NCAA Basketball: 10 biggest transfer busts of the 2017-18 season

SR Jaaron Simmons – Michigan Wolverines

2017-18 stats: 1.5 ppg 0.7 rpg 1.1 apg

If it wasn’t for the Final Four run for Michigan, the grad transfer from Ohio University would be much higher on the list. And that’s because unlike Thornton, Simmons had a wide-open chance at starting for the Big Ten school.

The Wolverines lost both of their starting guards and had gone the transfer market to get ready-made help for this season. They felt that they had gotten their man in Simmons, who previously averaged nearly 16 ppg and eight assists a night in the MAC.

But this turned out to be another case of a mid-major star who couldn’t carry it over a bigger level and was forced to a backup position on the bench. He played in 31 games (0 started) and averaged just eight minutes a game. Simmons went from scoring 16 points a night to have gone 17 games this season without scoring a single point.

The good news is that the team solved their issues at the point position and were able to make a run to the Final Four. But this failure of a situation would’ve easily been a reason why the year went badly for the Wolverines. Luckily for them, they weren’t relying too much on Simmons for production.