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Transfers Not New to PC

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Most PC fans are probably still reeling from the news that freshman Paschal Chukwu has decided to transfer, but this is not just the way of life in college basketball today, but something PC has dealt with over the course of its history.

Many may feel that with the transfers of Gerard Coleman, Josh Fortune, Tyler Harris and Chukwu in recent seasons that the Friars are being hit particularly hard by the transfer epidemic. This is not necessarily the case.

With the potential of over 700 transfers this year, that would average out to almost two transfers for every Division I school — just what PC has averaged since the arrival of Ed Cooley.

Players looking to transfer is not a recent trend at PC, as the Friars have seen players transfer almost since they started the program.

The 1972-1973 season was a historic one for Providence basketball for a number of reasons. It was the inaugural season of the Providence Civic Center and the team led by Ernie Degregorio and Marvin Barnes made it all the way to the Final Four. It was also the first year that freshmen were allowed to play on varsity in college basketball. Dave Modest, Ron Norwood, Rich Dunphy, and Mark McAndrew made up the freshman class that year, but only McAndrew would wind up finishing his career with the Friars.

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Former Friar Gerald Brown

During the following season the Friars, led by Barnes and Kevin Stacom, went to the Eastern Regionals of the NCAA Tournament. A freshman guard on one of the other teams at the Eastern Regionals, Bruce Grimm, liked the way the Friars played and wanted to transfer to PC. He was a former runner up for Mr. Basketball in Indiana and that year was named to the NCAA All Eastern Regional Team for Furman University. It was quite a coup picking up a player of his caliber. He sat out the next year and then wound up transferring back to Furman of all places after only one semester playing at PC.

Two of the most promising players early in the Tim Welsh era were Ben Perkins and Sean Connolly. Those two were considered potential building blocks, but each left left after only one season. Connolly went on to have a solid career at Ohio State.

During the height of Welsh’s tenure at PC, when Ryan Gomes was making All American teams, PC brought in three top 100 recruits in Gerald Brown, Dwight Brewington and DeSean White. All three transferred before the end of their sophomore years.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Many Friar fans will remember names like Perkins, Brewington, Brown, Connelly, Coleman, Dwain Williams, and countless others that were looked to as building blocks that never panned out.

In this era of college basketball, more so than ever, transfers are inevitable. Some will hurt a lot more than others.

Chukwu stung badly, as few PC recruits have his immense upside, but the Friars have been down a similar road before. It is part of the landscape in college basketball and it won’t change anytime soon.

Email Craig at craig.leighton@friarbasketball.com 

 

 

 

5 Comments

  1. Justin Farley

    May 21, 2015 at 1:27 am

    The transfer game cuts both ways, you should next write about transfers who came to PC and had decent careers. I speak from experience 😉

  2. Craig Leighton

    May 21, 2015 at 1:40 am

    i know you do Justin. It is a great idea and I will do it. In the aftermath of Chukwu leaving I just wanted to write an article to show that transfers leaving is something that PC and other schools have always faced and it is not the end of the world.

  3. Derec Lamendola

    May 21, 2015 at 2:30 am

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  4. Joshua Michael Corrente

    May 21, 2015 at 2:53 am

    Transfers are not new to any major program-

  5. Mario Teixeira

    May 22, 2015 at 1:26 pm

    I think what’s making this a big deal is the fact that we already had no depth at center & now we have no center!

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