Four members of the 2008-2009 Mid-American Conference West Division Champion men’s basketball team have left the team for undisclosed reasons.

Sophomore guard Jeremy Allen, freshman guard Adrian Hunter, freshman forward Lawrence Bridges and sophomore guard William Eddie III all left for different reasons, said head coach Ernie Zeigler.

“Unfortunately in college athletics, specifically college basketball, there’s turnover each and every year,” he said. “All of them are really great kids, but it was unfortunate that things didn’t work out for them here at Central Michigan.”

The departure of the four members counts against the academic progress rate (APR). The APR has two things that factor into its equation: eligibility and retention. These factors are supposed to be the best indicators for graduation, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association uses this rate as its way to monitor academic progress.

For each member on a specific team, one point is lost if a player is academically ineligible and another point can be lost if a player transfers or leaves school. If both events happen where a student-athlete is academically ineligible and does not return to school, both points are lost.

The NCAA requires a 925 score out of 1,000 possible points in order to avoid penalties, such as the loss of scholarships. The report is averaged over four years. Last year, the basketball team matched the passing limit, scoring a 925. The team jumped five points, scoring a 930 this year.

“Because we have been doing so well here the past three years, we have been making strides in our academic progress rate,” Zeigler said. “(The departures) definitely took away some of our points but we were doing quite fine in terms of APR. We are still very much compliant with the APR rules and everyone else in our program is working toward pursuing our degree.”

Zeigler said Central Michigan University’s standards for student-athletes differ from other schools.

“There’s certain levels of accountability on and off the floor,” he said. “When those things aren’t met on a consistent basis, it makes it difficult for guys to see themselves having the opportunity to be productive.”

Athletic Director Dave Heeke said CMU is doing everything possible to improve the men’s basketball program, and this was part of the process.

“We’re in the process of transforming this program,” he said. “We’ve only had eight winning seasons in 30-plus years of Central Michigan basketball. We’re trying very, very hard to transform this program into a championship-caliber program.”

The number of transfers and departures have been up across the country, Heeke said, and this is not out of the ordinary.

“In these cases, it wasn’t the right fit,” he said. “This is not unusual and isolated to Central Michigan. It’s just about this transition and the transformation. Quite frankly, I think it’s more general operating procedures.”

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E-mail the author: Andrew Stover