Thursday, February 21, 2008
Cavaliers best be patient given their history with transfers
Two ex-Cavs led the nation in scoring
Doug Doughty
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If you were watching the Virginia-North Carolina men’s basketball game on television, chances are that you missed the introduction of Lance Blanks.
Say you were at the game and are a student or somebody under the age of 35? Until a roving camera panned the crowd and focused on Blanks, who would have known that Blanks was the assistant general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers?
When I saw Blanks on the big screen, my thoughts immediately turned to Mustapha Farrakhan.
Blanks, you see, was a Parade All-American from the Woodlands, Texas, who signed with the Cavaliers in 1985. Coach Terry Holland hoped to pair Blanks in a high-octane backcourt with fellow signee Richard Morgan from Salem, but Blanks wasn’t a point guard and left the program after two years.
Blanks went home and transferred to the University of Texas, where he became a 20-points-per-game scorer and a first-round NBA Draft pick in 1990. Blanks, who scored a whopping 1,322 points in two seasons with the Longhorns, is in the University of Texas Basketball Hall of Honor.
Far be it for me to say that Farrakhan is a future first-round draft pick or that he should be receiving more playing time, especially after suggesting in print that UVa head coach Dave Leitao would be best-served by tightening his rotation.
The point is, for all the people who think that uncommitted prospects Brad Tinsley or Wesley Witherspoon might be the answer to the Cavaliers’ current woes, sometimes the best solution is right under your nose.
Virginia has a long history of having players leave the program and making their mark elsewhere. One of the first UVa teams I ever saw had a sophomore named Bob McCurdy who was unhappy with his playing time, transferred to Richmond and became the nation’s leading scorer in 1974-75.
McCurdy scored more than 1,300 points in two seasons at Richmond and is in the Spiders’ athletic hall of fame.
Consider some of the other players who have left the program: Courtney Alexander in 1997, Colin Ducharme in 2000, Derrick Byars in 2004 and Gary Forbes in 2005.
You can question the level of play for Ducharme, who became a Division All-American at Longwood, but he had been an ACC All-Freshman selection in 1996-1997. You think he might have helped a 2000-2001 Virginia team that had J.C. Mathis on the floor at crunch time in the NCAA Tournament?
Alexander transferred to Fresno State, where he led the nation in scoring in 1999-2000, and was the 13th player taken in the NBA Draft.
Byars also played two seasons at Virginia before leaving for Vanderbilt, where he was the Southeastern Conference player of the year in 2006-2007 and was ranked in the top 10 in the SEC in four different categories, including second in scoring.
Byars was selected by Philadelphia in the second round of the NBA Draft and you have to wonder what kind of future awaits Forbes, who is having a terrific senior year at Massachusetts, where he is averaging 20.2 points and 7.6 rebounds for the Minutemen (16-9).
Naysayers would point out that there were issues involved with both Alexander, arrested at Virginia for fighting with his girlfriend, and with Forbes, who was declared academically ineligible by UVa prior to the 2005-2006 season.
My contention has always been that Forbes was a victim of the transition period that inevitably follows a coaching change. Forbes wasn’t a bad kid, but he required maintenance and Leitao was too busy hiring a staff and building a recruiting base to check and see if Forbes was attending summer-school classes.
If Forbes had played four seasons at Virginia, he would have exhausted his eligibility last season. However, if he had sat out the 2005-2006 season and applied for readmission in 2006 – a route that four suspended football players are contemplating, according to coach Al Groh – then this would have been his fifth year.
Forbes was an erratic shooter in his two years at Virginia, but you look at some of his stats from this season, particulary his 42 made 3-pointers and his 175 free-throw attempts, and you can see that he has skills that are not in abundance on this year’s UVa team. (He also has 80 assists and 18 blocked shots).
In his two seasons at Virginia, Forbes made just 36 of 125 3-pointers and was a 54.4-percent free-throw shooter. Now, he’s up to 72 percent. Farrakhan, billed as a phenomenal shooter by Leitao before the season, is 7-for-37 from the field, including 2-for-16 on 3-pointers, and has missed four of five free throws.
Farrakhan hasn’t played in the last two games but, if you go to see the Cavaliers play at John Paul Jones Arena, stop and watch him shoot before the game. When relaxed, he has the best-looking stroke on the team, but watch him play in games and it looks like he’s squeezing the air out of the ball.
Leitao and his staff wouldn’t still be recruiting for 2008-2009 if they didn’t expect some attrition, but, if somebody leaves, who is it going to be. Farrakhan? Solomon Tat? Will Harris? I could see Harris transferred to the Colonial Athletic Association, getting healthy and becoming the next Bob McCurdy.
Be careful what you wish for.
