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Who were the best college transfers in BU BB history?

C

capecod

New member
With the addition of Anthony Fields (Wake Forest) and Omari Grier(FIU) next season and Mike Shaw (Illinois) in the following season, BU has 3 great candidates for a future top 10 list of transfers from Universities (non-JC).

NOTE: Junior College transfers to BU are listed in a different thread

Here are a few names of transfers to BU over the years (feel free to add to the list-I'm sure that I am missing some):

Steve Kuberski from Illinois
Willie Scott from Hillsdale College
Mike Williams from Cincinnati
Curtis Stuckey from Drake
Bobby West from Dartmouth
EDIT:
ADD Jim Les from Cleveland State thanks to BU-Bball
Matt Moran from Northwestern-thanks tornado

and I know I've run out of steam when the next name that I come up with is:
Buford 'Booty' Heidenreich from Dubuque College (early 60s):)

BU Radio announcer Mort Cantor use to LOVE Booty (maybe he just liked saying the name)
I swear listening to Mort I was sure that Booty was the best player on the floor and capable of scoring anytime he got the ball
Booty ended up with only 14 pts (EDIT this is a Media Guide typo-should be 148 in his career but an impressive 119 rebounds in 23 games-averaging over 5 rbs/game(unless that's a typo in the Media Guide-EDIT the typo was pts scored, rbs were correct)

EDIT: actually Booty scored 148 pts in 62-63 (just looked it up in the old BU media guide)
Booty had a high of 10 pts against N. Dakota and their star player, fellow named Phil Jackson (who played with the Knicks and then coached a little while in the NBA)
 
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Curtis Stuckey has the highest career scoring average of anyone who ever played at Bradley.
http://www.gpshof.org/Inductees/stuckeyc.html
I don't think any BU fan would say he was even among the top 10 best players ever, but he filled Hersey's slot fairly well after Hersey was gone. He did not have a lot of offensive help on those teams though.
 
Bob West?? Whoa capecod - I ain't gonna challenge you on that one...
I assume we're not allowed to count the Iowa > juco > Bradley transfer of Cellus....but you have to add Matt Moran - at least most people under 60 will know him!

but the names of the guys who have gone the other way - FROM Bradley to a different D-I is maybe a bit more impressive..
Granger, Tisby, Tucker, Hamilton, Rigby, Bankston, Mordini..
 
tornado said:
Bob West?? Whoa capecod - I ain't gonna challenge you on that one...
I assume we're not allowed to count the Iowa > juco > Bradley transfer of Cellus....but you have to add Matt Moran - at least most people under 60 will know him!

..
Click to expand...

Bobby West was from Peoria Central. As a soph Bobby scored 12 pts against Bradley while playing for Dartmouth. West transferred home and was a starting guard for the Braves in 63-64.

I am 61 years old, so I guess it is ok that I didn't remember Matt Moran(people under 60 will know him:p)

PS Bradley won the NIT in 1963-64 and finished with a 23-6 record

The starting lineup for the NIT champ Braves was:

F Eddie Jackson 6'6
F Lavern Tart 6'2
C Joe Strawder 6'9
G Rich Willams 5'10
G Bobby West 5'11
top reserves:
F Ernie Thompson 6'3 soph (Tart moved to G when Soph Ernie played)
C/F Ron Martin 6'5
C Walt Slater 6'6
G Leon Hall 5'11
F Ron Patterson 6'4 (actually started the NIT Championship game)-later coached Spalding to a 2nd and 4th place finish in ILL. State Tourney
G Rich Donley 6'2
 
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All the names cape cod mentioned looked like they were transfers from other Universities. Think Marcellus was mentioned in another thread concerning Juco transfers.
 
Steve Kuberski

Steve Kuberski

amckillip said:
I think the idea of this thread is for Non-JC transfers, and I think JL is by far the best college transfer we've had...
Click to expand...

yes this thread was meant to be about University transfers only (guess I should have put the two threads -University and JC transfers in a single thread)

As to JL (Jim Les) and the best University transfer, I personally think that it very well could have been Steve Kuberski except:

Moline native Steve Kuberski only played one year at Bradley (averaging 23.0 per game) after transferring from Illinois. Kuberski had another year of eligiblity with the Braves but chose to go pro. Steve had a nice pro career (primarily with the Celtics).

The season after Kuberski left in 1969-70 BU fielded what may have been their smallest lineup ever-or at least since Melchiorre played in the front court at 5'8

1969/70 Braves:

F Gene Gathers 6'7
F Sam Simmons 6'3
C Cal Criddle 6'3 and Rich Schultz 6'5
G Tom Campbell 6'2
G Frankie Sylvester 5'4
reserve F Billy Gay 6'4
 
capecod said:
Bobby West was from Peoria Central. As a soph Bobby scored 12 pts against Bradley while playing for Dartmouth. West transferred home and was a starting guard for the Braves in 63-64.

