BYU basketball looking to capitalize on WCC’s style of signing transfers
By Joshua Ellis
BYU basketball is starting to follow the WCC trend of landing graduate and JUCO transfers in the offseason. Will it pay dividends like it has for Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga?
After losing Steven Beo and Davin Guinn two weeks ago, BYU basketball needed to find some backcourt help.
This week, the team announced the transfer of JUCO player Jahshire Hardnett to the program.
The 6-foot guard from Mississippi will look to make an instant impact for BYU basketball this fall.
Looking around the WCC, it seems transfers with instant eligibility (JUCO and graduate transfers) form a successful model.
For example, Gonzaga used three transfers to shore up its backcourt around fifth-year senior Przemek Karnowski and freshman Zach Collins on its path to the Final Four.
Nigel Williams-Goss, Jonathan Williams III and Jordan Mathews all joined Gonzaga before last season and became key contributors within weeks.
Saint Mary’s is already looking for instant tweaks to its roster, having signed graduate transfer Cullen Neal earlier this week.
The Gaels return four starters from last year’s team that made it to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament.
Even BYU looked to a graduate transfer, L.J. Rose, for that quick backcourt impact last season.
Some have complained that the graduate transfer rule, which was added in 2011, is killing college basketball. For them, it’s creating a free-agency culture among players.
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They add that smaller schools can lose their best players to higher-level schools because of the rule.
At the same time, underutilized players like Williams III get a shot to prove themselves on a bigger stage because of the rule.
For the time being, if BYU basketball can land players that fill immediate needs on the roster, the program would do well to emulate Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s in the offseason.