MAC Men's Basketball Incoming...

Elton Alexander had an excellent piece we are just now catching up to concerning the men's basketball recruiting in the MAC.  Check it out when you get a chance...Miami looks to be on the upward trend, and Akron looks to remain in a stable position with a high profile PG from Nevada.  In fact, I'd say that the team's top programs--Akron, UT, and OU--continued to put themselves in positions where they will be hard to beat, while Kent and Buffalo took strong steps.  Ball State is also starting to assemble some players.

So, here is the interesting part.  Alexander counts 49 players as coming into the MAC.  Fourteen of those are JUCO or immediately eligible transfers--13 JUCO and Anali Okoloji, a 6'8" George Mason graduate/transfer to EMU.  Also, UT's Andre Applewhite (from Mississippi State) will be eligible by mid-year.

I don't have any long-term statistics, but it strikes me that having more than 25% of your incoming players being transfers is a high number, and it seems like a lot of JUCO guys, too.  BG and Kent both had 3, and Buffalo and Miami both had 2.  I think it is a reflection of the pressure on coaches to start to win right away...if Chris Jans (for example) had tried to replenish his guards and bigs on HS recruits alone, this team was in for 2-3 years of rebuilding.

It might also represent a different way of doing things.  Wichita State is known for using JUCO players...and if you read the Hustle Belt stories about some of these transfers, you see they are guys the MAC wanted in the first place.  There is a satisfaction in seeing a player develop over four years, but often that doesn't work out--Jeff Goodman on ESPN is reporting nearly 600 D1 transfers--and you need someone to play right away.

No team has made as much hay with transfers as the Rockets...but they were generally 4-year transfers, not JUCO players.

One other thing...OU's Jaaron Simmons (Houston) and Ball State's Ryan Weber (Youngstown State) will both sit out, but are potentially impact transfers.