AOC Transfers to Creighton

[Rickshaw]

Best of luck, Alex, whatever the future holds!

With you there. Been pulling for him since day one.
Side note , has anyone transferred from Duke and ‘ made it ‘ ?
Please don’t get crazy with the ‘ made it ‘ phrase.
( above ground an all that ). Shame I have to qualify that.
Love you guys.

[Buckminsterfuller]

With you there. Been pulling for him since day one.
Side note , has anyone transferred from Duke and ‘ made it ‘ ?
Please don’t get crazy with the ‘ made it ‘ phrase.
( above ground an all that ). Shame I have to qualify that.
Love you guys.

Semi Ojeleye and Billy McCaffrey

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Semi Ojeleye and Billy McCaffrey

Semi "made it" much more successfully than McCaffrey.

[CDu]

With you there. Been pulling for him since day one.
Side note , has anyone transferred from Duke and ‘ made it ‘ ?
Please don’t get crazy with the ‘ made it ‘ phrase.
( above ground an all that ). Shame I have to qualify that.
Love you guys.

Ojeleye, McCaffrey, and Elliot Williams all became stars elsewhere. Oleg Czyz too, albeit at a lower-tier program. Just off the top of my head.

[Music man55]

Hate to lose AOC,but I really don't blame him. Probably not looking at a lot of PT next year. Good luck Alex,hope you land somewhere where you will truly shine.

[Furniture]

With you there. Been pulling for him since day one.
Side note , has anyone transferred from Duke and ‘ made it ‘ ?
Please don’t get crazy with the ‘ made it ‘ phrase.
( above ground an all that ). Shame I have to qualify that.
Love you guys.

My eye test tells me that even if you are a role player at Duke you have a better chance in the NBA finishing at Duke vs. transferring.

[Buckminsterfuller]

Semi "made it" much more successfully than McCaffrey.

It depends on your perspective. McCaffrey was SEC co-player of the year with Jamal Mashburn and two-time all-american. So he succeeded on the highest level in college -arguably more so than anyone else who transferred from or to Duke BB.

[MartyClark]

It depends on your perspective. McCaffrey was SEC co-player of the year with Jamal Mashburn and two-time all-american. So he succeeded on the highest level in college -arguably more so than anyone else who transferred from or to Duke BB.

Didn't Billy sustain a serious neck injury after he left Duke? Could that have hampered an NBA career?

[Edouble]

Least surprising transfer since Chase Jeter. He showed plenty of potential but could never earn consistent playing time. With Baker coming on strong it was unlikely he would ever play more than 10-15 MPG. He could go to a less prominent program and be a starter.

I’m disappointed that he’s likely leaving, but this season was his opportunity to crack the rotation and he never could. I think he expanded his game beyond just 3pt shooting, he cut down in turnovers and sloppy play and was more aggressive going to the rim but his shooting actually suffered as a result and his defense was average at best.

I'd actually say least surprising since Alex Murphy. Chase surprised me a little. He was seeing court time at the end of his second season at Duke and he had some solid performances.

Alex couldn't get on the court much those last 6-7 games.

[CDu]

Didn't Billy sustain a serious neck injury after he left Duke? Could that have hampered an NBA career?

He was a 2-time 1st team All-SEC player, 1-time SEC PoY, and 1-time 2nd Team All-American in the two years he played at Vandy after leaving Duke.

[jimsumner]

With you there. Been pulling for him since day one.
Side note , has anyone transferred from Duke and ‘ made it ‘ ?
Please don’t get crazy with the ‘ made it ‘ phrase.
( above ground an all that ). Shame I have to qualify that.
Love you guys.

Greg Wendt, Bill Jackman, Crawford Palmer, Billy McCaffrey, Christian Ast, Joey Beard, Chris Burgess, Andre Sweet, Michael Thompson, Jamal Boykin, Eric Boateng, Elliott Williams, Olek Czyz, Michael Gbinije, Alex Murphy, Semi Ojeleye, Derryck Thornton, Chase Jeter and Jordan Tucker all had more individual success after transferring from Duke than they did at Duke, which I assume is a significant reason for O'Connell's departure.

Mike Chappell won an NCAA title at Michigan State.

And that's only the K-era transfers

[sagegrouse]

I'd actually say least surprising since Alex Murphy. Chase surprised me a little. He was seeing court time at the end of his second season at Duke and he had some solid performances.

Alex couldn't get on the court much those last 6-7 games.

Chase is a bit of a mystery: claims he liked the school, obviously liked the academics (All-ACC), but says he didn't like the basketball program. Maybe West Coast culture?

Did OK his first year at Arizona but ended up in the doghouse as a senior.

[Kedsy]

Alex couldn't get on the court much those last 6-7 games.

