Valpo player opts out of the rest of this season

[Da Coach]

Things haven't gone well for Valparaiso this season after they started with a bit of optimism from their MVC Tournament runner-up finish to Bradley last March. But they lost Javon Freeman-Liberty to transfer, and have started this season 3-9, with their only wins being against NAIA Judson, D2 Purdue Northwest, and a weak SIUE team (NET rank 265).
Their 3rd leading scorer, senior Nick Robinson, was averaging 9.1 ppg and 37% on threes when he went down with a back injury in late December and missed their last 4 games. Today, following Valpo's blowout loss at home last night to Loyola, Valparaiso released the following announcement that Robinson will opt out of the rest of this season. Valpo has gone 0-4 in those last 4 games with an average margin of loss of 20 points),

[Da Coach]

There is much more to this story about Valparaiso player Nick Robinson. He played in all 8 of Valpo's games between 11/27 and 12/19. Then Valpo shut their program down for 3 weeks due to Covid. Robinson had a son born in early January, and when Valpo restarted with 2 games at home against Missouri State on Jan. 9 & 10, Robinson requested to opt out. Valpo lost both those games, but Robinson says he planned to return after those 2 games. However, when Valpo added a game at DePaul on Jan. 16 to replace a pair of games at SIU that got cancelled, Robinson reversed himself and told his coach he was opting out again. Valpo lost to DePaul, too. Robinson says he was given an ultimatum by Valpo head coach Matt Lottich that he must play in the DePaul game or opt out for the rest of the season. He said Lottich "could no longer deal with (his) inconsistency". So Robinson decided to opt out for the remainder of the season.
https://www.nwitimes.com/sports/coll...bf202.amp.html

There have been a lot of players who have opted out of this season, but this is the first instance I have heard of where a player wanted to pick and choose which games he might be willing to play in, and which ones he wanted to opt out of based solely on his perception of the game-by-game risks. I can see why a coach would want to know which players he can count on, and which ones might not be available for each game. I don't think many coaches would want players deciding game-by-game and just a couple days before a game whether he was willing to play or not.
Valpo is 0-3 in the MVC and has lost 5 games in a row. Lottich admits Robinson is a valuable player for the team and that they are a better team with him playing. And, I am usually quick to defend players in situations like this, but I think I have to side a little bit more with Lottich here. Robinson should either commit to playing or opt out for the rest of the season (which is what he did). The game by game decisions are detrimental to the team, and I don't think that is what the NCAA had in mind when they ruled that players could opt out. Here is the NCAA opt-out rule, and it is just vague enough that it could lead to this kind of confusion:
https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources...nd-eligibility

• All student-athletes must be allowed to opt out of participation due to concerns about contracting COVID-19. If a college athlete chooses to opt out, that individual’s athletics scholarship commitment must be honored by the college or university.

[Da Coach]

Valparaiso player Nick Robinson, who opted out of this season after his coach apparently wasn't willing to allow him to pick and choose which games he would play in and which ones he would sit out (see above post), has now announced he will leave Valpo and transfer again to play one more season elsewhere.
He spent his first 2 seasons at St. Joseph's University, then transferred to Valparaiso and sat out the 2018-19 season before becoming eligible last season.
Career stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba.../nick-robinson