UAA gets 3rd D1/UOP transfer

[tsull]

Point guard Maleke Haynes, a role player on the University of the Pacific team last year, is joining two other former UOP teammates in Anchorage next year, according to verbalcommits.com.

Looks like a pass-first point guard based on his JC stats ... my favorite type of point guard, a guy who wants and can dish it. Looks like UAA is doing a good job recruiting and an economical one, too. "Hey, tell your buddies who are leaving UOP that we want them up here."

http://www.pacifictigers.com/sports/...es_maleke_sjpq

[Ca_ball13]

Re: UAA gets 3rd D1/UOP transfer

Looks like UAA just reloading. Interested to see who else they pull.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Re: UAA gets 3rd D1/UOP transfer

Hmmmm... Something doesn't smell right to me. If you check out the Pacific Tigers basketball board it sounds like things have been messy down there and in a time of transition. All three of these Pacific players look like they will be seniors for UAA next year. Yeah, that's 3 DI transfers with one year left. While UAA will graduate a huge portion of their roster this spring, it looks like they have every position still remaining on their roster. Oooops. Look. Local kid and backup PG Damien Fulp is transferring out now. While Damien didn't really get a ton of playing time this season, he had some really promising minutes his R-frosh season, in particular in the GNAC tourney, when Mitchell was injured and McGill got into foul trouble. In my mind Fulp was not destined to be a role player for 5 years at UAA. I don't personally know anything about it, but I can only imagine how seeing 3 DI transfers come in with only one year of eligibility left feels like when you're a local kid with talent and have dutifully sat your first year to redshirt and been practicing against great players in Mitchell, McGill, Wiggs, Thompson, Svejcar, etc and proven clutch when needed...

Again, I don't know why Fulp is transferring out, and I gather that these Pacific players liked each other and are drawn to UAA because they don't have to sit to play, they get the UAA AAC to play in and as per usual during the signing season, UAA gets players to sign that create some hype. While Wiggs was great... did UAA make regionals the last two years? Did they live up to the hype? I wish Fulp the best-I liked watching him play... I just wish he woulda signed originally about 365 miles north, in Fairbanks. I doubt he would come here now as he'd have to sit another year and lose a year of eligibility if he transferred in league, right?

Bummer. Don't like UAA's projected path. The Pacific boardsters are predicting perhaps one more "powercat" for UAA at this point...

[tsull]

Re: UAA gets 3rd D1/UOP transfer

While I'm not in favor of D2 being the "give us your poor, your not-playing, your upset" D-1 players, I understand a bit why UAA did this, though I didn't realize each was one and done. That's a little much. I don't know the answer to this question so I'll ask it: "How hard is it to get recruits to come to Alaska to play at UAA or UAF?"

You're behind the 8-ball immediately with location and weather. People may not believe it, but it's true. I've heard both towns are nice and UAA has the best arena in the conference. That helps. I guess one can't turn down talent that wants to be on campus.

The tough part is blending those players into a system in only one year. I'm still sold on the 4/5-year players mixed in with transfers. The foundation needs to be those veterans.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Re: UAA gets 3rd D1/UOP transfer

While I'm not in favor of D2 being the "give us your poor, your not-playing, your upset" D-1 players, I understand a bit why UAA did this, though I didn't realize each was one and done. That's a little much. I don't know the answer to this question so I'll ask it: "How hard is it to get recruits to come to Alaska to play at UAA or UAF?"

UAA - They do have the nicest facility in the GNAC and I gather a lot of the guys they recruit are pretty jazzed to call that their home facility. Anchorage is on the water, nice mountain views all around and has a much milder climate than Fairbanks and the interior of Alaska. Because of all this, Anchorage is a pretty "hip" place, if you are of course willing to live in an environment that has all four seasons, emphasis being on a real winter with shorter days. They tout many years of consecutive winning seasons, even though as of late, they just can't quite get over the hump and into the "real" post season play...

UAF - Fairbanks does not have the nicest facility in the GNAC, does not have nearby mountains or the ocean. Winter settles in usually in late September to mid October and persists in earnest till sometime in April usually. Fairbanks is smaller and lacks malls, Olive Gardens and the like. If you live for the longest nordic skiing season in the U.S. like me, it's a great place for you. It is darker and colder through the winter than Anchorage. Whoever told you it's a "nice" town has to be suspect. Nice is not really the first word that you think of with Fairbanks... My endorsement of Fairbanks as a great place to live is based on my very particular desires and is not representative of a very big proportion of any population. It is HARD to recruit here, thus no Wiggs types come knocking here. Durham is likely the selling point of getting guys here.

You're behind the 8-ball immediately with location and weather. People may not believe it, but it's true. I've heard both towns are nice and UAA has the best arena in the conference. That helps. I guess one can't turn down talent that wants to be on campus.

Yes, both schools have to be opportunistic with recruiting. If guys with DI experience want to play here, why turn them away? I see that point. I'm not 100% sure these guys are all seniors, but that's the way it looks on VC... Durham is opportunistic too-he has to be. I still don't like the idea of 3 DI drop downs coming in for one season, but maybe it'll be great?

The tough part is blending those players into a system in only one year. I'm still sold on the 4/5-year players mixed in with transfers. The foundation needs to be those veterans.

Totally agree. The way Bergeson built up WOU from 7th with Avgi and crew their freshman seasons to 4th their sophmore seasons and 1st the last two years of play was the way to go. Signing 4 year guys in Fairbanks is TOUGH... We're a long ways from home and it's most likely going to be colder than you've ever seen... It's a big gamble for young guys to make. That will always be hard here. It will likely be more transfers than 4 & 5 year guys here because of this...

We'll see. Let's see if they nab a 4th from Pacific?

[tsull]

Re: UAA gets 3rd D1/UOP transfer

Hey, they could go the giant roster method like WOU. Wolves have signed 2 freshmen and one Point Loma transfer (though he's from McMinnville, 25 miles north of Monmouth), and even with the departures and grads from last year, I see 13 coming back (Alaby redshirted last year), add 3 more to get to 16. Guessing there might be more departures ... I hope not. I didn't like losing Reese, I thought he was excellent.

[Rob_AK]

Re: UAA gets 3rd D1/UOP transfer

UAA only has five returning players who have started a total of 18 games between them - they have a lot of roster seats to fill and recruiting 8 HS seniors might pay off in 3 or 4 years, they need a lot of help immediately. They already have 2 HS seniors coming so maybe they take 1 or 2 more at most to maintain class balance.

[Rob_AK]

Re: UAA gets 3rd D1/UOP transfer

Totally agree. The way Bergeson built up WOU from 7th with Avgi and crew their freshman seasons to 4th their sophmore seasons and 1st the last two years of play was the way to go. Signing 4 year guys in Fairbanks is TOUGH... We're a long ways from home and it's most likely going to be colder than you've ever seen... It's a big gamble for young guys to make. That will always be hard here. It will likely be more transfers than 4 & 5 year guys here because of this..

Doing this once with a class that you lose in almost its entirety is just a fluke. Maintaining class balance and bringing in new players to step in and maintain a high standard year in and year out would be the goal, and something some D1 coaches are able to accomplish. Very difficult to do in D2.