La Salle's Aaric Murray transferring

Pretty big news hit this week in Big 5 basketball. We learned that La Salle will be losing its talented but troubled star center, Aaric Murray, to a transfer. As Dick Jerardi writes, coach John Giannini had been struggling with Murray's attitude all season, as the Explorers' leading scorer and rebounder went through lapses of apathy throughout the season.

There's no doubting La Salle loses a lot with this news. Murray is a special talent (perhaps NBA worthy?) and won't be easily replaced. But what does this mean to the Quakers? Well with the oft-discussed plights of Penn big men, a city foe losing the best one it's had in years has to make next season's matchup that much more favorable for Penn. After taking the Explorers to overtime this season (right before ending its long Big 5 losing streak), Penn might just have a shot at getting to .500 in the city series.

On the other hand, Big 5 fans often like to see any of the five teams doing well regardless of the success of their own allegiance. So from that standpoint, La Salle taking a hit like this doesn't have any silver lining, it just wreaks of disappointment.

What do you think? Has La Salle plummeted in Big 5 competitiveness with the loss of its star center? Or can the Explorers manage to bounce back quickly from this?