Pierre Henderson-Niles, fin

After tricking just a few of us into thinking he was the new Dexter Pittman, the Pierre Henderson-Niles era is over in Memphis, after quite an unremarkable three seasons and 23 games. Tigers coach Josh Pastner confirmed to the media today that his starting center was leaving the team with just eight regular season games remaining, thinning out the Tigers frontcourt in more ways than one.

Henderson-Niles was only averaging 5.2 points and 5.2 rebounds a game this season, so the entire college basketball landscape will is feeling just small tremors following the announcement. A limited amount of AP photos of the big guy confirms this. But in Memphis, a team that’s not the clear-cut Conference USA favorite it usually is, the loss court hurt, or it could mean addition by subtraction of a player who lost his way. Sophomore Angel Garcia is expected to see increased minutes after returning from an ACL injury, but hopefully is not expected to slap unruly opposing fans.