Former Illinois Fighting Illini guard Crandall Head left the Illinois program back in December of 2011, and on Thursday he decided to transfer to SMU, according to Jeff Goodman of CBS Sports. Head is the younger brother of former Illini star and NBA role player Luther Head, and he played his high school basketball at Rich South High School in Richton Park, Illinois.
Head never quite worked his way into the rotation at Illinois -- he appeared in 17 games as a freshman and nine games a sophomore -- and after flirting with the idea of going to DePaul he has apparently settled on joining an SMU program that recently hired Hall of Fame Coach Larry Brown.
Back in January of 2012, Jim O'Donnell of the Chicago Tribune noted that Head would be eligible to play at the start of the winter quarter in January 2013, but he would then likely only have a season and a half of eligibility remaining. If he waits until the start of the 2013-14 season, he then would have two full years of eligibility. The world of NCAA transfers is an odd place, so it's unclear how the NCAA will interpret the rules with regards to Head in this situation, but O'Donnell's analysis is at least a starting point in understanding Head's new circumstances at SMU.
For updates, stay tuned to SB Nation Chicago. For more in-depth coverage of Illinois recruiting, check out Hail to the Orange. And for more news and notes from around college hoops, visit SB Nation's NCAA basketball news hub.