The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Now that the transfer portal world is upon us, I suspect every year much of the recruiting talk will involve who we get from other schools. We had a major turnaround this year because of key players from ULM, Georgia Southern and Clemson, and we already have a couple of key recruits from the portal from Ole Miss and Auburn (via Memphis)--and I hope and expect we'll get a few more.

But UAB has quite a history of getting transfers from other D-I schools, and in many ways the program was built by those transfers in the early days. Coach Bartow's very first team in 1978-79 included three starters who came from Baylor and TCU. We had two more big-time players become eligible the next season, and that trend continued for many years. There was hardly a season under Coach Bartow when we didn't have at least one transfer from another D-I school.

Here are some that come to mind in the first decade of the program under Coach Bartow, many of whom were all-conference players. I'm sure there are others. Help me if I am missing someone:

Daryl Braden (TCU)
Larry Spicer (Baylor)
George Jones (Baylor)
Keith McCord (Alabama)
Chris Giles (Southern Illinois)
Norman Anchrum (Alabama)
Lex Drum (Missouri)
Cliff Pruitt (UCLA)
Eugene Jones (Alabama)
Tracy Foster (Indiana)
Andy Kennedy (NC State)
Jack Kramer (Michigan)

I know there have been many more in the last 30 years as well. And I am sure with the portal college rosters will turn over yearly.

Antonio "AJ" Jackson (Wake Forest)
Willie Mitchell (Michigan)

those are the first 2 that come to mind

(03-27-2021 01:46 PM)LairDweller Wrote:  Antonio "AJ" Jackson (Wake Forest)
Willie Mitchell (Michigan)

those are the first 2 that come to mind

Yeah, both of those were in Murry's years I think, along with Leonard Bush (from Central Michigan).

Anderson brought a few guys with him from Arkansas, one of which signed there but got out of his LOI to come to UAB (Brandon Tobias) and one who transferred (Wen Mukubu). And of course Davis had Robert Vaden (Indiana), Channing Toney (Georgia) and Walter Sharpe (Miss. State). And let us not forget Zisis whatever his last name was, from Ohio State.

sorry...I missed the part where you said "from the first decade"
AJ and Willie stand out to me b/c they were big parts of the first UAB team I ever saw (you're right...Murry years)

Some other transfers that come to mind:

Will DeVaughn, Alabama
Robert Brown, Va Tech
Elijah Millsap, ULL
Kenneth Cooper, La Tech
George Drake, Vanderbilt
Jordan Swing, Western Kentucky
Jeremiah Bell, Milwaukee

(03-27-2021 02:40 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  Some other transfers that come to mind:

Will DeVaughn, Alabama
Robert Brown, Va Tech
Elijah Millsap, ULL
Kenneth Cooper, La Tech
George Drake, Vanderbilt
Jordan Swing, Western Kentucky
Jeremiah Bell, Milwaukee

Some good additions. And since we're into more recent years, add Hakeem Baxter from Maryland-Eastern Shore and Deion Lavender from Southern Illinois to that list.

De’Shanti Fireman transferred from Central Michigan with Leonard Bush. Zsis I’m pretty sure transferee from UAB to Ohio Stats.

(03-27-2021 03:21 PM)jesseblazer Wrote:  De’Shanti Fireman transferred from Central Michigan with Leonard Bush. Zsis I’m pretty sure transferee from UAB to Ohio Stats.

I forgot about Foreman; he was pretty much a bust here, and left after one season.

And you are correct about Zsis...I had that totally backwards. He went to Ohio State FROM UAB. And I don't think he ever did anything for the Buckeyes.

That brings up another discussion, of the players who have left UAB and transferred elsewhere who made significant contributions on the D-I level. There haven't been many, honestly. Obviously, there's Nate Darling (Delaware) and Scootie Bryant (Georgia Southern) recently. And Ernest Little who did fairly well at South Alabama. I also remember Pedrag Savovic, who transferred to Hawaii and, like Darling, ended up in the NBA.

George drake from Vandy. Oviedo Soko not sure where he ended up after leaving UAB maybe Dugesne.

Nick Norton to drake.

(03-27-2021 03:41 PM)jesseblazer Wrote:  Nick Norton to drake.

Nick probably was making as good of a contribution as anyone ever had after leaving UAB, except for maybe Savovic and Darling--until his injury.

