Transfers, transfers, transfers.
Transfers have long been a part of the landscape.
But nothing like 2021.
We’ve never had a formal transfer portal until recently and the number of men’s college basketball players in that portal is well over 1,000.
And it’s just as prevalent in women’s hoops, which I’ll get to when Kara Lawson finishes cleaning up.
And it’s not going away. It’s the new normal, formalized earlier this week.
There are many reasons why a basketball player wants to move from point A to point B; academics, location, girl/boy friend, sick parent and others. But I don’t think it’s especially controversial to suggest that playing time, or the lack thereof, is the primary one.
Which suggests that the transfer highway most often flows downhill.
That’s certainly been the case at Duke, which frequently has more talent than available minutes. I don’t have the data base to go much earlier than the beginning of the Vic Bubas era and there are variables here; does Rasheed Sulaimon count as a transfer? How about Jim Fitzsimmons or Sam May, recruited players who went home in the middle of their freshman seasons in the era when freshman teams were a thing and never came back?
Duke traditionally has built its program through recruiting high-school players. George Moses is the only junior college recruit Duke has brought in during the ACC era, and Moses was an outlier, a military veteran who went to junior college to build up his basketball credentials not his academic credentials.
But Moses had used up his eligibility at San Jacinto Junior College when Bill Foster brought him in, so I’m not counting him either.
But not counting these guys, I come up with 35 players who have transferred from Duke since 1960, against 10 recruited players who have transferred in, the latter number increased Thursday with the addition of Bates Jones from Davidson.
But while the quantity of transfers into the program has been low, the quality has been pretty high, at least until recently.
I’m going to take a look at these transfers, the contexts in which they arrived at Duke and what they contributed.
Vic Bubas spent 10 seasons at Duke with the kind of roster stability that we find remarkable these days. He only had one varsity player who transferred out of the program. Frank Harscher was 6-2 guard who scored 23 points in 15 games in Duke’s 1964 team. Harscher was a classmate of Steve Vacendak and was one class ahead of Bob Verga.
Not a lot of PT available. Harscher transferred to Georgia, where he averaged 11.6 points per game over two seasons, 13.9 as a senior in 1967.
With not much roster turnover, there wasn’t much need for Bubas to look for transfers. He did bring in one transfer but never actually got to coach him.
Larry Saunders was a 6-9, 210-pound post player from Elmhurst, Illinois. He left Northwestern after his sophomore year and ended up at Duke. He took his mandatory redshirt year in 1969, Bubas’ last year as coach at Duke, before becoming a two-year starter at Duke under Bucky Waters.
Saunders started alongside all-star center Randy Denton and gave Duke an effective twin towers lineup. He averaged 9.0 points and 7.3 rebounds per game over those two seasons, shooting 59.9 percent from the field.
Those 1970 and 1971 teams went to the NIT, the only Duke teams to play in the post-season in the post-Bubas era until 1978.
His best game came in the 1971 ACC Tournament, when he scored 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, hitting 12 of 15 from the field, in an 81-73 loss to Wake Forest.
Bucky Waters did not have roster stability. His drill instructor personality clashed with many of his players and he lost five players to transfer in a four-year period.
Don Blackman (Rhode Island), Jeff Dawson (Illinois), Ron Righter (St. Joseph’s), Richie O’Connor (Fairfield) and Dave Elmer (Miami, Ohio) were stars at their second schools.
Righter led St. Joe’s with 17 points in a 54-42 loss to Pittsburgh in the 1974 NCAA Tournament, the same year Duke went 10-16.
That same year O’Connor led Fairfield into the NIT with 17 points per game.
Dawson averaged over 18 points per game both seasons at Illinois.
But the biggest insult came on February 21,1973, when Elmer scored 22 points, with 10 rebounds, to lead Miami to a 102-92 win over Bobby Jones and North Carolina.
In Chapel Hill.
