So perhaps your favorite team struck out on its top high school targets.
Maybe your team had a player make a late, unexpected decision to transfer or seek professional opportunities.
Your team is in a genuine pickle now.
Enter the graduate transfer— A talented young man who earned a degree in three years from a low or mid major school. He poured in the buckets or grabbed all the rebounds in the Atlantic Sun or the Colonial.
He’s the late spring or summertime savior of your team’s NCAA tournament hopes. Or is he?
Let’s take a quick look at last year’s SEC graduate transfers before we decide how this year’s crop might fare.
There were a total of eight graduate transfers to SEC schools last year. Eight SEC schools did not have one on their roster (Alabama and Auburn had 2 each).
The Bad:
– Only Canyon Barry (UF) scored in the double digits per game. However, his 11.4 ppg average does not look as glamourous when compared to the 19.7 he scored as a junior at the College of Charleston.
– Only Bola Olaniyan (UA) had more than 5 rebounds per game. But again, his 6.4 rpg average didn’t look as good as the 8.8 had averaged the year before at Southern Illinois.
– Only Barry, Corban Collins (UA), Cullen Neal (MISS), and J.C. Hampton (A&M) played more than half the minutes per game.
– Not a single grad transfer had as many minutes, points, rebounds or assists per game last season as compared to the previous season.
The Good:
Olaniyan helped Alabama go from being one of the worst rebounding teams in the country to being one of the best.
According to Ken Pomeroy’s advanced metrics, Olaniyan would have been the best offensive rebounder in the country had he played the required minutes to be eligible for such recognition (Avery Johnson was clearly worried about who Olaniyan would guard at his strange size 6’7, 245 lbs. until about mid-season. Later, he decided that it really didn’t matter as long as he gobbled up every rebound).
– Neal shot almost 41% from three point range and almost 88% from the line for Ole Miss. His shooting helped the Rebels to another 20 win season in what was supposed to be a tough year.
– Hampton also shot 41% from 3 and played over 25 min a game for the Aggies, but to be fair, who else were they going to play at the guard spots last year? Texas A&M had an embarrassment of riches in the frontcourt last year, but the backcourt play kept them from contending.
– Johnson had his moments with Auburn. He battled with freshman Jared Harper for point guard minutes and scored in double digits 10 times in SEC play.
– Barry wowed everyone in college basketball with his uncharacteristic free-throw release on his way to shooting 88% from the line for an Elite Eight team. He also picked up the SEC Sixth Man of the Year award.
Will your grad transfer be an All-SEC performer or lead you to the NCAA tourney? Probably not.
At best, he will fill a positional gap in your roster with quality minutes. At worst, he’ll take away from the development and experience of a younger player who may help you for years to come.
So should you the fan be excited about a grad transfer? It really comes down to this: does the player have a specialized skill that would otherwise be a serious deficiency on your team? I.e. he’s an elite rebounder, shoots over 40% from three, or he takes care of the ball at the point.
If he has an elite skill, great! Add him to the team and get pumped.
If he doesn’t have an elite skill, it may be better to turn to a freshman that could get the same production while gaining experience.