CBB Teams Getting a Boost in 2015-16 from Players You've Forgotten About

Everyone loves to discuss 5-star recruits and college basketball players who stay at the same school for four years, but transfers have also become an absolutely massive aspect of today's game.

Thanks to the never-ceasing work of ESPN's Jeff Goodman, we know there are already nearly 400 players attempting to transfer schools this summer. There were more than 700 who did the same last year.

It's from that latter group that we compiled this list of 20 players who will greatly help their new teams after sitting out this past season.

The following slides are ranked based on how crucial we feel these transfers will be to their respective teams' success in 2015-16.

2013-14 Stats (with Oklahoma State): 25.9 MPG, 6.1 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 1.2 BPG

The Hurricanes benefited greatly from transfers this past season and nearly parlayed that into a tournament appearance. Angel Rodriguez, Sheldon McClellan and Ivan Cruz Uceda were upperclassmen who each played a crucial role, despite not appearing on the roster the previous season.

This year, all three of those guys will be back, and Miami adds a much-needed big man in Kamari Murphy.

Until the very end of the season when Cruz Uceda finally started to come around—he was a JUCO transfer who wasn't eligible until mid-January—it was pretty much Tonye Jekiri or bust in the paint in 2014-15 for the Hurricanes. But Murphy gives head coach Jim Larranaga a few options to work with.

He frequently got into foul trouble at Oklahoma State and was very much the fifth scoring option behind Marcus Smart, Markel Brown, Le'Bryan Nash and Phil Forte, but Murphy is a capable scorer and a valuable defender and rebounder.

Even with Manu Lecomte and DeAndre Burnett transferring, Miami still has a very talented roster, and Murphy very well could be the piece that pushes the Hurricanes from the 2015 NIT to the 2016 NCAA tournament.

2013-14 Stats (with Purdue): 28.2 MPG, 10.8 PPG, 3.7 APG

After losing TaShawn Thomas, Danuel House and head coach James Dickey from the 2013-14 team, this past season was very much a rebuilding one for the Houston Cougars. They lost 19 games in a season for the first time in more than a decade thanks to some downright atrocious offense.

There's at least a chance that help is on the way.

Ronnie Johnson's tenure at Purdue was far from stellar. The Boilermakers finished below .500 in both of his seasons as the primary point guard, and he simply wasn't very good at putting the ball in the hoop—he shot 42.6 percent from two-point range and 25.0 percent from beyond the three-point arc.

The problem, though, is that there weren't any bother options on those rosters, so he ended up forcing the issue to a fault.

At Houston, he'll have a strong supporting cast, led by L.J. Rose, Danrad Knowles, Jherrod Stiggers and Devonta Pollard. And the Cougars weren't all that far from being relevant in 2014-15. They lost three games in overtime and another five by six points or less. Johnson could be enough of a difference-maker to swing many of those close losses into wins.

2013-14 Stats (with Butler): 18.8 MPG, 6.8 PPG, 1.2 APG

Recognizing that playing time would be scarce for the next two years behind Kellen Dunham and Roosevelt Jones, Elijah Brown decided to transfer away from Butler after one lackluster season.

New Mexico was thrilled to gobble Brown up and figures to offer all the minutes he can possibly handle with Hugh Greenwood and Deshawn Delaney both out of years of eligibility.

Here's hoping Brown proves to be a better shooter than he was with the Bulldogs. He occasionally showed some promising flashes—19 points against Villanova on New Year's Eve foremost on that short list—but he shot just 33.7 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from beyond the arc. Suffice it to say, those aren't ideal numbers for a shooting guard who doesn't do much else to contribute to the box score.

If Brown is a better shooter, if Cullen Neal makes a full recovery from the ankle injury that caused him to miss all but three games last season and if the other new Lobo higher up on this list makes as much of an impact as expected, New Mexico should have little difficulty ascending back to the top of the Mountain West standings.

2013-14 Stats (with Oregon State): 26.3 MPG, 7.2 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 2.5 APG, 0.8 SPG

No list of transfers would be complete without an addition to Fred Hoiberg's roster at Iowa State.

Oregon State's Hallice Cooke was one of the more accurate three-point shooters in the country in 2013-14, draining 45.6 percent of his 90 attempts. He was also one of the best on-ball defenders for a Beavers team that otherwise seemingly had no idea how to force a turnover.

