Ryan Harrow came out of Marietta, Georgia as the consensus No. 22 recruit in the nation, sandwiched between Jalen Kendrick and Ray McCallum. While McCallum has gone on to star for his father at Detroit, Harrow and Kendrick have taken similar paths.
Kendrick began his career at Memphis, but never played a game after being kicked off the team. His next stop was Ole Miss, after sitting out a year, and he put in one season there. Then it was on to Indian Hills CC before committing to UNLV where he'll play next season.
Harrow, for his part, began his career at NC State before transferring to Kentucky. He sat out last season while the team won a national title, and then played decent minutes this year. But with a sickness in the family and a ridiculous recruiting class coming in, Harrow is moving on again. This time it's to Georgia State where he can be close to his family.
That's two consensus top-25 recruits who are now enrolling at their 3rd Division I school.
The thing is, they aren't rare. Right now there are 100 or so players who have announced that they're transferring. Eight more of those players are in the same boat as Ryan Harrow – they're moving on to school No. 3.
So what does all this mean? Well, frankly, not much.
11% of college basketball players transfer each season. People make all sorts of noise about that, but players have very little power. This is a multi billion dollar industry, they're the labor, and they get scholarships while their coaches and NCAA execs get rich. Their coaches can go where ever they want, whenever they want. Players have to sit a year unless they're able to get a hardship waiver.
Meanwhile, us sports fans complain about all the transfers. Never mind that 22% of Americans will switch jobs this year.
If this year is like past years, that 100 player transfer class should rise to over 400. And a lot of people are going to pen indignant stories about it. Those writers will be hoping their indignant stories get well publicized, because hey, that way maybe they'll be able to move on to a better job.
