NCAA Basketball: Former GT wing Curtis Haywood II lands at Tulsa

Former Georgia Tech starter Curtis Haywood joins Frank Haith and the Golden Hurricanes. This new transfer should make a future impact on NCAA Basketball.

Tulsa was able to land itself one of the most undervalued NCAA Basketball transfers on the market on Monday as 6’5 shooting guard Curtis Haywood II committed to the Golden Hurricanes.

Haywood, who spent his first two seasons in Atlanta at Georgia Tech, is a native of Oklahoma City and is a sit one, play two transfer. He averaged 5.5 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 44 career games for the Yellow Jackets.

Curtis had the reputation as a knock down shooter as a prep and shot 37% during his freshman campaign for the Jackets, which was cut short due to a stress reaction in his leg. A stress reaction is a situation that could eventually lead to a Kevin Ware or Paul George type situation. He played just 15 games before being lost for the season.

As a sophomore, Haywood was expected to fill some of the scoring void created by the graduation of Tadric Jackson and departure of Josh Okogie to the NBA. During out of conference play he played surprising well coming off of the injury, averaging 8 points 2 rebounds 2 assists and a steal per game while shooting 36% from behind the arc.

It all came apart during the conference season however as Curtis struggled through a rough patch shooting wise. During a seven game stretch in January and February he shot 1-29 from behind the arc and seemingly lost some of his confidence. When you combine that with Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastners’s…peculiar substitution patterns, the conclusion to this story was inevitable and quite obvious.

Haywood checks a lot of boxes for Tulsa coach Frank Haith. The Golden Hurricanes aren’t a great three-point shooting team, Haywood has the ability to be a knock down shooter. They don’t create many live ball turnovers, he is a plus defender on and away from the ball. They were 210th in the country in free throw percentage, he shoots it just a shade under 80% for his career. He is also a tremendous rebounding guard and possesses good vision on the court.

I have not seen whether or not he will be pursuing a waiver for immediate eligibility, but the NCAA has shown leniency the last couple years to players returning home. This certainly falls within those parameters. This is a good, underrated pickup for Tulsa.