames played in all of the Cougars’ 31 games this past season – starting four – and averaging 17.6 minutes per outing. But he was second string behind another true freshman, Reggie Moore.

On Friday in a twitter message, Moore ignited speculation about the Cougars’ roster for next season when he said, "all the homies on the team are transferring .. wth (what the hell) am I gonna do next year without them?"

The news of Thames’ departure comes just hours after CF.C’s breaking story about fellow freshman Anthony Brown’s decision to leave WSU.

Schools the two players may be considering weren’t made known.

Whether more defections are in the offing remains to be seen. However, sources contacted by CF.C did offer up some names of players they believe are rock-solid with the Cougs; they didn’t inventory the entire roster, but names that came immediately to mind were Moore, Marcus Capers, DeAngelo Casto, Klay Thompson and Abe Lodwick.

THAMES, FROM THE Sacramento suburb of Elk Grove, was a re-commit to WSU last year after Tony Bennett left for Virginia. Shortly after Bennett’s announcement, Thames asked to be released from his Letter of Intent and later said he was drawing immediate interest from UCLA, Florida, Arizona and others. About two weeks later, following a weekend meeting with Ken Bone and assistant coach Ben Johnson, Thames re-commited to WSU.

He averaged 4.6 points and 1.5 rebounds per game for the Cougs in 2009-10. His 38 assists were fifth-most on the team and his 24 steals were fourth-most. He shot 41 percent fromt he field overal and 26 percent from beyond the arc.