As commonplace as transfers have become in college basketball, they mostly fall into two categories: players frustrated by a lack of freshman playing time or fifth-year graduate transfers looking to bolster an NBA resume.
That makes Austin Nichols something of an anomaly. The 6-9, 232-pound big man left Memphis in 2015 after a standout sophomore season in which he averaged 13.3 points per game for his hometown school, ranked third nationally in blocked shots (3.4 per game) and made the all-conference team, a year after he was the American Athletic Conference’s Rookie of the Year.
Some players have entered the NBA Draft with far lesser credentials.