Kevin Ware is an example of the efforts that some of Georgia State’s coaches are making to lure transfers from other colleges, junior colleges and prep schools to Decatur Street.
Ware, who played at Rockdale County High before signing with Louisville, said all he heard about Georgia State in high school was the tougher academics. Ware, who was ineligible the first semester of his freshman year because of something related to his high school transcript, might have had trouble gaining admission had he first signed with the Panthers.
But after three years at Louisville, Ware applied to Georgia State and was admitted. After three years of college, he can handle Georgia State’s academics.
“I haven’t had any problems with it,” he said.
Ware was helped because students who transfer into Georgia State face a less difficult path to admission than those who are applying straight from high school.
“Once a kid has gone to college, and shows he can go to college, it’s easier to get him in because he’s done well,” men’s basketball coach Ron Hunter said. “In high school you have to use all these predictions about what a student-athlete can be, but you don’t know.”
To transfer to Georgia State, students must have a minimum 2.5 GPA in college-level (non-remedial) courses from an accredited institution and be in good standing at that institution. That GPA must come from 30 transferable semester hours or 45 quarter hours of college-level academic coursework. Anything less than those hours, and the standards for incoming freshmen are used.
By comparison, the average GPA range for freshmen is 3.2-3.7, with SATs between 970-1190 or ACTs between 21-27, according to the university’s website. There are many more requirements that must be met. While necessary to maintain the academic reputation of the university, those ranges can limit the pool of recruits that Hunter, football coach Trent Miles and other coaches at Georgia State can draw from.
An easier admissions standard is in part why Miles recently added 14 transfers to his football team, which has one win in the past two seasons and he said needs “immediate help, impact help and balance (between classes).” Those 14 were the most of the other schools in the Sun Belt, and was affected in part by the dissolution of UAB’s football team. Five former Blazers were part of the 14.
“The word isn’t easier,” Miles said. “It’s a smoother transition for them.”
What Miles, Hunter and others are doing isn’t skirting the university’s rules. Georgia State’s undergraduate student body contains 10,388 students, or 45 percent of the 23,120 total, who were admitted as transfers. That is why athletic director Charlie Cobb said he has no issues with how Miles and Hunter are using transfer students.
“The university is well-equipped to help (transfer) students succeed academically,” he said.
Neither Miles nor Hunter are the first coaches at Georgia State to use transfers.
Football coach Bill Curry, Miles’ predecessor, relied on them for a few years with mixed success. Rod Barnes, Hunter’s predecessor, brought in several with not much success, which led to the hiring of Hunter.
Hunter, who also used transfers at his previous job at IUPUI, said the key is to know who to take. Some transfers have bad habits on and off the court that aren’t worth the trouble. Others come humbled after not experiencing the success they expected. Those are the players that Hunter likes because they want to prove something.
Manny Atkins was the first he convinced to come to Georgia State. Atkins had a decent career at Virginia Tech, but decided that he wanted to return home to Atlanta to get more playing time. He became an all-conference performer, helped Georgia State win the Sun Belt last season, and is is with Grand Rapids in the NBA Development League. Later came Curtis Washington from USC and Ryan Harrow from Kentucky, among others.
Two more, Jeremy Hollowell from Indiana and Isaiah Williams from Samford, are sitting out this season. Harrow and Johnson are Atlanta natives.
“It’s one thing to have transfers, but if they don’t have success it doesn’t work,” Hunter said. “It had to work for Manny, or none of this works.”
But they don’t all work.
For every Nick Arbuckle, who came to Georgia State after two seasons at a junior college in California and set several school records as a quarterback last season, there is a Star Jackson, also a quarterback, who left Alabama in 2010 to join Georgia State. Jackson rarely played, struggled in the program and left after one season.
Even if the admission standards were easier for freshmen to meet, neither Hunter nor Miles said they plan to stop using players from community colleges or transfers from other universities. Both said it’s unrealistic to think that they can compete with schools in the SEC or the ACC for the best high school recruits.
“We aren’t going to sign 25 high school players and all 25 be top-tier guys,” Miles said. “It doesn’t work that way at a mid-major.”
But, if they are patient, they can wait to see if some of those players they missed the first time aren’t happy with their situations and want to return home for an education and possibly more playing time. As long as the athletes have shown they can handle a college workload enough to meet Georgia State’s requirement, chances are they will be admitted.
The tactic seems to be working.
“I love being home,” Ware said.
