Bill Wagner is reporting that Trey Stanton is leaving the Naval Academy. Stanton, who was a Patriot League All-Rookie selection last year, apparently didn’t feel comfortable with the military obligation.

The list of schools interested in offering a scholarship to Stanton– Wagner reports that Gonzaga, Texas Tech, SMU, USD, and Evansville are– should tell you how big of a blow this is to Billy Lange and Navy basketball. Stanton is a matchup nightmare, a big man with the perimeter shooting ability of the 6-3 guard that he was before his growth spurt. With two traditional post players in Jeremy Wilson and Mark Veazey coming in next year, Billy Lange was looking at going from one of the shortest teams in the Patriot League to one of the tallest, potentially putting 3 players on the floor 6-9 or taller. With Stanton, Navy could stretch their opponents’ defense by forcing a post player out to the perimeter to guard the 6-10 forward. That would create space for Navy’s post players, help with rebounding, and take pressure off of Greg Sprink. Sprink is the team’s only real scoring threat, and his shot selection is questionable at times because Navy depends on him to jumpstart the offense. Having Stanton on the perimeter with a year of experience under his belt would have done wonders to help with that.

What was looking like a very promising season is now looking a bit more shaky.