Hoops Housekeeping: Ryan Harrow caps a busy day for transfers

Yesterday was another eventful day in college hoops. Here's a quick recap of what you missed.

Late on Wednesday night, Jerry Meyer broke the news that John Calipari had officially picked up his post-Teague point guard.

With the consensus being that Marquis Teague, the next in the Rose-Evans-Wall-Knight pipeline, will be off to the NBA after the 2011-2012 season, Kentucky was once again going to be in the market for a point guard recruit. With the 2012 class looking to be weak at that position, Coach Cal bit, landing NC State transfer Ryan Harrow.

"I just felt like they had everything that I needed as far as me getting better and me reaching my ultimate goals," Harrow, a top 50 recruit nationally in the class of 2010, told Evan Daniels of Scout.com. Harrow will have three years of eligibility remaining starting in 2012-2013 after averaging 9.3 ppg and 3.3 apg for the Wolfpack last season.


This is obviously a nice pick-up for the Wildcats, but an interesting point was made by the KSR folks on twitter last night -- there was significantly less hype surrounding this decision than you generally expect when it comes to a kid that Kentucky is recruiting.

And for good reason. Harrow is not of the ilk of his five predecessors. He's not going to be leaving for the NBA after one year in Lexington. Depending on what you consider Eric Bledsoe, Harrow will easily be the "worst" -- I put it in quotations because that is some elite company -- of the seven point guards that Coach Cal has brought over that six year period. His maturity and experience will likely be a benefit, but Harrow is not a program-changing recruit. Hell, he will likely be recruited over if a program-changing point guard emerges over the next year.

This is a good pick-up for the Cats, but keep it in perspective.


Earnest Ross leaves Auburn: Tony Barbee's rebuilding effort at Auburn just got even more difficult as Ross, his leading scorer and rebounder at 13.3 ppg and 6.6 rpg, has decided to leave the program to finish up his final year of eligibility. Barbee will have to bank on a modest three-man recruiting class or a significant impact from transfers Noel Johnson (Clemson) and Varez Ward (Texas) if he wants to avoid another season like the last, where the Tigers won four games and lost to the likes of Samford, Presbyterian, and Campbell.


Maurice Harkless ineligible at St. John's?: Its a legitimate concern. You see, Harkless played a couple of AAU tournaments with the NY Gauchos, an AAU program in which Moe Hicks, now a Johnnies assistant, served in an administrative role. A new rule disallows a recruit to follow a person that coached them in high school should that person get an NCAA coaching gig. Its why Arizona transfer Momo Jones won't be headed to St. John's. But since Harkless never was coached by Hicks, St. John's believes they will have the freshman available next season.

Isaiah Philmore headed to Xavier: Chris Mack is cleaning up the transfer market. Last off-season, he landed Travis Taylor from Monmouth. This year, its Philmore, a 6'7" forward from Towson that averaged 15.7 ppg and 7.0 rpg last year.


Daniel Bejarano is headed to Colorado State: Mack isn't the only coach feasting on transfers. Less than a month after securing Colton Iverson (Minnesota) and Cody Mann (Florida), Tim Miles landed a commitment from Arizona transfer Daniel Bejarano, a top 50 recruit in the class of 2010. Bejarano never was able to crack Arizona's rotation. With that much talent becoming eligible in 2012, watch out for the Rams.


Erik Williams to the Southland: Williams was a top-100 recruit coming out of high school, but he was never able to find a role with Marquette, playing in just 43 games. Now, the 6'7" sophomore is headed to Sam Houston State.


More bad news for Russell Byrd: For the third time in his short career, Byrd will undergo surgery on his broken left foot. He missed all of last season with the injury. A 6'7" sharpshooter, the Spartans could use his help as they try and rebuild a back court left sparten (sorry, couldn't help myself) thanks to graduation (Kalin Lucas, Durrell Summers) and behavior issues (Chris Allen, Korie Lucious).
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The NCAA does Kraidon Woods a solid

Believe it or not, sometimes the NCAA gets it right.

And as easy as it is to bash on the NCAA for the multitude of issues it has, praise also must be given when the NCAA does the right thing.

Kraidon Woods is a lithe 6'8" athlete with a self-proclaimed "37-to-38 inch" vertical. When you have that kind of size and that kind of athleticism, you're bound to be noticed. One of the coaches that noticed Woods was Mark Phelps, then an assistant coach at Arizona State, who was able to convince Woods to come to Tucson to play his college ball.

The problem?

Kraidon Woods, in one of his few moments of playing time.
(photo credit: Daylife)

Woods didn't have the skill level to match his athleticism. So after two seasons with saw a grand total of 21 games played, Woods decided to transfer after the 2008-2009 season.

The school he eventually chose? Binghamton.

Bad decision.

Woods spent last season sitting out the required season at Binghamton, before deciding that the upstate New York school wasn't where he wanted to finish his college playing career. Understandable. When you only have two years of eligibility remaining, you don't want to join a rebuilding program.

"They went through some things beyond my control," Woods told the Des Moines Register. "I just kind of said, 'Hey, you know, maybe this is not a great idea.' It was pretty clear-cut."

Meanwhile, Phelps had taken over for Keno Davis at Drake. Woods was granted his release form Binghamton in February, and after Phelps had big man Sean Davis transfer out of the program, a scholarship was opened up for Woods. He visited the school in March and decided that he would be transferring to Drake.

"I heard what Drake had to offer," Woods said. "Then, when I visited, they've got great guys on the team, really cool coaches, they seem eager to win. One thing led to another, and now I'm a Bulldog."

The only problem was that NCAA rules stipulated that Woods would have to sit out the 2010-2011 season. Not only would this mean that Woods would have to sit out two full years, but because of the rule that says a student athlete only has five years to use up his four years of eligibility, Woods would only be able to play one more season at Drake.

And that is where the NCAA stepped in.

Due to the circumstances surrounding Woods' time in Binghamton, they granted him a hardship waiver, meaning that Woods will be eligible the second he steps on the court in Des Moines.

The NCAA got this one right, and they deserve to get some credit for it.

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