And he did so while playing through pain. Cooke had surgery on both of his hips this past offseason to repair cartilage tears, putting to good use the year he was required to sit out anyway.

Provided he's healthy, the only real question is where he fits into the mix. The Cyclones already have Naz Long and Matt Thomas at shooting guard, and point guard Monte Morris played more minutes per game last season than anyone else in the Big 12.

Don't be surprised to see Iowa State play a lot of small ball with Jameel McKay at the 5, Georges Niang playing the stretch 4 and a three-guard lineup of Morris, Long and Cooke. When that's the construction on the court, get ready to watch it rain from downtown.

2013-14 Stats (with Michigan State): 12.2 MPG, 4.9 PPG, 1.5 RPG, 49.4 3P%

Unlike the rest of the players on this list who chose to take their talents elsewhere, Kenny Kaminski was dismissed from Michigan State last summer. Head coach Tom Izzo released a statement saying that Kaminski "repeatedly failed to meet the necessary obligations" to be a part of Michigan State's program.

It didn't keep the Spartans from reaching the Final Four, but it arguably kept them from reaching their full potential prior to the month of March. Kaminski was expected to be a key contributor because of the big man's ability to stretch the floor and stroke it from beyond the arc—not much unlike a similarly named Frank Kaminsky.

Michigan State's loss is Saul Phillips' gain at Ohio.

The Bobcats had a very uncharacteristic 10-20 season, and most of those losses weren't even close. Considering they're also losing their top two scorers from that team, it's going to take more than Kaminski to right the ship. However, he has three years of eligibility remaining and should be a big step in the right direction—assuming he's able to live up to the necessary obligations to remain a part of Ohio's roster.

2013-14 Stats (with James Madison): 35.1 MPG, 14.3 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 1.7 APG, 1.4 SPG

From what was already a short rotation in 2014-15, the Dayton Flyers are losing a huge piece of the puzzle with the graduation of Jordan Sibert. The former member of Ohio State led the Flyers in minutes, points and steals as a senior.

Fortunately, they have a capable replacement waiting in the wings, as Charles Cooke led James Madison in points, steals and rebounds two years ago while playing more than 35 minutes per game.

Moving from the CAA to the Atlantic 10 is certainly a big step up, but Cooke was pretty consistently scoring 15 points per game throughout the course of the 2013-14 season rather than just crushing conference opponents. He had a 20-point game against Richmond and a 19-point outing against Stephen F. Austin. And he did so without being much of a ball hog, taking a modest 23.4 percent of the shots while on the court.

One of his biggest strengths was getting to the free-throw line. Cooke averaged 6.5 free-throw attempts per game. Coincidentally, Dayton ranked fourth in the nation in free-throw attempts per field-goal attempt this past season, so that type of aggression with the ball will be more than welcome.

2013-14 Stats (with Maryland): 29.7 MPG, 13.4 PPG, 3.0 APG

Part of the mass exodus from College Park last summer, Seth Allen decided he didn't want to be done playing in the ACC and signed on with Buzz Williams and Virginia Tech.

OK, maybe that wasn't his actual motivation for leaving Maryland / choosing Virginia Tech—"The decisions I make were my own and I did it for me and my family," he said on WNST radio in Baltimore in a lengthy but vague interview last May—but it is interesting that he stayed in conference while Maryland jumped to the Big Ten.

Regardless of why he left the Terrapins, though, he is set up to be a huge piece of a very young and undersized Hokies rotation in 2015-16.

Of the five leading scorers returning for Virginia Tech, four were freshman, one was a sophomore and all five are 6'5" or shorter.

At 6'1" in thick shoes, Allen isn't exactly increasing the team's average height. But he will be a linchpin in what figures to be an offense heavily reliant on perimeter play. It will be his job to make those perimeter shots (49-of-129 in 2013-14) and set teammates up to do the same as he plays the type of combo guard role for Virginia Tech that Ryan Boatright played for Connecticut this past season.

2013-14 Stats (with Texas Tech): 26.3 MPG, 10.7 PPG, 5.8 RPG

Jordan Tolbert is a saint for sticking with Texas Tech as long as he did.

