Top Transfers In / Most Painful Transfers Out

Antonio Ramos. Clarke College became dominant once he left Iowa for there. And look at how far our program has fallen.

/thread
 
TurnipTruck said:
I never joke when it comes to Iowa basketball. It's my life. Dennis Johnson was a great team player, solid ball handler and tough defensive player. He did the little things that help teams win games. Van Coleman compared Johnny Fort to Michael Jordan in Midwest Basketball Times. The kid has a much raw talent as any Olson recruit. It did not work out for him at Iowa and a knee injury at Virgina Tech pretty much ended his basketball career. Cuthpert was a man child with freakish skills for a guy 6'10. Unfortunately grades and substance abuse derailed his career at Iowa. Jeff Walker would have been Mr. Davis's best player he recruited to Iowa, he was as good an athlete as Ricky Davis but a better shooter and defensive player. What could have been.

This is it! Go Hawks!
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That's about as much unfounded hype as I've ever seen packed into one post. Well done! ;-)

To set the record a little straighter:

--Dennis Johnson was an overweight, overhyped guard who couldn't shoot. I believe he transferred to Western Ky and had an undistinguished career there.

--In most states, mentioning Johnny Fort and Michael Jordan in the same paragraph is at least a misdemeanor. In North Carolina and Illinois, it's a felony. It was obvious in Fort's freshman season that Olson had made a big mistake in taking him over other alternatives in that class. By the way, players with Jordanesque skills most definitely did not flock to Va Tech in those days.

--Curtis Cuthpert's career peaked when he was a sophomore in high school and was briefly rated the top player in the class. He was barely hanging onto a top 100 ranking going into his senior year, and was out of some top 100's by the end of that year. The player who arrived at Iowa was nothing like the guy you described.

--Jeff Walker was a highly regarded player coming out of HS, but what I heard of him from the PTL the summer before his freshman year was a mixed bag. Best player ever recruited by Davis? I don't think so.

I still think you're pulling my leg with all of this, but it is at least amusing.

By the way some folks say Turnip Truck = Randy Larson. Is that a pic of Randy in your sig? I don't believe even Randy Larson could have as overblown an opinion of these players as you. :)
 
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Any list of transfers in has to begin with Sam Williams, John Johnson and Freddie Brown, three of the four players to average over 20 points for their careers. Another transfer in is Steve Krafcisin, one of the original twin towers from the 1980 Final Four team. Transferred in from North Carolina and was the first player to go to a Final Four with two different teams. I think someone else has done it since then but if so the name escapes me.
 
A couple very good Calls on Gerry Wright (USC) Val Barnes (Butler CCC) Kevin Gambel (Juco).

Just throwing out names here Michael Ingram (Missou) he and Bullard transfered in around the same time. Ingram battled some leg injuries but still saw a lot of action. Never became much more than a role player but had potential prior to injuries.

Losses whether by transfer or early defection of any kind some of the ones that come to mind to have tha biggest impact in no paticular order..

Ricky Davis, Chris Kingsbury, Joey Range, Ray Thompson, Jeff Walker, Tyler Smith, Jake Kelly.

Boy sitting here thinking , tons of transfers come to mind. most not impact players that went on to nothing, but wow have there ever been a lot over the years.
 
JonDMiller said:
If Juco's count as transfers, Reggie Evans and Kevin Gamble. Ray Thompson wasn't a transfer out, he was a forced to sit out, but that one still chaffs me.
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Jon, do you recall the circumstances regarding Thompson? I only remember folks being po'ed, correct me if i am wrong but wasnt he actually eligible from the NCAAs standpoint when he was forced to sit?

Recker is also the one that still stings for me. Until the Recker injury Iowa was on fire and that 00-01 season had the ability to be very special.
 
IATrainMaster101 said:
A couple very good Calls on Gerry Wright (USC) Val Barnes (Butler CCC) Kevin Gambel (Juco).

Just throwing out names here Michael Ingram (Missou) he and Bullard transfered in around the same time. Ingram battled some leg injuries but still saw a lot of action. Never became much more than a role player but had potential prior to injuries.

Losses whether by transfer or early defection of any kind some of the ones that come to mind to have tha biggest impact in no paticular order..

Ricky Davis, Chris Kingsbury, Joey Range, Ray Thompson, Jeff Walker, Tyler Smith, Jake Kelly.

Boy sitting here thinking , tons of transfers come to mind. most not impact players that went on to nothing, but wow have there ever been a lot over the years.
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Ricky Davis went pro.
 
Ray had an issue downtown, didnt he? Something like he was as well known around IOWA like the Am Express guy ( Karl Malden )?

Michael Ingram came in from Moberly(MO) JC, had the ruptured patella tendon, and wasnt ever the same, basically played on one leg.

Fort never played in a set O in HS ( Gary, IN? ), and couldnt pick it up at IOWA, yet he couldnt adjust to not being the PG. Not a good fit at IOWA, never as good as he seemed in camps. T-Mac was one of the guys passed on to say yes to Fort, too bad to as he was quite good at Oklahoma.

I'm surprised Turnip didnt mention Spider Ursury, as he seems to love the obscure and rewrite the past. Is that a pic of Ted Nugent?
 
iahawk20 said:
Jon, do you recall the circumstances regarding Thompson? I only remember folks being po'ed, correct me if i am wrong but wasnt he actually eligible from the NCAAs standpoint when he was forced to sit?

