Shockers get power forward transfer

[mike radigan]

Article.

[tornado]

Gabe Blair....transfer from East Carolina, and will use a scholarship this coming year, but be ineligible until fall of 2009, when he will have 2 years of eligiblity remaining.

He averaged 7.7 ppg, 6.9 rpg, for East Carolina (11-19) who finished 10th (RPI 255) in the CUSA.

[brocks]

I'm underwhelmed.

[it's boogie time]

It looks like he can rebound with 7.0 & 6.9 rpg in his first two years at East Carolina. It doesn't look like he does too much more.

[mportsch]

This looks like a nice get for Wichita State - a solid rebounder and defender that is developing on the offensive end. As a sophomore, Blair had rebounding rates of 10.1/23.7 (OR/DR), which are both very good (especially the defensive rebounding, which ranked 49th in the nation). He also appears to be a very active defensive player, as his block rate and steal rate both ranked in the top 313 in the country.

As a freshman he had an offensive rating of 78.7 with a 16.1% usage rate - terribly inefficient despite being only a role player. He showed bigtime improvement as a sophomore, as his ORtg jumped to 97.9 with an increased usage rate of 19.7%. That's still not great offensively, but certainly good enough that he's a valuable player when considering his rebounding and defense.

At Wichita State, Blair should be able to step right in for rebounder Ramon Clemente, who graduates after the 2008-09 season.

[shockerfan13]

Gotta remember too ECU was playing this kid as their center..not really the role he is suited for which is one reason why he's transferring. He's more of a power forward. I wasn't sure at first, but the more I have looked into this guy it sounds like he's a more athletic and taller version of Ramon Clemente...which is just fine with me.