A big knock on Monson was that he took a lot of local transfers into the program. The amazing thing is, almost all of the transfers he took were from major conference teams. Adam Boone (UNC), Dan Coleman (Boston College), Ben Johnson (Northwestern), Jonathan Williams (St. John's), Mo Hargrow (Arkansas), Lawrence McKenzie (Oklahoma). Most of these guys (outside of Boone) weren't really being "run out of town" per se, so it wasn't as if we were a fall back. They just wanted out of their current program for one reason or another, and all of these guys had nice contributions at the U, and I would argue that everyone of these guys would be an upgrade over our projected starters this year, outside of maybe Boone due to him being a bit slow, but he was still solid.
Now here we are in year three and we have had three local players transfer to Minnesota. One from Drake and two from Illinois State. This is not an indictment on anything, more of an observation that at least so far, the programs that we are getting our transfers from are much less accomplished than the programs we used to get our transfers from.
This is one of the more interesting questions posed on the board lately. I guess I'd start my own answer by saying that the transfer landscape has changed immensely since Monson was coaching the Gophers. In the past it was rare, if not unheard of, for successful mid-major players to transfer "up". Transfers used to basically only occur to do coaching changes, behavioral/academic issues, playing time, or the coach pushing/"suggesting" someone leave. I think three factors changed the landscape:
1. Prevalence of one and done or two and done players at the Blue Bloods: The 6-7 schools that can get the very best talent are recycling through 13 scholarships every 2-3 year instead of every 4-5 years. Maybe that adds up to 10-12 guys each season that would have been distributed to the rest of college basketball being taken by these programs.
2. More kids and/or their parents are becoming dissatisfied with playing time at an earlier stage in their careers. It used to be a kid would transfer out for their final two years if it didn't look like they were going to play much as an upperclassmen. Now we have kids leaving after their first year creating unexpected needs (ex Josh Martin with the Gophers).
3. The 5th year immediately eligible transfer. I think this was a game changer. High majors that had a scholarship open up could now get a guy who was productive at a lower level of competition with a ton of game experience instead of taking a player available in the Spring who might be a reach and would be unlikely to help immediately. The big advantage of course is taking the 5th year guy is just a one year gamble on the kids talent while taking a high school or JUCO guy ties up the scholarship for longer...unless you are confident you can "suggest" that player out of the program if it doesn't work out. I think the success of some of these guys from mid/low majors playing the one year at the high major level made high major coaches more open to taking a guy from a lower level. Further, when more successful mid/low major players saw guys they were better than move up to the high major level as 5th year guys it gave those guys confidence that if they decided to get out of their scholarship, they'd have high major interest.
I'd point out that it's not just the Gophers taking transfers from mid majors, but programs like Duke, Michigan State, and Arizona have also done it recently. I don't think it's necessarily a concern that the Gophers are taking guys from mid-majors, but it is a concern if those guys are not standouts at that level. I think it's fair to say that only Reggie Lynch (especially considering he's a 6'10 sophomore) could be considered a standout Missouri Valley Conference performer among the three recruits Pitino has taken. 3 years of Joey King is a lot to take on and it's an indictment on Pitino if he's starting again next year. That said, King as a 12-15 minute guy? I think he's ok. Given King's immediate eligibility and the state of the roster at the time, I understand why Pitino took him, but I really doubt he intended for him to regularly play big minutes. I didn't like the Lofton move at all, but I've heard from people I respect that he has a lot of talent. I am sure he impressed Pitino in his workout (Pitino said as much in interviews), but those numbers at Illinois State were not encouraging.
As for Monson and transfers, one of the main reasons why people were upset was the idea that their was no incentive for a local kid to pick the Gophers out of high school because if he chose to go elsewhere, Monson would just take him back if he didn't like choice number one. I think if these kids came back to Minnesota and had a lot of success (personal or team), then things would have been viewed differently. Hargrow was as his best as a Sophomore, had a somewhat disappointing JR year (slight regression in stats) and transferred to Arkansas where if I remember correctly he only participated in a few practices before transferring back to Minnesota for a SR year that was disappointing. The McKenzie situation hurt because Monson chose to prioritize Lawrence over Kam Taylor as he was only going to take one PG. McKenzie ended up choosing Oklahoma and Kam Taylor tormented us a bit as a Badger (famously rolling the ball toward Monson after one Badger victory) and we ended up getting McKenzie back for Monson's last abysmal season and the first year of Tubby's tenure.
I have been a little surprised at the lack of interest in Minnesota from some of the bigger transfers over the past couple of seasons. Last season in particular we had a very solid (on paper) team coming back with a clear opening for both a SF who could shoot it and an athletic PF. Do we have to go back to Terrence Simmons to find a non-Minnesota born kid transferring to the Gophers from another high major? With so many guys moving around, you'd think that would change fairly soon. That said, their have been some very good transfers from the mid major level recently, so I just hope we find someone who can have an impact regardless of their previous school.
