NCAA Basketball: Ranking the Top 30 Graduate Transfers for 2018-19
Graduate transfers are becoming increasingly popular in college basketball. Who are the Top 30 graduate transfers and how will they impact their respective teams?
The graduate transfer market is mined for talent each off-season by teams across all levels of college basketball. Blue Bloods like UNC, Kentucky, and Villanova have pursued immediately eligible transfers as have mid-major powers like Middle Tennessee and Nevada.
Pursuing these players is a great way to inject talent into your roster and quickly change your team’s capabilities for the upcoming season. Some of these players are the difference between NCAA Tournament and NIT or being a Top 25 team and being on the dreaded bubble.
There are so many impact graduate transfers that it is nearly impossible to compose a concise list. After planning on a top 15 list, then a top 25 list, I ultimately settled on a top 30 list of the best graduate transfers.
The players are ranked based on their projected value to College Basketball, or specifically, using the following criteria:
- Talent/Ability
- Fit with their new team
- Years of eligibility remaining
Obviously how good a player is factors into the ranking, but how they fit with their new team was considered as well. A player who fits well and is poised for major minutes on his new team may be ranked higher than someone whose path to minutes is more uncertain. Also, players with two years of eligibility received a boost as that additional year adds so much value to their team.
So, the higher a player is ranked, the bigger impact I expect that player to have on college basketball. For example, the 15th ranked player may statistically outperform the 7th ranked player, but I am predicting that the 7th ranked player will have a bigger impact on the sport.
There were some quality graduate transfers that were left off this list even though they should be meaningful contributors to their teams. The most notable examples include: Torry Johnson, Femi Olujobi, Aaron Calixte, Tory Miller, Novak Topalovic, Kyle Castlin, and Mike Cunningham.
Mustapha Heron is also worth mentioning even though he is not a graduate transfer. Heron is a unique case and is likely to be eligible immediately after transferring to St. John’s from Auburn after his mother’s illness. Heron would rank second on this list, but was omitted due to his unusual situation.