Guard Ruben Cotto, one of the seven freshmen brought in to St. Louis University by coach Rick Majerus this season, is transferring. The Alton High grad informed the staff on Thursday that he wanted to go to another school.

“Ruben and I talked and he indicated to me that he wanted to play more,” Majerus said in a statement. “Ruben is a very nice young man. We wish him all the luck in the world. We are pulling for him to be successful both in the classroom and on the court.”

“I wish the coaches and my teammates the best of luck,” Cotto said in a statement. “St. Louis University and its basketball program were very fair to me and gave me a good education.”

That takes the number of freshmen seeing playing time on SLU this season to five: Brian Conklin, Kwamain Mitchell, Willie Reed, Brett Thompson and Kyle Cassity. The sixth freshman, Femi John, is redshirting, as is freshman Daniel Lisch, who is effectively a practice player that Majerus gave a scholarship to. I would expect this means more minutes for Paul Eckerle, as well as Cassity and Mitchell, though their increases will likely be incremental.

The bulk of the minutes at the point guard spot have gone to freshman Kwamain Mitchell. Cotto was averaging 12 minutes per game, though his time varied widely from game to game. He played 22 minutes against Savannah State last week, but just four in the game before that against Southern Illinois Carbondale. Cotto was averaging 3.9 points per game in seven games, with a high of 10 in the game at Nebraska.

Early in the season, Majerus commented on Cotto’s having to adjust to a lesser role, saying, “He’s used to scoring big. Now he’s trying to fit in with the framework of the team. He’s fit in well.”

Cotto had shown no hesitancy to shoot when he got the ball and was shooting 27.8 percent on 3-point tries. His 18 3-point tries tied him with Kwamain Mitchell for the second most on the team behind Kevin Lisch, though Mitchell played more than twice as many minutes. Majerus had expressed no problem with Cotto’s shooting, but had raised points about his defense after some games.

By transferring now, Cotto would be eligible to play at another Division I school starting at the beginning of the second semester of next season. The other school that pursued him out of high school was another Atlantic 10 school, La Salle.

Cotto, a native of Puerto Rico, was a first-team all-Metro player at Alton High last season after moving to Illinois from Florida. As a senior, he averaged 22.3 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.