Pat Knight signed him in November 2010, right at the start of a 13-19 season that brought to an end his tenure as the head coach of the Red Raiders. Billy Gillispie lasted just one year as the head coach for Tolbert's 8-23 freshman season, leading to one season of Chris Walker who didn't do much better at 11-20. Then it was Tubby Smith's turn, leading Texas Tech to a 14-18 record in Tolbert's junior season.

At long last, he jumped ship for SMU and should finally be in a position for his hard work to result in a winning season.

The Mustangs lose a lot from their 2014-15 roster—most notably Yanick Moreira, Ryan Manuel and Cannen Cunningham—but with Nic Moore, Sterling Brown, Ben Moore, Markus Kennedy and presumably Tolbert filling out the starting rotation in November, SMU could still be the best team in the AAC.

Tolbert probably isn't going to be a double-double machine, but he has a little bit of the three-point range that this team desperately lacked. He should prove to be a valuable asset at small forward for a team looking to win its first tournament game since 1988.

2013-14 Stats (with Samford): 33.0 MPG, 17.6 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 1.4 BPG, 1.3 SPG

Sometimes, there's no telling what you'll get out of a transfer from a minor conference. Sure, he averaged a million points per game, but does scoring that much against Terrible Tech and Anonymous A&M really mean anything?

Tim Williams, on the other hand, has played and fared well in a handful of games against major-conference teams. In his first two seasons with Samford, Williams averaged 14.0 points and 6.8 rebounds per game in six affairs against Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis and Wisconsin—scoring at least 10 points in each of those games.

The game against Louisville was the third of his college career and it came in the 2012-13 season when the Cardinals won it all. Williams posted an O-rating of 143.

And New Mexico desperately could have used him this past season, as the Lobos didn't have anything close to a dominant offensive force in the paint in trying to adjust to life without Cameron Bairstow or Alex Kirk.

We're not expecting Williams to perfectly replicate the numbers he posted two years ago with Samford, but even 12.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game would be a huge step toward a Mountain West title.

2013-14 Stats (with Rice): 26.4 MPG, 11.4 PPG, 9.3 RPG

If we assume no other additions to Duke's roster before the start of the 2015-16 season, Sean Obi will need to be a pivotal part of the team's rotation. Amile Jefferson, Marshall Plumlee and Chase Jeter are the only other players on the roster taller than 6'5".

Is he up to that type of challenge?

In his lone season with Rice, Obi ranked second in the nation in defensive rebounding percentage. Is it because he is an exceptional rebounder or because he was the only Owl taller than 6'7" for the vast majority of the possessions he spent on the court? And how much of his rebounding had to do with the level of competition that he faced for most of the season?

Obi's role on the team will be the ultimate X-factor in Duke's quest to repeat as national champions.

If he's just another David McClure or Josh Hairston who eats minutes at the power forward spot by occasionally grabbing defensive rebounds and rarely contributing on the offensive end, the Blue Devils could be in some trouble. But if he's able to average eight points and eight rebounds per game, they'll be a serious threat once again.

2013-14 Stats (with South Florida): 24.8 MPG, 7.4 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 1.3 BPG

Florida just isn't Florida without a dominant low-post presence.

A few years ago, the Gators had Patric Young and Will Yeguete. Before that, it was Vernon Macklin and Alex Tyus. And on the national championship teams in 2006 and 2007, it was Joakim Noah and Al Horford.

Last year, though? The Gators didn't have that guy. Chris Walker miserably failed to meet expectations for a second straight year. Jon Horford did what he could, but he simply wasn't wired to be a one-man wrecking crew.

John Egbunu could be that guy for the next couple of years.

In his one season with South Florida, Egbunu was an efficient scorer, a prolific rebounder and a quality shot-blocker. It's kind of ridiculous that the Bulls weren't able to make better use of him before he skipped town. His one shining moment was a 20-point, 14-rebound game against Memphis on New Year's Eve in which South Florida still managed to lose by 15 points.

If you're a fan of a SEC team other than Florida, get ready to be sick of the hustle and muscle with which Egbunu will play for the foreseeable future.