Recker is also the one that still stings for me. Until the Recker injury Iowa was on fire and that 00-01 season had the ability to be very special.
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Hi guys, this is my first post on this website and forum. I thought I would chime in on this. Yes I believe you are correct that Ray Thompson was eligible for the tournament by the NCAA but was benched by the University. Horrible decision. I am sure we would have made it past the 2nd round that year with Thompson playing.

On the issue of Thompson, how did Thompson eventually leave Iowa? I never heard or read the full story on him after he vanished. I only remember him starting the first 10 or so games of the 1990 season and averaging 20 plus PPG and then becoming academically ineligible for the rest of that season.

By the way this is all off topic but I believe with no doubt in my mind that Ray Thompson was Tom Davis's most talented and best recruit. Too bad it didn't work out.
 
C. Vivian Stringer /s

Even though Ricky Davis went pro we still lost him. I'm sure he would have left though no matter where he was playing college ball.
 
HawkeyeDug said:
How can anyone forget Alex Thompson. Huge loss. Single-handedly beat OSU in the BTT.
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C'mon, one quality game in his career doesn't make him a huge loss. You do realize that there are random acts of God, right?

By the way all these players I am reading about leaving, how many actually did something in thier Bball careers when they left.

Also, Sam Okey as a top transfer in??? Oh my, what has some of our Hawk fans come to?

The good players in mean more to me than anything like, Woolridge, Barnes and Gamble, than the ones that left.
I am to the point that when players leave, it is just better for the program, espcially when it is arrests or academics on why they leave.
The departures that hurt are ones like Jake Kelley and Tyler Smith (not so much after his incident this year though, kinda glad he didn't stay), when it is a family situation.
Paul Lusk was one that I was sad to see go and especially sad to see him on the TV at Chris Street's funeral...you want to talk about Program changing events, Iowa has not been the same and I don't think Tom Davis was ever the same after that. Street's loss was bigger than any, transfer that hit the Iowa Program.

Character matters to me and it appears to matter to Coach Fran and academics appear to be a top priority, so hopefully we don't have to have posts like this anymore of players out and we can only talk about the most Painful Transfers In or Most Painful Wastes of a Scholarship (My vote is between JR Angle and currently Andrew Brommer), but if they graduate hey it helps on the NCAA Grad rates.
 
I'll take Ray Thompson over Tyler Smith any day.

I wouldn't count JUCOs as transfers, but if they did, Brown and Johnson and Sam Williams come first, then Andre, then Chris Pervall.
 
I think to call Brommer a waste of a scholarship after only two years in, and that ,under perhaps the most rotten coach that IOWA had had in nearly everyone's memory, is pretty sad. WHy not let hm rap up his eligibility before you go that extreme. He has shown more in these two years than Greg Helmers, Dave Snedeker, or Dale Reed.
 
HeneryHawk said:
I think to call Brommer a waste of a scholarship after only two years in, and that ,under perhaps the most rotten coach that IOWA had had in nearly everyone's memory, is pretty sad. WHy not let hm rap up his eligibility before you go that extreme. He has shown more in these two years than Greg Helmers, Dave Snedeker, or Dale Reed.
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I am not so sure that Lickliter was the worst coach in Iowa's history, his record may say otherwise. Lickliter walked into a minefield and a program that lacked character and integrity. Unfortunately, the Butler system didn't work at Iowa and that is a shame because Lickliter is not a bad coach, he took a shot at a Major level school and it didn't work out. I don't think Lickliter realized what he was getting himself into and it just spiraled out of control from there. The major failure of Coach Lickliter, to me, it seemed there was no definite plan on what kind of players to recruit and the classes were put together late, until this year. The failure to continue to recruit traditional grounds was Lickliters undoing. The fact that Lickliter could not get any top players out of Indianapolis even though he tried speaks volumes to the perception of the Iowa program at the time he took over. Lastly, one other thing that didn't help was Lickliter was not a ball of energy to a fan on the outside looking in. Having the Big Ten Network and being exposed to a large part of the Country on a regular basis, that did not help. Lickliter had many obsticles to overcome the day he stepped on campus and I am one fan that was thrilled when they hired him, but he was not prepared to get the job done, I don't blame Lickliter it is just part of athletics. The Iowa program began to fall apart when Alford brought in Recker and Evans, Iowa should have been a Top 10 program year in and year out when they were brought in, but the inmates ran the asylum and that is when Iowa began to crumble. Yes, Alford won, but at what price, too many academic issues and too many recruits had to go the JC route because they couldn't qualify, too many players that didn't work out, but the blinders were on because Iowa did win with him and that is all the fans cared about. This fan cares that recruits stay for four years, unless they are ready to make the leap to the NBA, I am okay with that. This fan cares that the Iowa players graduate and contribute something to society and are not in the newspapers or have headlines that continue to add to the Dark Cloud surrounding the program today, however, it is getting smaller. Realistically, there are going to be players leave for various reasons and I do accept that, but not a the rate it has been since the days of Alford and through Lickliter.
 
SDK46 said:
Out: Connie Hawkins
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Good call on the Hawk. Thats a pretty interesting story with all he went through. Sounds like he was a amazing talent. I see he even made the NBA hall of fame.
 
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Ray Thompson was probably the most talented hawk player I have ever seen next to Lester. If he had stayed here four years he would have a lot of records. I think that is one of the things that led to Dr. Toms' exit, his seeming lack of control over the players, Ray could do it all. My forite transfer in has to be Andre. I am too young for the Miller six-pack!
 
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