The 2016 Transfer Thread

[AuroranHusker]

 

http://www.goracers.com/news/2015/11/3/MBB_1103153651.aspx

[AuroranHusker]

[KZRider]

 

500 Transfers? Really?

 

Somebody fix my math assumptions here but...

 

There are about 350 D1 NCAA basketball teams I believe. If EACH of those averaged 12 players on their rosters that means 4200 players. If 500 of them are transferring, that is 12% of all the players out there! And it has to be higher than that because of the number of players who use up their eligibility. That's crazy!

[uneblinstu]

 

 

500 Transfers? Really?

 

Somebody fix my math assumptions here but...

 

There are about 350 D1 NCAA basketball teams I believe. If EACH of those averaged 12 players on their rosters that means 4200 players. If 500 of them are transferring, that is 12% of all the players out there! And it has to be higher than that because of the number of players who use up their eligibility. That's crazy!

 

And that's lower than what it was last year. There's likely more to come.

[AuroranHusker]

It was 700+ last year, and could reach similar heights (depths?) this year. Kind of mind numbing, really. Basically 2 per team, EVERY team.

[hhcmatt]

 

 

 

500 Transfers? Really?

 

Somebody fix my math assumptions here but...

 

There are about 350 D1 NCAA basketball teams I believe. If EACH of those averaged 12 players on their rosters that means 4200 players. If 500 of them are transferring, that is 12% of all the players out there! And it has to be higher than that because of the number of players who use up their eligibility. That's crazy!

 

And that's lower than what it was last year. There's likely more to come.

 

 

Yes. It's not done yet and less than 600 would be surprisingly low

[Chuck Taylor]

Some guys wait to announce until after they're done with classes for the semester. Don't like having to answer questions from people they run into on campus, I guess. 

[hhcmatt]

Some guys wait to announce until after they're done with classes for the semester. Don't like having to answer questions from people they run into on campus, I guess. 

 

Also guys who need to take summer classes

[Silverbacked1]

Bugeaters found a pretty good article over on the women's side that talks about all of this.

 

To me this is the most telling two paragraphs in the story right here:

 

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who once coached his son with an AAU team, recently mentioned that “winning is devalued in the AAU structure” and along with that team goals are forsaken for personal agendas.

“Teams play game after game after game, sometimes winning or losing in four times a day,” Kerr said. “Very rarely do teams ever hold a practice. … If mom and dad aren’t happy with their son’s playing time, they switch club teams and stick him on a different one the following week. The process of growing as a team basketball player – learning how to become part of the whole, how to fit into something bigger than oneself – becomes completely lost within the AAU fabric.”

[Navin R. Johnson]

Bugeaters found a pretty good article over on the women's side that talks about all of this.

 

To me this is the most telling two paragraphs in the story right here:

 

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who once coached his son with an AAU team, recently mentioned that “winning is devalued in the AAU structure” and along with that team goals are forsaken for personal agendas.

“Teams play game after game after game, sometimes winning or losing in four times a day,” Kerr said. “Very rarely do teams ever hold a practice. … If mom and dad aren’t happy with their son’s playing time, they switch club teams and stick him on a different one the following week. The process of growing as a team basketball player – learning how to become part of the whole, how to fit into something bigger than oneself – becomes completely lost within the AAU fabric.”

 

Steve Kerr is a very smart man!  Could not agree more.  Still amazing college coaches put such an emphases on AAU ball when they evaluate an athlete.  I know a big part is the period that they are allowed contact with the players is during the AAU season but it is making the game worse in my opinion.

[Fullbacksympathy]

It is what it is with AAU, but to demand structure from a bunch of private, invite-only tournaments isn't necessarily legitimate.

 

I mean, I highly doubt that players in NBA camps and summer leagues are really concerned about winning and losing as their first priority.  Like many of these AAU kids, they are playing for a personal opportunity at a better life and a tremendous amount of money (cash or scholarship).  AAU is much more similar to an NBA camp than a high school basketball league.  Kids on the same team are often competing for the same scholarships.  

 

Hell, even at the highest levels of the NBA, players are also playing to get a fat check for a negotiated contract or pending free agency despite how important winning is to them.

 

My point is, if you are an elite athlete, you need to legitimately be concerned about how to monetize your gifts, and that requires being seen and filling up the stat sheet.  If you are going to be a walk-on, winning should be the only thing that matters.  If you are a parent of a talented young athlete, you need to do whatever you can to get your baby to college.  As a parent, I think winning high school basketball games (a lower level of competition than AAU, by the way) should be lower on the totem pole than exposure for your kid.  

 

Unfortunately, there are a lot of parents who have grand misconceptions about how good their kid actually is.   

[colhusker]

Travel teams in all sports are ruining sports.  To many mommy and daddies that get the impression their kid is better than they really are.

