ORONO, Maine — When the University of Maine men’s basketball team opens its season Friday night at Virginia Tech, the Black Bears will face a program that has taken the fast track to rebuilding.
Virginia Tech’s 16-player roster includes seven transfers, three from other Division I schools and four from junior colleges.
The recruiting effort already has paid dividends as the Hokies went from 11-22 in Buzz Williams’ first season as head coach two years ago to 20-15 and a second-round berth in the NIT last fall.
Virginia Tech was not only one of the most improved teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference but in the entire NCAA Division I ranks.
UMaine took a similar recruiting route during its most recent offseason after five players from its 2015-2016 squad transferred away.
“To be honest, I think it’s an opportunity for us to grow, to get better, to figure out how committed we are and how tough we are,” third-year UMaine coach Bob Walsh said. “Losing talented players hurts, but I think it’s made us tougher. I think it’s hardened our mentality and created a chip on our shoulder.
“At most places they say you’ve really got to recruit people who are dying to be there. I think here that’s really important.”
That’s part of the culture Walsh has attempted to build since his arrival from Division III Rhode Island College in 2014.
UMaine took a much larger transfer hit than usual last spring with the departures of Isaac Vann, Kevin Little, Devine Eke, Levar Harewood and walk-on Walter King, but transfers are not unusual.
In 2015, approximately 700 Division I basketball players transferred to another school — an average of two for each of the 351 men’s programs.
“When I was coming up watching college basketball as a fan, it seemed like a transfer was almost like a scarlet letter, that something was wrong or something had happened and that’s why he had to transfer,” Walsh said. “Now people have started to realize that there might be a better opportunity out there for me, and it isn’t so bad to transfer. You get to sit out a year and then have another opportunity to play.”
Reasons for transferring are myriad, from moving closer to home or seeking to compete at a higher level to merely wanting to be part of a winning program. UMaine went 8-22 last winter.
“If guys don’t want to be here, we don’t want guys who don’t want to be part of our program in our program,” said junior guard Aaron Calixte, a Stoughton, Massachusetts, product who played a year on the Lee Academy postgraduate team before joining UMaine.
“I’m sure different guys had different reasons for leaving. … We just have to persevere and get over it.”
Walsh understands how attractive it is for players to feel wanted by other colleges, especially when people they trust tell them they are capable of succeeding at another level.
“Players only have power when they’re available in college athletics,” he said. “Once you’re at a school, the rules are very strict and what you can do and accept is very strict. When you’re available, everybody loves you.”
Walsh said that dynamic is part of recruiting and everywhere. He also believes transfer statistics are misleading.
“The secret is that everybody likes to blame the kids,” he said. “But with the majority of those kids the coaches are either OK with it or are helping it happen, ‘Hey, it’s not going to work out here for you, so let’s (move on).’
“I would say that’s a majority of the cases, and I wouldn’t be shocked if it was 75 percent where it’s a mutual thing. So we label it an epidemic, which I don’t think is true, but it’s magnified because of how big college basketball has become.”
The fear of losing two recruited players per year on average to other schools places a premium on thoroughness in modern recruiting.
“There are certain kids who may not be that good, and if they don’t meet expectations, they’re going to leave,” Walsh said. “And if he’s good or a little better than we thought, he might leave, too, so you have to look into background, family situation, and things like if a kid has been to three or four high schools, what are the odds he’s going to stay in one place now? He’s chasing something, so you have to factor that into the way you recruit.”
Walsh added that today’s recruiting might take into greater account factors beyond basketball to keep a sought-after player on campus throughout his college years.
“The student population here is something like 15 to 20 percent international with Canadian kids included,” Walsh said. “It’s a comfortable environment, and we’ve had some success with international kids on our team, and you look at what our women’s team has done.”
The UMaine men’s basketball roster includes six international students: two from Canada, two from Serbia and one each from England and Turkey.
Of this year’s six recruits, only Andrew Fleming of South Paris came directly from high school. One was a college transfer, another came from a postgraduate program and three were college or junior college transfers.
“We’ve got a couple of juco players that makes us a little older this year and that helps tremendously,” Calixte said. “Just having more mature guys is a great thing, especially for the younger players here.
“It’s more like a business. It’s not like pulling teeth to get guys to come into the gym, they want to come into the gym because they only have two years left so they know it’s now or never for them.”
And transfers aren’t just for high-major programs.
“We’ve got transfers, too,” Walsh said. “Wes Myers is a transfer. Dusan Majstorovic (LaSalle) is a transfer. The best Maine teams have had transfers, so it would be hypocritical to say, ‘Wow, it’s a huge epidemic,’ because every coach who comes out and says that is also willing to take that kid transferring from somewhere else who can help them win.”