And from that same UAB team, Deion Lavender--who came to us as a transfer from Southern Illinois--ended up transferring to Valparaiso and started there. And one more from those Ehsan teams, Thomas Smallwood played significant minutes at Chattanooga.

I was at the Evansville-Drake game when blew out that knee again. He still made it to the G-league. Not sure what he is doing now.

A couple of others we missed, shared by a friend and former valuable contributor to this board:

Curtis Bailey (Wichita State to UAB)
Terence Jones (Texas A&M, Corpus Christi)
Wil Bathurt (Cornell)

Has Vaden been mentioned?

(03-27-2021 07:55 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  Has Vaden been mentioned?

Yep, in post #3.

He would have to be on our all-transfer team.

It would be tough to choose five, but among the top 8 you would probably have to go with:

Larry Spicer
Robert Vaden
Andy Kennedy
Chris Giles
Robert Brown
Elijah Millsap
Tracy Foster (if only for his senior year)
Jack Kramer ?

One-year players only:
Daryl Braden
Keith McCord
Cliff Pruitt

Honorable mention (just because of the way things turned around this year)
Mike Ertel
Quan Jackson
Trey Jemison

(03-27-2021 08:04 PM)bftb Wrote:  

(03-27-2021 07:55 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  Has Vaden been mentioned?

Yep, in post #3.

He would have to be on our all-transfer team.

It would be tough to choose five, but among the top 8 you would probably have to go with:

Larry Spicer
Robert Vaden
Andy Kennedy
Chris Giles
Robert Brown
Elijah Millsap
Tracy Foster (if only for his senior year)
Jack Kramer ?

One-year players only:
Daryl Braden
Keith McCord
Cliff Pruitt

Honorable mention (just because of the way things turned around this year)
Mike Ertel
Quan Jackson
Trey Jemison

Jack Kramer paired with Barry Bearden was one of the best back court duos we ever had. Both were great passers with a good shooting touch.

(03-27-2021 08:35 PM)BlazerFromMD Wrote:  

(03-27-2021 08:04 PM)bftb Wrote:  

(03-27-2021 07:55 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  Has Vaden been mentioned?

Yep, in post #3.

He would have to be on our all-transfer team.

It would be tough to choose five, but among the top 8 you would probably have to go with:

Larry Spicer
Robert Vaden
Andy Kennedy
Chris Giles
Robert Brown
Elijah Millsap
Tracy Foster (if only for his senior year)
Jack Kramer ?

One-year players only:
Daryl Braden
Keith McCord
Cliff Pruitt

Honorable mention (just because of the way things turned around this year)
Mike Ertel
Quan Jackson
Trey Jemison

Jack Kramer paired with Barry Bearden was one of the best back court duos we ever had. Both were great passers with a good shooting touch.

He also was paired with a tall, skinny small forward who could light it up a little from the outside. Some guy named Kennedy. Add Reginald Turner and Alan Ogg (and I think Larry Rembert was with them too), and that was a really good team.

By the way, I read somewhere that Kramer has a son that is a prospect, though I am not sure if he is D-I material. I am sure AK knows.

Squeaky was technically a transfer right? Came from a juco in Utah, IIRC

(03-28-2021 06:55 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Squeaky was technically a transfer right? Came from a juco in Utah, IIRC

Yes, as was Ronell and Donell and a few others off those Anderson teams. That's why I specifically mentioned D-I in the title.

We have had probably more than a hundred juco transfers over the years, including a couple of starters on the first team in '78-79 (Greg Leet, Stan Scales) all the way to a couple this year (Scott-Grayson and Nicholson).

(03-28-2021 07:39 AM)bftb Wrote:  

(03-28-2021 06:55 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Squeaky was technically a transfer right? Came from a juco in Utah, IIRC

Yes, as was Ronell and Donell and a few others off those Anderson teams. That's why I specifically mentioned D-I in the title.

We have had probably more than a hundred juco transfers over the years, including a couple of starters on the first team in '78-79 (Greg Leet, Stan Scales) all the way to a couple this year (Scott-Grayson and Nicholson).

I admittedly didn't pay strict attention to your title... I agree, a lot of our very best players have been transfers from D1 schools or Jucos.

I applaud AK for going hard after the transfers this year especially. We have a "win now" core of players and the way to make that core instantly better is to add experienced, ready to go players. We can't do that every year, but in this situation, I wholeheartedly agree with it. I think Rongie Gordon and Toney squared have definite potential