And just like that, the face of the Binghamton men’s basketball team is gone.

Former junior guard Jordan Reed requested and has been granted a release to transfer, Binghamton University’s athletics department announced on Friday. The America East Preseason All-Conference selection took an indefinite leave of absence on Nov. 26, and he is officially not returning.

The 6-foot-4, 210-pound guard from Pennsylvania will finish out the fall academic semester at Binghamton, but will be released from his scholarship directly after. That leaves him eligible to play either at another Division I program next spring academic semester, or immediately, were he to transfer to a Division II program. There has been no word on where Reed might be headed, however.

Reed, the America East’s leading rebounder his first two years at Binghamton, as well as the team’s leading point scorer (15.8 per game) and rebounder (8.9 per game) last year, released a statement through the University about his decision.

“Over the past two years I have come to love Binghamton University,” the statement reads. “As a result, leaving this great university is an extremely difficult decision but I felt this was the best choice for me, my family and my future. I have truly enjoyed my time with the Binghamton basketball program. More importantly, I have established relationships with classmates, teammates, faculty members and administrators that will last a lifetime. I wish the team success for the rest of the 2014-15 season.”

“For personal reasons, I will be relocating to complete my educational experience,” Reed’s statement continues. “It’s been an honor to be a student at Binghamton and be inspired by the talented and committed faculty. In addition to my research and study, I enjoyed participating in the community service on campus and in the Greater Binghamton area. I appreciate the directors, coaches and staff for providing me with the resources to train and develop athletically. Thank you to all of the students, faculty, staff and the community for your support.”

According to the University’s announcement, Reed does not intend to say any more on his transferring than that.

The announcement came on the heels of an optimistic remark from BU head coach Tommy Dempsey, who expressed hope at getting Reed back last Tuesday. Dempsey even said that he and the team were looking forward to Reed’s return.

But apparently, something happened, although Dempsey either could not or would not say what.

“I’m not sure [what happened],” Dempsey said on Saturday. “[Reed has] made a decision to move on, and we supported him on his decision and now we’re moving forward with this group. And I’m excited about it.”

Though Dempsey is excited to move forward with the young team he does have, he didn’t deny that losing his star player is a definite setback. Reed, the team’s most athletic player and the face of the program up to this point, was not only a prolific rebounder and scorer but also a fount of energy for the team. He electrified crowds and led his team by example. He conducted the team through the last two years’ struggles and remained positive about the growth of the program.

But apparently, that dream wasn’t enough to keep him at Binghamton, and now Dempsey will have to move on without him.

“[Reed is] a big talent loss,” Dempsey said. “He’s a guy that has a lot of physical abilities, and he’s been through the wars. Now we have a lot of guys who haven’t been through the wars. That are going through their process. So I’d be certainly naive to sit up here and see he’s not a big loss. But it’s not something that we can dwell on. We need to turn the page and that’s all we talk about right now, is turning the page and getting better. I understand that I’m going to answer some questions about Jordan here in the short term, but moving forward, we need to talk about [freshman forward] Dusan [Perovic], and [freshman forward] Willie [Rodriguez], and [sophomore point guard] Yosef [Yacob] and [sophomore forward] Nick [Madray] and on and down the line, that’s our team right now, and that’s going to be our team moving forward. And I think it can be a good team.”

As for what larger implications Reed’s transferring will have on the program, Dempsey was dismissive.

“My plans are to be a great program,” Dempsey said. “Nothing that happened this week is going to do anything to change that.”