Freddy's transfer strategy

[TheAdmiral]

Agreed. These guys knew they had only one more chance, and that it was a big one. Really proud of our guys.

Even though Babb and Booker didn't really have a controversial exit from their former schools, they kinda got unfairly put in the same boat as Royce and CA. But either way, I agree.

[gocubs2118]

While I don't think we'll ever see something like that again here, I believe we should take a transfer or two for the 2013-14 season. We'll have at least 5 scholarships open, probably 6 if Royce leaves. I think it would be a good idea to bring on one of those Jake Anderson type transfers who can play right away. I don't think it will be a good idea to bring in 6 freshman, no matter how good they are.

[ribsnwhiskey]

With Freddy's transfer strategy working so well this year could it start happen more frequent around the country with getting multiple transfers?

If it does, will it hurt CFH future recruiting? I can see us getting 1-2 transfers a year for the next couple years..similar to Kl and WC

In order for that to happen, we need at least one transfer who is eligible for 2013 and it would most likely need to be someone like Jake Anderson who can play without sitting a season out. At this point, I see it happening less and less for us. Good luck to any other program that tries it.

[Wesley]

I think the level of maturity found in our four transfers will be near impossible to find anywhere else. I've not heard or seen one bad thing about any of those guy during their year sitting out or this year. Props to them for doing it right.

Yes, the transfers also made this a success. My hats off to them and to see second chances can work just fine. What a team to be proud of.

[cyhiphopp]

I don't see a lot of other coaches around the country trying this.

I think it worked for one reason only.......Fred. He came in here as head coach, saw a team that lacked enough talent, and applied his NBA management skills to do what someone in the NBA would do.....go out and get the talent from wherever you can. ISU was a unique situation for these transfers ....a program with a real need and a program with a decent and fairly recent positive past. Then you had a new head coach who was a hometown boy, an ISU star, an NBA vet, and a recent NBA executive with all kinds of connections. Plus, he obviously has the personality and managerial talent to handle the egos and possible problems that came with these transfers. Perfect situation here, but one that is not likely to be repeated somewhere else. It was done here to jump start the program and get some immediate results, and it worked, but only because ISU had the perfect head coach to pull it off.

I think ISU will become a more conventional program now as far as recruiting and development goes, still taking the occasional transfer or juco to fill specific needs in the program.

One other detail:
The coach will have to be willing to be short a number of scholarships while all of the tranfers sit out. That will cause depth issues and could very well exagerate losses like it did at ISU. We played decently at times last year, but then ran out of gas in the second half leading to more losses. A lot of coaches, ADs and fanbases will not be able to play for the future while getting killed in the present.
At a lot of other schools, a 3-13 conference record would kill ticket sales and fan support.

At ISU, we had faith in Hoi-ball and sold out student tickets even after a bad first year. That wont happen at 90% of schools because they wont have a legendary alum coaching them.

[cyhiphopp]

Even though Babb and Booker didn't really have a controversial exit from their former schools, they kinda got unfairly put in the same boat as Royce and CA. But either way, I agree.

One more chance doesn't even refer to disciplinary issues. These guy all knew that if they pulled the trigger, transferred to ISU, and sat out a year, that they wouldn't be able to transfer again if it didn't work out. They would be out of eligibility.

[BringBackJohnny]

I would like to see Fred continue to pick up a transfer or JUCO player in the future. ISU has had some very successful players that were only able to be here two years. I think they can bring some good things with them and can give the 4 year guys some perspective on the game they would not get otherwise.

i.e. not take the situation for granted and push hard in practice and in the offseason to get the most court time possible in two years of elidibility or less.

[cyhiphopp]

I would like to see Fred continue to pick up a transfer or JUCO player in the future. ISU has had some very successful players that were only able to be here two years. I think they can bring some good things with them and can give the 4 year guys some perspective on the game they would not get otherwise.

i.e. not take the situation for granted and push hard in practice and in the offseason to get the most court time possible in two years of elidibility or less.

I'm sure Fred will take the best players available including JuCos and Tranfers.

However I don't think he will try and pull in a ton of tranfers in a single year again. I don't think he will need to.

[heitclone]

I think this was a unique situation, Fred was pretty much in a win/win situation but its worked out better than I think any of could have thought. Freddie got fans excited about the program bringing in guys like Allen, White and Luscious who for better or worse most basketball fans would have heard of, and to top it all off started winning. The icing on the cake is he went out and got some really solid high school kids as well, guys like Okoro, SDW, Long and Niang all get a chance to contribute but thanks to having some solid upperclassmen Fred doesn't have to put all his hope that these young kids being instant impact guys. To me it took the right coach, players and environment to make this work, it can't work everywhere and heck it may not work as well here in the future. All I can say is I'm glad it did!

[heitclone]

I'm sure Fred will take the best players available including JuCos and Tranfers.

However I don't think he will try and pull in a ton of tranfers in a single year again. I don't think he will need to.

This, I don't see him having to rely on transfers to contribute like this again. The only way it would happen is if a lot of guys left the program. Look at next year, we have at least 8 or 9 guys who have proven they can play in the conference, not to mention youngsters like Sledge and the incoming freshmen. I don't see FH having to worry about having enough bodies for a long time.

[swarthmoreCY]

Perhaps.
Transfers can be a big plus in roster management. As we have seen, it cab be hard to keep 13 guys happy with PT. Having 1-2 or transfers redshirting may hep with that, plus those that transfered in and redshirted are very likely not to leave. Of course, there is also the main benefit of facing less competition for adding experienced and talented players.

[cy4prez7]

I think Fred's experience with the NBA and the egos of the NBA is the only reason he was able to do this. I'm not saying he had a lot of problems but just getting all of these people who have already had success to work together came from NBA experience. I know a lot of coaches probably could not handle the load.

[CycloneErik]

I think Fred's experience with the NBA and the egos of the NBA is the only reason he was able to do this. I'm not saying he had a lot of problems but just getting all of these people who have already had success to work together came from NBA experience. I know a lot of coaches probably could not handle the load.

I would say that very few could.
Like cyclonepride said, it was the perfect storm.
Can't cop an attitude and big-time Fred here in Ames. He is bigger than anybody we could have on the team.

NBA connections and easy sales pitch--Fred.
Ability to connect with players---Fred.
Desperate need for talent at the exact time a wave of talented transfers needed a place to land----Fred and ISU.

The perfect storm. The Mayor is back. The Magic is back. The Madness is back. It's all good.

Great, bold, inventive strategy that most coaches and places couldn't have pulled of, but Fred sure did.

[nickcyv]

Frank Haith has several transfers sitting out this year that will be ready to step in next year when Mizzou loses several key players to graduation. Kind of similar to what Fred did.

[Bigman38]

I live in council bluffs and Nebraska fans are looking at ISU as an example of how to build a program in a hurry. I wouldn't be surprised to see some programs with nothing to lose take a shot at it.