Oakland transfers in Martez Walker & Sherron Dorsey Walker

Perfectly reasonable for Griz fans to be excited by the prospect. On the other hand, we've seen repeatedly that just because a guy comes from a "power" conference school - that is to say, just because he was really good and highly recruited in High School - doesn't mean he'll excel in the Horizon.

At Detroit, Carlton Brundidge (Michigan transfer) has become almost an afterthought on the bench; Brandon Kearney (Michigan State/Arizona State transfer) is a solid rotation player but not a starter; Pat Ackerman (Penn State transfer) is playing 15 minutes or so per game off the bench, and no one is discussing him for the all-conference team. Chris Jenkins (Colorado to Detroit) has played pretty well but the jury is still out, I think. Bobby Capobianco (Indiana) was a solid player for Valpo for a couple seasons, but nothing special; likewise for Mousse Gueye of Valpo (Alabama), who was a presence on defense but not much else and lost his starting spot to their own HS recruit, Vashil Fernandez, who is OK but not an all-conference center or anything. Andre Yates (Creighton) comes off the bench for Cleveland State. A solid pick up, but again nothing special. It seems to me the down-transfers who have real impact in the Horizon were solid to good rotation players at their high majors - guys like Duke Mondy (from Providence to Oakland) and Trey Lewis (Penn State to Cleveland State). One recent transfer who was quite good was LaVonte Dority at Valpo, but he was a) a rotation player, and b) at South Florida, which is really more of a mid-major in basketball. Juwan Howard has been a stud for Detroit after transfering from Western Michigan, but again, that's not the high-major transferring down situation. Going back a couple more years, Eli Holman (Indiana to Detroit) was a good player, but he didn't dominate. If you don't count Dority, as I wouldn't, he was the last high-major down transfer to make all-conference, being a second team selection in 2011.

The lesson may be that sitting on the bench at a high-major tells us nothing about your performance at a mid-major. Not pooh-poohing the additions - I'd be excited if Dorsey-Walker and Gibson were coming to Detroit, and wish they were. But neither did much at Iowa State, so that should temper OU fans' expectations. Martez Walker, OTOH, was a very solid player at Texas and in the rotation as a freshman. I'd expect him to be quite good in the Horizon, if he can keep his nose clean.