Pollard Brothers Leave Aztec Basketball Program

The San Diego State basketball team, already sputtering with a 1-4 start, lost its two tallest players Wednesday.

Mark Pollard, a 6-foot-11 junior, and his brother Neal, a 7-foot redshirt freshman, quit the team, becoming the 17th and 18th players in four-plus seasons recruited by Coach Jim Brandenburg to leave the program before their eligibility expired.

Their departure leaves two freshmen--6-8 Chris Davis and 6-9 Marcus Banks--or 6-8 Keith Balzer, normally a forward, to back up Joe McNaull at center.

“There are problems there,” Neal Pollard said, declining to be more specific. “I don’t know who to blame them on. We weren’t happy there--it seemed at times that we weren’t fitting into the program.”

In only three games this season, Neal Pollard averaged 0.7 points and 0.3 rebounds. He was playing only 3.3 minutes per game.

Mark Pollard, who couldn’t be reached for comment, averaged 0.4 points and 0.8 rebounds in five games. He, too, was averaging fewer than five minutes a game.

“Mark and Neal indicated to me that they have gotten discouraged with a lack of playing time,” Brandenburg said in a statement. “They had a desire to step back and re-evaluate their situation as it relates to basketball. We wish them the best in whatever decisions they make.”

The Pollards are the fourth and fifth players to leave SDSU in the past year. Back-up center Neal Steinly quit midway through last season, and guards Chris McKinney and James Lewis left at the end of the season.

“He’s a tough man to play for,” Neal Pollard said when asked why so many players are leaving. “He demands so much, he’s always pushing and pushing. That’s good, because you want the players to play the best they can, but maybe some of the players feel they don’t need to be motivated that way.”

Pollard, who was returning to SDSU this season after a two-year Mormon mission, wouldn’t detail his situation or his brother’s.

“Obviously, playing time is not the whole thing,” he said. “If we were happy there, it wouldn’t make any difference what the amount of playing time was . . .

“Some of the reasons we decided to leave were conflicts between what the coaching staff thinks is good and what Mark and I thought. Off the court, (Brandenburg) is a great guy.”