UTC Transfers

[Paladin91]

As I watched the game yesterday, the broadcast mentioned that UTC had 8 transfers on the team. Kudos to UTC for having a great year, but should there be a limit to the number of transfers a program can have on D1 team? Has this ever been discussed by the NCAA? Just curious.

[DungeonRealm]

Didn't Steve Forbes have like 10 transfers on one of those recent ETSU teams that won the title?

[Paladin91]

Didn't Steve Forbes have like 10 transfers on one of those recent ETSU teams that won the title?

No idea, although I remembered ETSU being called Transfer U. Personally, I'm not a big fan - I think 4 transfers on a team max for any given year. It's almost like a free agent system where you can get a 2-3 yr experienced player without putting any work into player development.

[DungeonRealm]

Also doubt many of these guys are getting degrees from these schools (ie. ETSU, UTC) they attend for 1 or 2 years

[apaladin]

DeSousa the transfer from Kansas was the difference in the game. 17 points 14 rebounds.

[Mocs123]

Most of those guys, DeSousa being the exception, have transferred to three or four years to play. I'm not a big fan of a bunch of transfers in FB or BB, but with the current transfer rules I think that's the new landscape for college sports especially for the Mid Major/FCS level.

I think if you look at most of the recent SoCon Freshmen of the year players in basketball have transferred after the season, probably because they have boosters from bigger schools whispering in their ear - and that was before anyone could transfer once for free. The Mocs 2019 SoCon Freshman of the year transferred to TCU to be "closer to home" (he's from Illinois) and has now transferred to Duquesne.

It's tough from a fans perspective as you don't get to know the players like you used to when they are only around a year or two, and I hope the NCAA fixes the mess they have made, but I'm not counting on it.

[The Jackal]

Honestly, that made the loss more difficult to swallow.

I get it. There are differences of opinion on this.

In one corner, Furman has built a championship contender from the ground up. The roster is almost exclusively home grown high school signees developed by the coaching staff. The only transfer, I believe, is a grad student from a D2 school.

UTC's roster is primarily transfers. Their best player Saturday has a history that can only be considered "checkered" and a kid, I imagine, Furman wouldn't touch with a 20 foot pole.

I realize college sports are what they are, teams have different roster building strategies, and the appropriateness of "second chances" depends on who is granting them. It certainly felt Saturday that it was a game between a team full of mercenaries and another full of kids that have given every ounce of devotion to their university. It made that last second shot just that much more painful. It felt like the fates got it wrong.

[youwouldno]

I'm not crazy about the mass transfers, but something to keep in mind - a program's potential is closely linked to the quality of its conference. The SoCon looks set to finish #12 in Pomeroy's conference rankings, immediately behind the (usually) multi-bid Atlantic-10 (albeit by a large margin), which is the highest since Pomeroy started tracking in 2003 (the SoCon has finished 13th and 14th twice each in that span).

There also seems to be a general conference trend away from reliance on transfers - new/newish coaches at Samford, Mercer, and WCU, for instance, do not appear to be focused on transfers to build their programs (Samford can't be blamed for taking Glover). UNC-G's coach is known not to rely on transfers, the military academies really can't, and Furman and Wofford have taken them sparingly.

This is UTC's first real success with the transfer-heavy approach, and they were lucky. They lose a bunch of guys after this season and will fall back. It seems to me like the main issue there is Paris not being a good HS recruiter, more than anything else. If that's the only way for a couple of SoCon programs to compete, it's not really a negative thing from a Furman perspective.

[Furmanoid]

All this being said we have a 7’1” center at Augusta U. who just won tourney MVP. FU could use a guy like that. Dude is really too good for DII.

[soconjohn]

In Lamont Paris defense, it's not how he wanted to build that program originally coming from Wisconsin...I know this because I asked him in an interview...But when literally nearly his entire roster wanted out (except Jean-Baptiste who mysteriously wanted out later only to return) he had to take them...He learned under Bo Ryan...Wisconsin isn't exactly a transfer program...That being said, it's probably not a way to build long term success and continuity.

[soconjohn]

That said if I were to build a team on transfers, I'd do it with JUCO guys for the simple reason that Divison I and high level transfers are probably less teachable...Just my opinion though