Keep in mind that Duke went almost two decades without winning in Chapel Hill.
Ouch.
Waters was unable to bring in reinforcements and Duke’s program slid into irrelevancy. His replacement, Neil McGeachy lasted one season, that 1974 disaster. That team included freshman point guard Edgar Burch, who started ahead of classmate Tate Armstrong.
Burch left the program after 1974 and as far as I can tell never again played major-college-basketball.
Bill Foster replaced McGeachy. His first Duke class consisted of Moses and guards Kenny Young and Rick Gomez. Young was a complementary player who couldn’t beat out Jim Spanarkel or Tate Armstrong for a starting spot and left for Bucknell after two seasons.
Gomez was in way over his head and barely played before leaving.
At this point Duke was very much on the negative side of the transfer equation.
Foster began to rectify this.
Geoff Northrup was a 6-6 walk-on, who began his college career at California-Pomona. He played one season at Duke, scoring 17 points in 12 games in 1977.
I don’t count him but list him for the sake of completeness.
That was the year senior star Tate Armstrong broke his right wrist, as Duke’s promising season collapsed.
But Foster could look on the bench and see two transfer guards, sitting out their redshirt seasons.
John Harrell was a Durham native. He played his freshman season across town from Duke, averaging 19 points per game for North Carolina Central.
Meanwhile, Parade All-American Bob Bender was languishing on the bench for loaded Indiana. Bender was a member of IU’s undefeated 1976 title team. But he only scored 35 points on the season and chafed under Bobby Knight’s leadership style.
Foster had recruited Bender out of high school and Bender was more receptive the second time around.
Harrell thought he could do better on a bigger stage and Bender wanted a change of scenery.
It worked out in one of the great seasons in Duke history.
Harrell transferred just after the 1976 season, while Bender left IU after the 1976-’77 academic year at begun. Therefore Harrell was eligible at Duke for the entire 1977-’78 season, with Bender becoming eligible at mid-season.
Harrell beat out Steve Gray for the starting spot and thus was the incumbent when Bender became eligible. Harrell continued to start, while splitting PT with Bender coming off the bench.
Neither had great stats on that 1978 team. Duke had Spanarkel, Mike Gminski and Gene Banks for that. But they provided stability and timely playmaking. Harrell averaged 5.1 points and 1.6 assists per game, Bender 5.1 points and 3.9 assists.
Harrell’s biggest contribution to that marvelous season may have come in Duke’s 90-86 win over Notre Dame in the Final Four, when he made all six of his foul shots, four in the final minutes.
In 1978 Bender became the first person to play in Final Fours for different teams.
The narrative changed the following season. Harrell lost his starting spot to Bender after a pre-season injury and elected to not use his fifth year in 1980.
Bender took advantage of the opportunity by becoming something pretty close to an elite, pass-first point guard. He averaged 4.8 assists per game in 1980 for an Elite Eight team.
Bender’s best game may have been followed by his biggest disappointment. Bender had 16 points against NC State in the 1979 ACC Tournament semifinals and his late foul shots helped sew up Duke’s 62-59 win.
Bender made all eight of his foul shots.
Hours later Bender was on a hospital bed, having his appendix removed.
Season over.
His absence was significant as Duke lost to UNC in the ACC finals and to St. John’s in the NCAA Tournament.
Bender was healthy the following season and had five assists in Duke’s win over Maryland in the ACC Tournament title game.
Bender’s playing career ended in an Elite Eight loss to Purdue. He scored 10 points, with 3 assists in the 68-61 setback.
Bender ended his Duke career with averages of 6.2 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.
Even though Bender never played for Mike Krzyzewski, he came back to Duke as an assistant for six years before becoming a head coach at Illinois State and then Washington. He led the latter to the 1998 Sweet 16.
The loss to Purdue also was Foster’s last game at Duke.
In my next installment I’ll look at Mike Krzyzewski’s track record with transfers.