Riek leaving MSU hoops program

July 5, 2011

MSU

By MATTHEW STEVENS
sdnsports@bellsouth.net

Mississippi State officials have confirmed center John Riek is leaving the Mississippi State basketball program effective immediately
Riek is a native of Khartoum, Sudan but signed with the MSU program out of the IMG Academy in Florida. Riek did not enroll in the second
session of summer school at Mississippi State signaling the end of his two-year college career in Starkville.
Riek was rated as the best center in 2008 by Rivals.com but that was before he was forced to sit out an NCAA-mandated nine games of the
2009-10 schedule and being forced to rehab a knee injury that required surgery in July 2008.
The 7-foot-1, 250-pound center averaged just 1.2 points and 1.3 rebounds in five minutes a game for MSU. The removal of Riek’s from
the Mississippi State roster puts the Bulldogs program one under the NCAA scholarship limit of 13.