I've seen a lot of Pankey-related negativity and calls for him to transfer, and this is my plea for everybody to rethink that. Pankey is just a freshman and he's coming off 2 years off the court. He's got a good body and he's getting good seasoning this year. If the program were healthy this season, Pankey would be at best a role player getting 5-8 minutes a game while learning to compete in practice. Unfortunately, Turge was dealt a short hand in his first year and so Pankey -- again, a freshman off of 2 non-playing years -- was pressed into starting duty and routinely had to guard the likes of zeller or the plumlee goons. So he's struggling right now. I don't think it's fair to call for his head. It's not his fault Jordan Williams left. Take Parker for example. Let's pretend Faust didn't re-commit and went somewhere else, and Parker was playing 25-30 minutes and having to take on some ball-handling responsibilities due to complete lack of depth. I think it's safe to say that Parker wouldn't be the most popular guy with fans, but instead he's playing 10 minutes a game and still not doing much overall, but has tantalizing physical tools so everyone is fine with him. My point is that Pankey is a victim of the team's lack of depth that pressed him into too big a role for the stage he's at in his development. He has a chance to be a key player for Maryland down the road. Everyone thinks Shaq will be a savior and I hope he will too, but there's also a chance Shaq will be raw and need time to develop, and if that happens it will be very nice to have a 6-8 PF with 2 years experience in the program and a year of ACC experience under his belt. I would argue that Len has been pretty awful to watch at times too but because he's 7 feet and has tons of potential he gets a free pass. Pankey is a freshman too, just like Len, but has been asked to do more. Not sure he should be viewed any differently. I would love to see people show some more patience with him.