They come in with different backgrounds. For some, it’s a second stop. For others, it might even be a third. Some pan out. Not everyone does. But they are highly coveted for a reason in college basketball.
We’re talking about the graduate transfers, some of whom have been especially impactful for specific programs around the BIG EAST. While they may only call a school their home for one year, that one campaign is a part of the puzzle that a coach is trying to constantly keep intact in running a program.
Providence had gone to five consecutive NCAA Tournaments heading into the 2018-19 campaign. Missing the Big Dance was gut-wrenching for a group that wanted to maintain that standard in 2019. Ed Cooley’s main hole? The point guard position. He needed a leader, and found one in UMass’ Luwane Pipkins.
The Minutemen grad transfer peaked at the perfect time, averaging over 19 points per contest in the Friars’ six-game winning streak to close the season. The season-high 27 points in a road win at Villanova on February 29 led Providence to a win that got them into serious talks for a return to the NCAA Tournament. That was all predicated on Pipkins finding himself at the “1.” His leadership could not be overstated.
“He doesn’t shut the hell up at all, and we love that. That’s a good thing,” said Cooley during the season of his point guard.
Pipkins embodied the challenge of moving up a weight class when transferring, but also showed the value that can come to fruition when making that change.
“The transition from UMass to Providence wasn’t an easy one,” said Pipkins in a letter on Friars.com last week. “I hit a few speed bumps individually and we hit some as a team. As the season went on, we had to just play ball and not think too much about who was doing what. As for myself, I just had to get into my own head and remind myself to be who I was brought here to be and that is what happened.”
Like Cooley entering the 2019-20 season, Seton Hall’s Kevin Willard and Butler’s LaVall Jordan have graduating senior legends whose production they are trying to find solutions to replace.
Gone from the Pirates is Myles Powell, but a close friend to the Trenton native and fellow New Jersey resident Bryce Aiken, a highly-touted prospect, will graduate with a degree from Harvard this spring and spend his final season in his home state.
In 65 career games for the Crimson, Aiken averaged 16.8 points with 2.7 assists per game. A two-time All-Ivy League First Team selection, Aiken led Harvard to back-to-back conference regular season crowns in 2018 and 2019. What led him to The Hall?
“My relationship with Coach Willard,” said Aiken in his announcement on April 9. “His belief in my ability was paramount in this decision. I have the ultimate belief in him as a coach, with the success he’s had the past few years with his teams and players.”
Not only is this an example of what a grad transfer could potentially do for a program in need of a lead guard who can serve as a bridge, but Aiken referenced what Powell did and Seton Hall’s rise as a program as to why he chose to finish his career in South Orange. Aiken was recruited by the Pirates when he was in high school. That said, the program wasn’t where it is now - seeking an unprecedented fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance in 2020.
That run started in 2016, when the youthful Pirates reeled in a player who had been to the NCAA Tournament at previous stops Western Kentucky and UMass. Derrick Gordon wasn’t a starter for The Hall, but proved to be the lockdown defender and clutch shot-maker for the program’s first BIG EAST Championship since 1993.
“He’s really a calming presence for a group that is at times extremely emotional,” said Willard of Gordon’s role, one that epitomizes the mental aspect of the grad transfer. “He has been through it.”
By going through it, Gordon was the glue of a team that saved its best basketball for Madison Square Garden.
Turning to the Bulldogs, Jordan ushers in the best recruiting class in program history, according the national recruiting outlets. To give those newcomers a shot of experience on the roster, Butler’s added South Carolina guard Jair Bolden for his final season.
In 21.4 minutes per game for the Gamecocks this past season, the 6-foot-3 Bolden averaged 8.5 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.
“Jair provides veteran leadership and understands the role he can have in our program's success next season,” said Jordan. “He is a proven shooter and scorer who has experience in big games. He's also had a 98-assist season in his career and has shown he can create for others. We're excited to welcome Jair to our Butler family.”
For Bolden, who’s never been on the big dance floor, coming to Butler serves as an opportunity to play for a program that’s been to 10 of the last 13 NCAA Tournaments. It will be his third stop of his career, having started at George Washington where he led the Colonials in assists in the 2017-18 season.