[Silverbacked1]

I had a friend whose son was a very good baseball player, ended up playing post high school.  He said the problem with travel teams at first was that it was the best of the best, but some kids would get cut so the dads would get together to start a new team.  

 

It ended up like rec ball after awhile.  He said that they would go to tournaments and know that they would get to the finals without even playing well because there was so many bad teams.  He said that they were playing the same teams that they were trying to get away from by going to select.

[Navin R. Johnson]

It is what it is with AAU, but to demand structure from a bunch of private, invite-only tournaments isn't necessarily legitimate.

 

I mean, I highly doubt that players in NBA camps and summer leagues are really concerned about winning and losing as their first priority.  Like many of these AAU kids, they are playing for a personal opportunity at a better life and a tremendous amount of money (cash or scholarship).  AAU is much more similar to an NBA camp than a high school basketball league.  Kids on the same team are often competing for the same scholarships.  

 

Hell, even at the highest levels of the NBA, players are also playing to get a fat check for a negotiated contract or pending free agency despite how important winning is to them.

 

My point is, if you are an elite athlete, you need to legitimately be concerned about how to monetize your gifts, and that requires being seen and filling up the stat sheet.  If you are going to be a walk-on, winning should be the only thing that matters.  If you are a parent of a talented young athlete, you need to do whatever you can to get your baby to college.  As a parent, I think winning high school basketball games (a lower level of competition than AAU, by the way) should be lower on the totem pole than exposure for your kid.  

 

Unfortunately, there are a lot of parents who have grand misconceptions about how good their kid actually is.   

 

 

 

Lower level of competition maybe but I would say an easier game to play than most regular high school games at class A/B schools.

[Silverbacked1]

I remember one dad once said the reason he didn't want his son to play select soccer during the soccer season was that he didn't want his son to be at his 20 year reunion and have to listen to his teammates talk about winning state and asking how he liked that tournament in Chicago he went to that weekend.

 

I thought that was kind of funny.

[Fullbacksympathy]

 

It is what it is with AAU, but to demand structure from a bunch of private, invite-only tournaments isn't necessarily legitimate.

 

I mean, I highly doubt that players in NBA camps and summer leagues are really concerned about winning and losing as their first priority.  Like many of these AAU kids, they are playing for a personal opportunity at a better life and a tremendous amount of money (cash or scholarship).  AAU is much more similar to an NBA camp than a high school basketball league.  Kids on the same team are often competing for the same scholarships.  

 

Hell, even at the highest levels of the NBA, players are also playing to get a fat check for a negotiated contract or pending free agency despite how important winning is to them.

 

My point is, if you are an elite athlete, you need to legitimately be concerned about how to monetize your gifts, and that requires being seen and filling up the stat sheet.  If you are going to be a walk-on, winning should be the only thing that matters.  If you are a parent of a talented young athlete, you need to do whatever you can to get your baby to college.  As a parent, I think winning high school basketball games (a lower level of competition than AAU, by the way) should be lower on the totem pole than exposure for your kid.  

 

Unfortunately, there are a lot of parents who have grand misconceptions about how good their kid actually is.   

 

 

 

Lower level of competition maybe but I would say an easier game to play than most regular high school games at class A/B schools.

 

 

You're saying that AAU is an easier game to play than regular A/B high school basketball?  

[Navin R. Johnson]

You're saying that AAU is an easier game to play than regular A/B high school basketball?  

 

Yes, in most cases.

[Dean Smith]

It is what it is with AAU, but to demand structure from a bunch of private, invite-only tournaments isn't necessarily legitimate.

 

I mean, I highly doubt that players in NBA camps and summer leagues are really concerned about winning and losing as their first priority.  Like many of these AAU kids, they are playing for a personal opportunity at a better life and a tremendous amount of money (cash or scholarship).  AAU is much more similar to an NBA camp than a high school basketball league.  Kids on the same team are often competing for the same scholarships.  

 

Hell, even at the highest levels of the NBA, players are also playing to get a fat check for a negotiated contract or pending free agency despite how important winning is to them.

 

My point is, if you are an elite athlete, you need to legitimately be concerned about how to monetize your gifts, and that requires being seen and filling up the stat sheet.  If you are going to be a walk-on, winning should be the only thing that matters.  If you are a parent of a talented young athlete, you need to do whatever you can to get your baby to college.  As a parent, I think winning high school basketball games (a lower level of competition than AAU, by the way) should be lower on the totem pole than exposure for your kid.  

 

Unfortunately, there are a lot of parents who have grand misconceptions about how good their kid actually is.   

