UTEP's HC Floyd goes off on radio host/transfers

[BisonTru]

Entertaining. Nitty gritty stuff starts at 7' mark. Gets really heated at the 19' mark.

http://youtu.be/MKfKR20SaPQ

I don't pay real close attention to college basketball recruiting and transfer stuff. Curious is this a growing problem? What ideas are there to make it better?

[bonarae]

Unfortunately, it is a growing problem; the NBA's rule is partly to blame for this. Also, "highly dependent" coach-player relationships and unstable coaching situations in various schools are also to blame.

However, many players do declare for the draft if they are out of feasible options or if they really want to give the NBA or even D-League a shot.

What ideas to make the situation better? Make Europe or Asia out of HS at least feasible options through networking.

There are far too many kids playing basketball these days; there's simply no room for all of them. xtwocentsx

[clenz]

Entertaining. Nitty gritty stuff starts at 7' mark. Gets really heated at the 19' mark.

http://youtu.be/MKfKR20SaPQ

I don't pay real close attention to college basketball recruiting and transfer stuff. Curious is this a growing problem? What ideas are there to make it better?
A few highlights from an article published in the Miami Herald that stems from The U's roster

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/college/acc/university-of-miami/article76460722.html



We live in an age of instant gratification.


We get annoyed if a website takes more than a few seconds to load. We pay extra for same-day delivery. We do our banking online because drive-through isn’t fast enough anymore.


We want our news now. Our photos now. Our TV shows on demand.


It should come as little surprise, then, that college basketball players raised in this generation are more impatient than ever, unwilling to wait for playing time, itching to bolt if their expectations aren’t met.


They are transferring at such an alarming rate that the trend is being termed “an epidemic” and was one of the hottest topics at the national coaches meeting during the recent Final Four.


More than 700 players are transferring this spring from the 351 Division I men’s programs around the country. That’s an average of two per team. Roughly 40 percent of them are switching schools in their first two years. Seventy-five of them have graduated and are changing schools for their final year of eligibility, a growing movement that has decimated some mid-major rosters.


Ten years ago, only 250 players transferred. Three years ago, it was around 450.


“Transferring 25 years ago was really frowned upon, was like there was something wrong with your basketball program if someone wanted to transfer to another school,” said University of Miami coach Jim Larrañaga, who has had six players transfer in and out over the past three years.


“Now, transferring is so commonplace that last year I heard a statistic that only seven Division 1 schools did not have someone transferring. That means 344 schools had at least one transfer, and two was normal.”


ESPN analyst Dick Vitale is deeply troubled by the trend, calling it “sickening.” He puts some of the blame on high school coaches and AAU coaches for inflating players’ egos with unrealistic expectations and on college coaches for raiding other programs when they get a whiff of an impatient player.


“I think it’s a scenario where coaches have to start looking in the mirror, too, because I think coaches are involved, runners are involved, AAU and high school coaches are involved,” Vitale said. “If they sense a kid is unhappy, they make sure and get the word out real quick to the player that, ‘Hey, School X would be interested in you.’


“So right away the thought process is there: ‘Maybe if I transfer, wow, it will be a whole different scenario.’ Coaches will deny that, but there’s no doubt in my mind that coaches look at rosters, see kids who were big-time recruits sitting the bench, not getting any PT [playing time] and they get the word out, not through them, but through somebody, that ‘if you leave, we’d be interested.’ I really believe that’s happening and it’s created this unbelievable epidemic.”


The college revolving door is not exclusive to student athletes. A July 2015 study published by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that 37.2 percent of college students who started in 2008 transferred at least once. Of those who transferred, 45 percent switched schools more than once.


“We’re not a very patient society,” Larrañaga said. “In today’s day and age, kids are influenced by so many different factors; and they all have the goal of playing in the NBA; and they’re looking for immediate satisfaction, and if it’s not there, they’ll go search for it someplace else.”

...


The college transfer market has become like the NBA free agent market, with AAU coaches and other hangers-on often acting as de facto agents. It means college coaches are keeping up with the lists and wooing prospects just as they do high school athletes.

...


