Transfering a 'Win-Win'

One underestimated recruiting secret in college sports that's not so secret is transferring. It's no secret that transfers are most-often viewed as "Band-aids" and are seen as inferior to fresh high school talent, but a transfer plays a pivotal role for their team both on and off the court. Although there is a one-year hiatus in playing, transfers are allowed to practice and intertwine with teammates throughout their year of ineligibility. One can look past this, but the experience players gain with a year of learning and watching is invaluable to both their careers and the teams success. While being able to observe your teammates tendencies and see the game from afar, transfers gain a better understanding of not only their sports, but also the system and game plans their coach enforces. Often times high-profile athletes have played their sport continuously since their youth limiting their ability to truly grasp new concepts and understand philosophies that are sometimes usurped while playing season-after-season. This is evident with the 2006-2007 UAB Men's Basketball team. Only having 9 scholarship players really hindered UAB's success last season, but one positive that can be taken away is that three young-men learned invaluable lessons about basketball, their teammates, and life. Learning how to manage frustration/emotion, learning how to teach, and learning how to contribute to a team in non-traditional ways are all lessons that Robert Vaden, Walter Sharpe, and Channing Toney picked up while riding the pine in '06. These players all left situations where they were successful in order to personally improve their lives and explore realms that were previously unattainable. For these 3 players transferring is a Godsend and has effected their lives and future.
Coaches are also winners because they have players that dedicate a full year to learn their system and become familiar with surrounding players. Transfers are viewed as skilled and experienced which are traits all coaches are looking for. Some coaches are hesitant to sign transfers because of their lack of time with the school, but in the right situation transfers can be invaluable to a school looking to build a program. Take UAB for instance. This competitive C-USA school has made the NCAA's three times in the past 5 seasons, but has yet to make the same kind of splash you see from the Gonzaga's, Southern Illinois', and Nevada. Mike Davis knew that he could keep the program afloat by recruiting average basketball players out of high school, or he could burn 3 scholarships, bite the bullet for a season, and return the next year with a star-studded lineup destined for deep play in the NCAA's. Davis welcomed three Rivals Top-150 recruits (Vaden, Sharpe, and Toney) hoping they could immediately impact a competitive in order to make them great. After speaking with Vaden and Sharpe personally, both are grateful for their year away from the court, and both are truly comfortable in their new roles. Vaden learned invaluable tendencies about future opponents and also learned a thing or two about coaching situations in basketball. In other words he spent a year getting educated in the field of basketball, a field he hopes to make a career in. That experience in invaluable.
One reason why UAB slumped last year is because of the transfers. Ultimately these 3 transfers dominated so much in practice last year that it was hard for eligible players to learn not to rely on those 3. The fierce competition obviously helped the players tremendously with their games, but it also gave the team a year to gel before ever playing a game together. That is experience that cannot come from recruits straight out of high school. Now I am not saying that every transfer situation works out, but most transfers are dead-set on making the best of their new situation because it could well be their last. This idea of necessity and changes the players mindsets and shifts the attention from "Me" to "Team."
Mike Davis knows that transfers are different, so he will treat them accordingly. But once the ball is tipped he will definitely look to his three upperclassman to lead the team that he has waited so long to build. So don't hate on the transfers, rather embrace them because they are here under trying circumstances or else they would have remained with their old teams. These guys are kids and are trying to pave a future just like everybody else. As players they are more experienced and expectations should be set higher, but next time you see a transfer play, look at him/her and see what kind of leader they are for their team, because with that year of training and time off that's what they become.