Speaking of third stops, the third and final stop of Avery Woodson’s career was his best. Coming to Butler from Memphis, Woodson led the Dawgs with 75 three-pointers in the 2016-17 campaign. Coach Chris Holtmann’s description of Woodson is another case of the value of a player of his status.
“I think he has some God-given leadership ability,” Holtmann said in a 2016 interview to the Indianapolis Star. “His leadership will be his most important asset this year.”
The proof of those words was in the results that the Bulldogs put forth, with Woodson helping to charge the program to its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2011.
St. John’s head coach Mike Anderson addressed an area of need for a thin returning frontline with the addition of 6-foot-8 George Washington transfer Arnaldo Toro. Averaging 7.0 rebounds, with 6.1 points per game this past season, Toro played high school ball in New Jersey and will come closer to a familiar area to finish out a career.
There’s reason to be encouraged in Queens. With a rebuilding roster this past season, Anderson led the Johnnies to 17 wins including signature victories over West Virginia and Arizona. We saw Anderson and his staff’s ability to develop talent on display. Monmouth grad transfer Nick Rutherford made the challenging adjustment from the MAAC to the BIG EAST, tying for the team lead with 100 assists on the season. With Anderson bringing in a reinforcement in his frontcourt like Toro, as well as junior college stars Vince Cole and Isiah Moore, a part of SJU building a winning foundation is getting transfers to accelerate the process.
Xavier’s been a hotbed for graduate transfers. The Musketeers just added their fifth in three off-seasons with Gardner Webb transfer Nate Johnson, a 6-foot-3 sharpshooter who connected on 136 triples in the past two seasons. The Musketeers, who have not been known for their perimeter shooting in recent years, brought in a catch-and-shoot specialist. On 136 of those threes, 129 have been assisted on.
This past season, Jason Carter started in 31 of Xavier’s 32 games and the Ohio grad transfer played nearly 30 minutes per game. Steele credited his high IQ and rebounding ability as to why he filled the role for the Musketeers.
Two other recent Musketeer grad transfers have seen success in unique ways. In 2018-19, 6-foot-11 Zach Hankins entered the program from Division II Ferris State and averaged 10.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in his final season. A national champion at Ferris, Hankins parlayed that opportunity into a productive season for a high-major program and is reaping the benefits, playing professionally in the Czech Republic.
“Our guys immediately respected Zach,” said Steele of his big man during the 2018-19 season. “He’s fearless. He’s just that guy, any challenge, he’s going to do it. That’s how he lives his life.”
"There's so many talented basketball players who don't get this opportunity or have held themselves back from doing it," said Hankins during his senior campaign. "I really wanted to take this opportunity because it's a rare one."
Hankins took it, and made the most of it.
No BIG EAST grad transfer has had more of a shining moment in the NCAA Tournament than Malcolm Bernard put on display in the 2017 postseason. Bernard, a 6-foot-6 wing, was thought to be a complementary, seventh or eighth piece heading into the season for the Musketeers. At his previous stops at Charleston Southern and Florida A&M, Bernard did not experience the NCAA Tournament. His dream looked unlikely when the Musketeers went on a six-game skid in February, pushing them to the bubble. But, Xavier made the field as an 11-seed, and proceeded to go on a surprising run to the second weekend. When it mattered most in Xavier’s season, Bernard rose to the occasion with 15 second-half points in a 73-71 upset win over Arizona to reach the Elite Eight.
“I don’t think I’m going to feel anything better than this,” said Bernard in a postgame press conference in 2017. “This is the reason why I came here, and to see it actually happening, it’s truly an amazing feeling.”
These are just a few stories of what grad transfers have delivered, and can provide for a program in the BIG EAST. In an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer last year, Steele summed up the concept of the ever-changing transfer world.
“The transfer market moves so quickly,” he said. “If you yawn for two seconds, you’re behind.”
While discussions are ongoing on the future of transfers in college basketball, what comes out of those won’t change that “something” that grad transfers provide in some form more than any other player. It’s that “something” which is an ingredient that a team can’t win without in the month of March: experience.