Gary Waters, the coach at Cleveland State, is a victim of the transfer craze. Over the past two years, he lost three standout players — Bryn Forbes went to Michigan State, and fifth-year graduates Anton Grady (Wichita State) and Trey Lewis (Louisville) opted for more exposure their final season.


“I understand why the kids do it,” Waters said. “It’s hard to say no to a high-major team that wants you, and everyone around them is telling them to leave. What bothers me more is that some schools are poaching players from other schools, to the point that they have a War Room and assistant coaches are assigned to track players at other schools who are on schedule to graduate with eligibility remaining. They make lists of players to raid, and then get the word to the kid, through a contact, that they’re interested in signing him for the final year.


“Those coaches don’t have to put in the work, and they get a finished product, a ready-made player. It’s not right. I am penalized because I coached a kid up and got him to graduate early. I know of six or seven mid-major coaches who had multiple players transfer and then lost their jobs the next season because the team didn’t perform. I don’t know if people realize how severe a problem this has become.”


Waters also said the suggestion that players are seeking specialized masters programs is “a farce.” Most of these moves are “strictly about basketball.”


Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said he is more concerned about the flood of graduate transfers than the one-and-done incoming freshmen.


“I would tell you this: The one-and-done from high school is not the story of college basketball,” Krzyzewski said in March during the NCAA Tournament. “The one-and-done with the fifth-year graduate player is what is the main story for college basketball. There are many, many more of those. And that’s hurt a lot of our mid-major programs when these kids leave and go. Many, many more. Very few one-and-done from high school, very few compared to that.”


...


ESPN college basketball writer Jeff Goodman has kept a comprehensive college transfer list for the past eight years and follows the issue closely. He said there are lists of potential transfers that circulate among college coaches, schools get the word out through intermediaries as to who they are pursuing, and when April rolls around, they swarm.


“More often than not, it’s not the actual kid [with the idea to transfer],” Goodman said. “I think it’s the people around him that are telling him, ‘Hey, you should get out of there. You could play somewhere else right away. You’re not getting a fair shake. You should be getting more touches, a bigger role.’ Social media doesn’t help matters, either. People can get to these kids easily and tell them they should leave.”


...


It doesn’t appear the trend will cool anytime soon. The NCAA has taken note, although there doesn’t seem to be any quick solution.


“The issue of transfer rules, whether it’s for undergraduates or graduates, is one of the most hotly debated and discussed, I think, in sport right now, whether it’s football or basketball,” Mark Emmert, the NCAA president, said at the Final Four. “The challenge is, it’s really hard to figure out a right way to resolve this issue.”

[BisonTru]

Am I correct in assuming that a transfer must sit a year if he hasn't graduated or is not transferring down?

[clenz]

Am I correct in assuming that a transfer must sit a year if he hasn't graduated or is not transferring down?
Yes.

But most who are transferring still have a redshirt so it's all moot. Players looking to go get on a name program for exposure are willing to sit a year. In their mind, the mind of the runners recruiting them, etc... the bench at a name school is better than the floor of a sub 200 RPI school.

There are still those that transfer to be closer to home - two of UNI's most important pieces this past year were transfers in starting PG Wes Washpun and starting SF Paul Jesperson. However, Wes had a scholarship offer out of HS, played AAU ball with about 4 guys on UNI's roster and grew up an hour south of Cedar Falls. Jesperson was recruited out of HS, had a scholarship offer is from Wisconsin just a few hours east of Cedar Falls. Washpun left Tennessee and Jesperson left UVa.


UNI had a guy who just finished his career at Oklahoma State this past season. He was from Chicago and his path went

HS in Chicago - non qualifier
Prep school in Iowa for a year
UNI for 1.5 years (including his redshirt year)
left UNI at semester and enrolled at Eastern Illinois (not a bigger name by any means but got to see the court and they didn't have the physical demands UNI did on players)
Sat out a year at EIU and played spring semester that year and then one more year.
Graduated EIU
Enrolled in grad school at Oklahoma State to play this past year.

No damn way that kid was actually going to grad school, earning a masters, etc... Kid didn't have a 1.5 in HS. Was on the verge of academic probation at UNI when he left.