It was really only the last 3 games (3 minutes total in last 3 games of Duke's season). In the four games before that, Alex averaged 19+ mpg.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Greg Wendt, Bill Jackman, Crawford Palmer, Billy McCaffrey, Christian Ast, Joey Beard, Chris Burgess, Andre Sweet, Michael Thompson, Jamal Boykin, Eric Boateng, Elliott Williams, Olek Czyz, Michael Gbinije, Alex Murphy, Semi Ojeleye, Derryck Thornton, Chase Jeter and Jordan Tucker all had more individual success after transferring from Duke than they did at Duke, which I assume is a significant reason for O'Connell's departure.

Mike Chappell won an NCAA title at Michigan State.

And that's only the K-era transfers

Thanks - that is the comprehensive list. I think I agree with all of them - Thornton is the only one I could argue with at all but I think that overall he did better away from Duke. I guess you can add Sean Obi to the list as he barely played at Duke then theoretically did slightly better at Maryland. And I'm not sure where Sulaimon fits on the list - he didn't really leave by choice, and his numbers at Maryland were better than his final year at Duke but his freshman year at Duke was very similar to the year at Maryland. For most of them the bar was so low at Duke that there was nowhere to go but up.

Are there any transfers who are not on the list because they didn't do better elsewhere?

[brevity]

This may be a contrary opinion to the conventional wisdom here, but I thought Alex O'Connell had a very good sense of situational awareness, especially in his freshman year. He knew where his teammates were and on a few occasions made smart split-second decisions that saved and extended a possession. I saw this ability as a good building block from which he could add other skills, like better shot selection and passes, but I didn't see consistent and significant gains in his sophomore and junior years. Still, I bristled in chat when others criticized him with an over-generalized "he doesn't know what he's doing", because in some senses, I felt he did.

Again, a comment based on observation. I don't know if statistics can measure situational awareness, but if they do and they indicate otherwise, I'm okay with being wrong.

[jimsumner]

Thanks - that is the comprehensive list. I think I agree with all of them - Thornton is the only one I could argue with at all but I think that overall he did better away from Duke. I guess you can add Sean Obi to the list as he barely played at Duke then theoretically did slightly better at Maryland. And I'm not sure where Sulaimon fits on the list - he didn't really leave by choice, and his numbers at Maryland were better than his final year at Duke but his freshman year at Duke was very similar to the year at Maryland. For most of them the bar was so low at Duke that there was nowhere to go but up.

Are there any transfers who are not on the list because they didn't do better elsewhere?

Taylor King. Just because.

And Thornton did average 12.7 ppg and 3.2 apg this year for a Power-Six team.

I'm sure I forgot someone. I forgot Obi. But I'm not sure anyone would characterize his tenure at Maryland as making it. He averaged six minutes per game in 21 games. His knees really were shot.

[Steven43]

Greg Wendt, Bill Jackman, Crawford Palmer, Billy McCaffrey, Christian Ast, Joey Beard, Chris Burgess, Andre Sweet, Michael Thompson, Jamal Boykin, Eric Boateng, Elliott Williams, Olek Czyz, Michael Gbinije, Alex Murphy, Semi Ojeleye, Derryck Thornton, Chase Jeter and Jordan Tucker all had more individual success after transferring from Duke than they did at Duke, which I assume is a significant reason for O'Connell's departure.

Mike Chappell won an NCAA title at Michigan State.

And that's only the K-era transfers

I am unfamiliar with the success (or lack thereof) of many of those on your list after transferring from Duke, so I will defer to you. However, one that I might question is Derryck Thornton.

Did he really have more on-court success with USC and Boston College than he did with Duke? Did he ever again play in a nationally-televised game? I wonder how many games of real consequence he played in at Duke versus how many after transferring. I think these things matter to the overall picture when assessing “success”.

[jimsumner]

I am unfamiliar with the success (or lack thereof) of many of those on your list after transferring from Duke, so I will defer to you. However, one that I might question is Derryck Thornton.

Did he really have more on-court success with USC and Boston College than he did with Duke? Did he ever again play in a nationally-televised game? I wonder how many games of real consequence he played in at Duke versus how many after transferring. I think these things matter to the overall picture when assessing “success”.

Note that the words I used were "individual success."

Since no one plays more games on national TV than Duke using nationally-televised games as a metric means none of these guys made the right decision.

[sagegrouse]

Taylor King. Just because.

And Thornton did average 12.7 ppg and 3.2 apg this year for a Power-Six team.

I'm sure I forgot someone. I forgot Obi. But I'm not sure anyone would characterize his tenure at Maryland as making it. He averaged six minutes per game in 21 games. His knees really were shot.

Also, didn't Obi transfer to Duke from Rice?

[Steven43]

Since no one plays more games on national TV than Duke using nationally-televised games as a metric means none of these guys made the right decision.

No, I merely intimated that perhaps it should be a factor, but not necessarily the deciding factor.