I am 61 years old, so I guess it is ok that I didn't remember Matt Moran(people under 60 will know him:p)

PS Bradley won the NIT in 1963-64 and finished with a 23-6 record

The starting lineup for the NIT champ Braves was:

F Eddie Jackson 6'6
F Lavern Tart 6'2
C Joe Strawder 6'9
G Rich Willams 5'10
G Bobby West 5'11
top reserves:
F Ernie Thompson 6'3 soph (Tart moved to G when Soph Ernie played)
C/F Ron Martin 6'5
C Walt Slater 6'6
G Leon Hall 5'11
F Ron Patterson 6'4 (actually started the NIT Championship game)-later coached Spalding to a 2nd and 4th place finish in ILL. State Tourney
G Rich Donley 6'2
Click to expand...
I just stumbled on this old post and thought I'd respond. I am the Bobby West mentioned in this post. Coach Orsborn gave me the game ball after we won the 1964 NIT championship game. I kept the ball for almost 60 years and donated the ball to the Bradley Hall of Fame in 2023. It is now on display in the Hall of Fame Museum in the Renaissance Coliseum. I'm still kickin' at 84 years old and one of the last living members of that 63-64 team.
 
Chico said:
I know, but Cellus came to BU from SWIC not directly from Iowa, which makes him a Junior Colege transfer.
Click to expand...
I must be too young for this thread...only guys I can think of are Cellus and Deen (from D-1)...Bennett, Franklin, Malevy, Terry/Chris Roberts from D-2 or JUCO, right?
 
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WestB said:
I just stumbled on this old post and thought I'd respond. I am the Bobby West mentioned in this post. Coach Orsborn gave me the game ball after we won the 1964 NIT championship game. I kept the ball for almost 60 years and donated the ball to the Bradley Hall of Fame in 2023. It is now on display in the Hall of Fame Museum in the Renaissance Coliseum. I'm still kickin' at 84 years old and one of the last living members of that 63-64 team.
Click to expand...
awesome Bobby!!!
I started at Bradley right about then, lived in the same freshman dorm room in Wyckoff Hall that Joe Allen lived in - he even came by a couple times, knocked on the door and said he just wanted to see his old room! (true story!)
Thanks for coming onto the board with your story and fans are grateful you donated such a piece of memorabilia.
Greg Berry was also a friend and told me the story how he had accidentally poked Alcindor in the eye a couple weeks before the infamous
eye-poke when UCLA played Cal - that might well have cost UCLA losing the greatest game in CBB history. - https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jan-20-sp-10267-story.html

btw- I notice your SINGLE SEASON Free Throw percentage in 1963-64 was 88.9%!! Too bad that it is not listed in the
Bradley Basketball record book (not enough attempts to qualify), because the 88.9% would have ranked you
3rd all time just behind Aaron Zobrist (90.6%) & Charles White (89.2%).
 
WestB said:
I just stumbled on this old post and thought I'd respond. I am the Bobby West mentioned in this post. Coach Orsborn gave me the game ball after we won the 1964 NIT championship game. I kept the ball for almost 60 years and donated the ball to the Bradley Hall of Fame in 2023. It is now on display in the Hall of Fame Museum in the Renaissance Coliseum. I'm still kickin' at 84 years old and one of the last living members of that 63-64 team.
Click to expand...
Thanks for stopping by. I remember that NIT championship very well. I became a BU fan as a result of that season and, wherever I've traveled in the world (five continents, all but Australia and Antarctica and currently living in Bogota, Colombia), have been one ever since. Thank goodness for the internet because there were times that it was nearly impossible to know what was happening with the Braves. You might want to note my user name. My first BU game was on December 30, 1963, when the Braves beat Arizona 67-59. My dad helped me get Ozzie's autograph.

When the team returned from winning the NIT, my dad took us to the BU campus and I can still remember Levern Tart hoisting the trophy over his head. I was about ten years old. Names I remember from that team are Joe Strawder, Ernie Thompson, Eddie Jackson, and Ron Martin. Were Greg Berry and Lee Frederick on that team, too, or did they play a couple seasons later? I sincerely apologize, but I'm not sure I remember you.
 
64NIT said:
Thanks for stopping by. I remember that NIT championship very well. I became a BU fan as a result of that season and, wherever I've traveled in the world (five continents, all but Australia and Antarctica and currently living in Bogota, Colombia), have been one ever since. Thank goodness for the internet because there were times that it was nearly impossible to know what was happening with the Braves. You might want to note my user name. My first BU game was on December 30, 1963, when the Braves beat Arizona 67-59. My dad helped me get Ozzie's autograph.

When the team returned from winning the NIT, my dad took us to the BU campus and I can still remember Levern Tart hoisting the trophy over his head. I was about ten years old. Names I remember from that team are Joe Strawder, Ernie Thompson, Eddie Jackson, and Ron Martin. Were Greg Berry and Lee Frederick on that team, too, or did they play a couple seasons later? I sincerely apologize, but I'm not sure I remember you.
Click to expand...
Here is the roster for that 1964 NIT team:

1963 Men's Basketball Roster - Bradley University Athletics

The official 1963 Men's Basketball Roster for the Bradley University Braves
bradleybraves.com bradleybraves.com
 
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