San Jose State University has 9 new scholarshipped players this season due to on graduations and transfers out. A longtime basketball truth used to be that such a large influx is too many to integrate into what will be for them new systems and schemes, as well as playing together as a team.
But nowadays, nine newcomers (or more) just might be an annual aspect for many teams. This season, Kentucky, Louisville and DePaul returned zero players. Granted, each team also hired a new coach.
Louisville formed a new team with 12 incoming transfers plus others, Kentucky did it with nine transfers as well as others. The DePaul program is utilizing 10 transfers this season. USC Coach Eric Musselman found one returnee when he arrived so he and his staff brought in 11 transfers.
"By running a statistical analysis of what’s been working so far, (stats guru) Evan Miyakawa came to three recommendations for college basketball roster building: Find good players, return over 50% of your starter minutes year-over-year, and recruit players that will play at least two seasons in the program."
Add in playing home games, at least for USC, which sports a 9-4 record and has played just one road contest. DePaul is currently 9-4 with three ventures out of Chicago. Kentucky is 11-2 with also but one away pairing. Louisville stands at 8-5 and two road trips.
What is also interesting locally is that SJSU is doing it on the cheap. There no overflowing pot of gold for Coach Tim Miles to call upon in his enticing talent efforts.
Here's a deeper Spartan dive
How did Miles and his assistants change a roster that finished 9-23/2-16? Two starters chose to depart, one is again starting at Boise State and producing at a similar same level he did while in Silicon Valley while the other is playing 10 minutes a contest/zero starts at Southern Methodist University while scoring 2.2 points per game. Each talent moved on to a team with a winning record this season.
6-foot-8, 260 starting center Robert Vaihola has returned after missing all of last season due to injury. The center spot likely was nicknamed matador (minus the final kill) during 2024-25 because opposing players had no fear going down the paint to the hoop. Vaihola may not jump sky high but he's a brick wall that stops forward motion. In 12 games/starts, he is currently averaging 8.6 points, 7.3 rebounds with 17 blocked shots.
The remainder of the Spartan starters are transfers, sometimes multiple times:
6-foot-5 Josh Uduje - London, England (Arizona Compass Prep/Coastal Carolina) He came over from Utah State and is leading the team in scoring at 17.6 points per game, tied for second at 4.8 boards, alongside 14 steals.
6-foot-5 graduate student and Stephen F. Austin transfer/graduate student Sadaidriene Hall is averaging 9.2 points plus 4.8 rebounds.
Born in Sacramento, UCLA transfer 6-foot-3 Will McClendon is producing 12.7 points plus 3.3 caroms and possesses a 31/6 assist to turnover ratio.
6-foot-5 Donavan Yap Jr. - The UNLV/Fresno State transfer is scoring 8.1 points an outing but not shooting all that well. On the plus side, he has the best assist to turnover numbers at 43/23 of his college career.
Prominent off the bench
6-foot-3 Latrell Davis, Leeds, England, is at 8.8 points per contest with a 21/8 assist to turnover ratio. He may have missed his calling because he takes the ball, looks for bodies to bang into and has attempted the most free throws on the team with 50.
6-foot-10 Seton Hall transfer Sadraque NgaNga (Angola, Arizona Compass Prep/Boise State) had one monster game early (29 points, 12 boards) but that was against a D-3 opponent. He is at 7.5 points and 3.8 rebounds nightly, the latter total remarkably split almost evenly between offensive and defensive, but he also has abysmal 3/15 assist to turnover numbers.
7-foot-2 Oregon State transfer and graduate student Chol Marial (South Sudan, Arizona Compass Prep/Maryland/) has displayed face-the-basket range in limited time and some shotblocking ability but has played in only six games due to injury. He is back now.
6-foot freshman Jermaine Washington began the season as a solid contributor but has quieted of late.
7-foot junior Adrame Diongue (Senegal, Arizona Compass Prep) is injured with plantar tendonitis and apparently will miss this season. He started at the center position in 2023-24.
6-foot-4 freshman Ben Roseborough still has his right foot in a boot and will seemingly miss this season. He has been absent due to foot issues for a long time but he will hopefully be back on the court for next season. If so and if healthy, he will be a tremendous addition to the program. Here is our Ben Roseborough January 2024 feature.
After 14 games this season, SJSU is 7-8, 0-3.
Now, two factors associated with Spartan recruiting success of late are worthy of explanation:
SJSU Assistant Coach Ed Gipson spent seven years as head coach at Arizona Compass Prep prior to arriving in San Jose. Hence, four players residing on the Spartan roster played for him at ACP. He has been remarkable at getting his former talents (one wing and three bigs) to choose San Jose State University. That's close to a remarkable one third of the roster.
Assistant Coach Jeff Strohm has Midwest roots and it's likely any recruits coming from that area are the result of his efforts. The same for Assistant Coach Damany Hendrix who is Nor Cal (East Bay) born. It's impossible to know who works the most on recruits coming from other areas of the country.
Another item worthy of note is how Miles and Company landed first Ben Roseborough and then 6-foot-6 Melvin Bell Jr. (in November of this year). The former was a hot recruiting item before injuries kept him sidelined with UCLA, Arizona, USC and the like moving on to other bluechippers as big time power teams can and will do.
SJSU offered Roseborough in September, 2022 and stayed on him until the guard made his decision for Sparta in December, 2023. Other schools in the running at the end: UC Santa Barbara, USF and Colorado State. The young man cited Coach Miles staying in touch as a prominent reason for the direction of his decision.
Bell Jr.'s recruitment started out big time but a major injury cooled off a number of his suitors. Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Michigan, Stanford, Missouri and Brown were among the biggest names in line. Eventually, that lessened to DePaul, Murray State, Ball State, Toledo and Eastern Michigan, along with San Jose State University (he visited Silicon Valley in mid-September 2024), remaining.
What Bell Jr. sidelined for close to a year? He shattered his tibia and ruptured his patellar tendon during an AAU game. But he rehabbed for close to a year and eventually returned to form.
Persistence has paid off twice for Sparta. When you don't have a fat wallet, well, perseverance doesn't cost much.