I hope you are pointing out that wanting exposure over winning is a problem, because all those parents with misconceptions who think their babies should be the star will kill a team. AAU is not good for the development of individual players or team ball. I don't care if you are the best player on the team, as a coach I didn't care what was best for you to advance your college "career. " I did what was best for the team I was supposed to be leading at that time. I know a coach who I respected very much who played his 6'6 player at point because he thought that would help his college recruitment as opposed to what would have been best for his team, and that would be keeping him in the post most of the time. I didn't and still don't agree with that. I felt that it was my responsibility to do what was best for US as a whole as opposed to what was best for me or any one player. I had a sports reporter tell me it was my job to get my kids in the paper. I told him that was his job. Personally I didn't care if the game were in the paper at all or even if anyone was in the stands. I wanted my kids to play for themselves and mostly for each other. And I do realize that goals and reality don't always match up. 

[Fullbacksympathy]

You're saying that AAU is an easier game to play than regular A/B high school basketball?

Yes, in most cases.

I think it's important to keep in mind that great athletes make difficult plays look easy. When you get a whole court of them, they can sometimes look lazy. The NBA is definitely this way, but the players aren't actually lazy at all. They're just good.

Was Larry Bird unathletic? That's his wrap. The truth is he was a 6'9" freakshow with guard skills and an unblockable shot. In the NBA, he looked like he was overcoming being slow and other athletic deficiencies. In college, he was the quick, fluid, athletic freak in almost every game.

There's no way AAU is easier. Less structured? Sure. But most of those players get better numbers in the hs games. Coaching is 1/5 as important as players, IMO.

[Fullbacksympathy]

It is what it is with AAU, but to demand structure from a bunch of private, invite-only tournaments isn't necessarily legitimate.

I mean, I highly doubt that players in NBA camps and summer leagues are really concerned about winning and losing as their first priority. Like many of these AAU kids, they are playing for a personal opportunity at a better life and a tremendous amount of money (cash or scholarship). AAU is much more similar to an NBA camp than a high school basketball league. Kids on the same team are often competing for the same scholarships.

Hell, even at the highest levels of the NBA, players are also playing to get a fat check for a negotiated contract or pending free agency despite how important winning is to them.

My point is, if you are an elite athlete, you need to legitimately be concerned about how to monetize your gifts, and that requires being seen and filling up the stat sheet. If you are going to be a walk-on, winning should be the only thing that matters. If you are a parent of a talented young athlete, you need to do whatever you can to get your baby to college. As a parent, I think winning high school basketball games (a lower level of competition than AAU, by the way) should be lower on the totem pole than exposure for your kid.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of parents who have grand misconceptions about how good their kid actually is.

I hope you are pointing out that wanting exposure over winning is a problem, because all those parents with misconceptions who think their babies should be the star will kill a team. AAU is not good for the development of individual players or team ball. I don't care if you are the best player on the team, as a coach I didn't care what was best for you to advance your college "career. " I did what was best for the team I was supposed to be leading at that time. I know a coach who I respected very much who played his 6'6 player at point because he thought that would help his college recruitment as opposed to what would have been best for his team, and that would be keeping him in the post most of the time. I didn't and still don't agree with that. I felt that it was my responsibility to do what was best for US as a whole as opposed to what was best for me or any one player. I had a sports reporter tell me it was my job to get my kids in the paper. I told him that was his job. Personally I didn't care if the game were in the paper at all or even if anyone was in the stands. I wanted my kids to play for themselves and mostly for each other. And I do realize that goals and reality don't always match up.

I don't think AAU makes a "development" claim nearly as much as it provides exposure for elite players to go head to head in front of D1 coaches. I agree with you 100% that a hs coach's job is to win games.

My point is that elite athletes' parents have every right to do what's best for their child to get his college education paid for, especially if that child's life depends on it.

I think some of the parents are very misguided as to the differences in the purpose of AAU (individual showcase of talents) vs HS (learning to play within a system as a team player and winner), and that's unfortunate. I don't want to diminish the importance of AAU though just because it doesn't develop players the same way a HS system does. The speed of the games alone in AAU are tremendous college prep, but you need both athletic competition and discipline. I do find AAU slightly more important for elite athletes to showcase their skills though, especially the ones at lower levels schools who are beating up on awful competition every game (Winnebego kid comes to mind).

[Navin R. Johnson]

There very little scouting and almost zero game prep in AAU ball and at times very little defense. It is easier to play against teams that don't prep for you and try to take away what you do best.

[hhcmatt]

 

Spike lands in conference as Purdue picks up yet another plug and play grad transfer PG

[49r]

Michigan is like the D-League of the B1G.

 

Bielfeldt

Albrecht

 

I feel like I'm missing another one...

[AuroranHusker]

[King James]

That's a nifty little pickup for Purdue.  If he's healthy, it substantially changes their outlook I would think.