One of Drake's top players is leaving & transferring

[tornado]

Kale Abrahamson - a redshirt junior at Drake who already transferred once - from Northwestern- probably knows he has some value
and may be welcomed by other programs - and would like to leave a program that seems doomed to the MVC cellar..
... is leaving as a grad transfer - no word yet where...
but as a 3-pt shooter - he'd be the kind of guy Indiana really has benefited from when they got Nick Zeisloft

he averaged 11.1 ppg overall but less in MVC play - in fact... down the stretch he was doing very poorly and lost a LOT of playing time...

when we played them in Des Moines - he had 21 pts...
vs. Missouri State on 2/24 he went 0-7
vs. Drake on 2/27 he did not play at all
vs. Missouri State at the MVC Tourney in St. Louis - he was 0-2 and played just 3 minutes

[DUBulldog]

I've been watching Drake basketball for 40 years now. I have never seen a Drake player that was liked less by Drake fans. I hope he is happy at his next school, but from a Drake standpoint, this is definitely addition by subtraction.

[tornado]

somewhat the archetype of "one dimensional player" - few assists, rebounds, or other contributions and didn't seem to work hard on defense.

I find it MORE than telling that the one game at the end of the season when Coach Giacoletti benched Kale - the Bulldogs played their best & most inspired game of the season and knocked off Loyola. Wonder if that game more than anything else made Kale see the door...

[PTownHawkeye]

I've been watching Drake basketball for 40 years now. I have never seen a Drake player that was liked less by Drake fans. I hope he is happy at his next school, but from a Drake standpoint, this is definitely addition by subtraction.

My buddies at Northwestern said the same thing. Good riddance. Hopefully this helps get things back on track at Drake...the culture of a team is highly underrated and sometimes a great player's contributions on the floor are offset by kuckleheadedness (I think that's a word...).

[DUBulldog]

somewhat the archetype of "one dimensional player" - few assists, rebounds, or other contributions and didn't seem to work hard on defense.

I find it MORE than telling that the one game at the end of the season when Coach Giacoletti benched Kale - the Bulldogs played their best & most inspired game of the season and knocked off Loyola. Wonder if that game more than anything else made Kale see the door...

I think you're right. Kale didn't play in Drake's last game of regular season and barely played in St Louis (2 airballs in 3 minutes)....Drake played two of their best games of the season without him, and everybody playing ahead of him in those games was either a freshman or sophomore.

This quote from Ray Giacoletti says it all, I think

???We just kind of came to an agreement,??? coach Ray Giacoletti said, ???that it was probably best for both parties.???

You're right about the one-dimensional thing, except in conference play, he was dreadful even at that one thing....32% from the field, 29% from 3 and 54% from the line

[SycamoreFanatic]

Kale Abrahamson - a redshirt junior at Drake who already transferred once - from Northwestern- probably knows he has some value
and may be welcomed by other programs - and would like to leave a program that seems doomed to the MVC cellar..
... is leaving as a grad transfer - no word yet where...
but as a 3-pt shooter - he'd be the kind of guy Indiana really has benefited from when they got Nick Zeisloft

he averaged 11.1 ppg overall but less in MVC play - in fact... down the stretch he was doing very poorly and lost a LOT of playing time...

when we played them in Des Moines - he had 21 pts...
vs. Missouri State on 2/24 he went 0-7
vs. Drake on 2/27 he did not play at all
vs. Missouri State at the MVC Tourney in St. Louis - he was 0-2 and played just 3 minutes

Quick I am blocked but somebody send Tom Crean a message. IU needs a guy like this.

[tornado]

yup - Indiana has actually gained a little benefit from grabbing mid-major guys away from the MVC...Matt Roth, Lance Stemler, Nick Zeisloft, Max Bielfeldt...

but then the Illini have done the same with mid-major yard sale acquisitions...Marcus Arnold, Sam Maniscalco, Rayvonte Rice, Jon Ekey, Sam McLaurin, Ahmad Starks, Darius Paul, Aaron Cosby, Austin Colbert, Khalid Lewis, and Mike Thorne