Before Courtney Ramey transferred to Arizona, he watched the videos of 181 games played last season by the Wildcats, Duke, Purdue, West Virginia and Houston.
“Every game by every school,” he was saying at Arizona’s basketball media day on Tuesday.
“All 181?” I asked, eyebrows raised.
“Every one,” he said.
There’s doing your homework, and then there’s former Texas Longhorns guard Courtney Ramey doing seemingly unprecedented research.
“It was exhausting,” he said. “But it was a very big decision. I had to get it right.”
More than 1,700 Division I basketball players have transferred since Arizona went 33-4 and exited March Madness at the Sweet 16. Ramey, a starting shooting guard for the Texas Longhorn, and Cedric Henderson Jr., a starting wing for the Campbell Fighting Camels, were two of them.
“I was stressed out for a month,” says Henderson. “I was bombarded by more schools than I ever imagined. It was crazy.”
Now Ramey wears jersey No. 0 at Arizona; Henderson wears No. 45.
This is business as usual in the age of the NCAA’s Transfer Portal. Henderson sought change in part because the Fighting Camels were ranked No. 345 in offensive tempo last season, which he says was “probably dead last in college basketball.”
He was attracted to Arizona because Tommy Lloyd’s offense ranked No. 9 nationally last year. Wouldn’t you be, too?
Ramey, a three-year starter at Texas, scored 1,275 points for the Longhorns. That would put him at No. 30 on Arizona’s career scoring list, squeezing in ahead of Luke Walton and Jud Buechler. He, too, wanted to play a different style of play — Texas averaged a slow-and-go No. 336 in offensive tempo — to improve his skills and increase his chances to play in the NBA or EuroLeague.
As much as Lloyd sold Ramey and Henderson on playing for the Wildcats, they sold the UA coaching staff that their one-and-done eligibility will not disrupt attempts at team bonding and building a happy locker room.
The transfer portal is far more complicated than points scored.
Once Lloyd met Ramey and Henderson over Zoom computer conferences, he was impressed by their personalities and the way they would fit what can often backfire and become a contentious, give-me-the-ball relationship.
“Courtney is just a high-character, good person,” Lloyd said Tuesday. “It’s a joy to coach him. I think our fan base is going to fall in love with him.”
UA coach Tommy Lloyd jokes with guard Courtney Ramey at the start of Tuesday's practice. "It’s a joy to coach him," Lloyd said of Ramey. "I think our fan base is going to fall in love with him."
That hasn’t always been the case at Arizona. The proliferation of transfers the last few years has included players who did not bring joy to the clubhouse. Names? How about James Akinjo, Kim Aiken, Chase Jeter and Max Hazzard?
Lloyd said his master plan is not to build a program with transfers.
“I want to build our team with great high school players, with a few Europeans and then, after that, fill-in with a transfer or two,” he said.
That’s not how everyone in the Pac-12 does it, whether by choice or desperation. At ASU, for example, Bobby Hurley has waded into the transfer portal up to his neck; this year’s Sun Devils roster includes transfers from Illinois State, Ohio State, Nevada, Wagner and Auburn.
Good luck with that.
A year ago, Lloyd pursued and signed Utah shooting guard Pelle Larsson, whose modest freshman season at Utah didn’t make him a prominent acquisition. But Lloyd read Larsson’s personality accurately and was rewarded when Larsson bought into the system, paid some dues, played with tenacity and a smile on his face, and now looks to be a potential all-conference player.
Some third-year players like Larsson would regret the addition of two Transfer Portal acquisitions who play the same position, but Larsson looks at it in a more positive way.
“My relationship with Cedric and Courtney is really good,” says Larsson. “I was happy to see them come here because I understand that we needed guys to replace Dalen Terry and Benn Mathurin. Tommy didn’t need to explain it to me. I trust him. Courtney and Cedric can help us win. That’s what it’s all about.”
A year ago, Henderson played such a prominent role at Campbell that he scored a team-high 18 points in a relatively close loss (66-57) to Duke. Campbell’s 16-13 season ended in a crushing Big South Conference tournament loss to Gardner-Webb, in which Campbell scored just 53 points.
That’s exactly how many — or how few — Campbell scored in Henderson’s junior season exit loss to Winthrop. So when Henderson looked for a new school, he sought the opposite — a Top 25 program with one of America’s most high-scoring offenses.
No wonder Henderson seemed to be smiling throughout Tuesday’s 45-minute interview session at McKale Center. He has arrived at the Fun, Fun, Fun factory of college basketball offenses.
“We run nonstop in practice, almost like you’re doing suicide sprints,” he said. “I love it.”