2013-14 Stats (with Utah State): 25.0 MPG, 9.1 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 1.3 BPG

Not only is BYU losing three great guards in Tyler Haws, Anson Winder and Skyler Halford, but the Cougars played most of the 2014-15 season without an actual power forward. You can call Kyle Collinsworth a point-forward if you want, but their preferred lineup was four guards and Corbin Kaufusi at center.

Kyle Davis will give the Cougars a legitimate option at power forward who can score and rebound.

In Utah State's game against BYU two seasons ago, Davis had 16 points, nine rebounds, three assists and a blocked shot. It was one of his best games of the season and likely one of the big reasons Dave Rose wanted to add Davis to his roster when he became available.

There's more help on the way at the forward positions for BYU. Jakob Hartsock—younger brother of former standout Cougar, Noah—and Braiden Shaw will return from their Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints missions to play their freshman seasons in 2015-16. Eric Mika—who averaged 11.8 points and 6.4 rebounds as a freshman—will return from his mission in time for the 2016-17 campaign.

But until Hartsock and Shaw are really ready to contribute, it'll be Davis or bust in the early going for a team that has essentially lived on the NCAA tournament bubble for the past four seasons.

2013-14 Stats (with Georgia Tech): 26.8 MPG, 11.4 PPG, 8.4 RPG, 1.1 BPG

Like BYU, Maryland was desperately lacking a true presence at power forward this past season. Jake Layman and Evan Smotrycz were both 6'9" and perfectly capable of using their height to corral some rebounds, but they weren't exactly the imposing forces needed to slow down assertive opposing big men.

Robert Carter, on the other hand, is a wrecking ball when he wants to be. In his final six games with the Yellow Jackets, he averaged 16.7 points per game, capable of scoring from anywhere on the court.

Carter will dominate on the glass and will block a fair number of shots, but the big question mark is his offensive efficiency. In his two seasons with Georgia Tech, he shot 51.4 percent from two-point range, 27.4 percent from three-point range (117 attempts) and 63.8 percent from the free-throw line.

If he's going to attempt that many shots from beyond the arc, he needs to be more accurate with them. If he instead goes the route of a more conventional big man, you would hope to see his two-point percentage climb to close to 60 percent.

But even if he struggles to shoot, his contributions in the other aspects of the games will make him an invaluable asset for a Maryland team with realistic aspirations of a No. 1 seed in the 2016 NCAA tournament.

2013-14 Stats (with Nevada): 32.2 MPG, 12.4 PPG, 5.4 RPG

Let's make one thing perfectly clear: Cole Huff is not Doug McDermott. They're both 6'8" forwards who shoot better than 40 percent from three-point range and grab enough defensive rebounds that one can live with them "wasting" their height on the perimeter of the offensive end.

But McDermott was a once-in-a-decade type of phenom, and for all we know, Huff is just a guy who had one hot-shooting year with Nevada.

Still, we have to like Greg McDermott's chances of figuring out how to best employ one of his new assets.

The Bluejays just weren't the same last season without their three-point assassins. McDermott was obviously the biggest loss, but let's not forget they were also adjusting to life without Ethan Wragge making 47.0 percent of his 234 three-point attempts. Try as they might, Ricky Kreklow and Toby Hegner couldn't possibly replace that type of production.

Huff could be one of the biggest missing pieces in Creighton's puzzle. He shot 40.3 percent in 139 attempts from beyond the arc in 2013-14, but he didn't have nearly the green light that he'll have in Omaha. It's not even a stretch to think he'll launch 200 triples this season. And if he can shoot better than 40 percent in the process, Creighton should be right back in the mix in the Big East.

2013-14 Stats (with West Virginia): 27.0 MPG, 11.7 PPG, 2.9 RPG

Between Ralston Turner graduating and Trevor Lacey's surprising announcement on Wednesday to declare for the NBA draft, the Wolfpack need some help in the backcourt.

With the addition of Terry Henderson, the Wolfpack should be in good hands.

Henderson didn't attempt nearly as many triples in 2013-14 as Turner did last season—Henderson averaged 4.5 per game with the Mountaineers—but that's largely because West Virginia had several other players who were more than capable of getting hot from downtown. NC State had Turner, Lacey and that's about it.

Outside of the number of attempts per game—which should certainly increase in his new role—Henderson and Turner are nearly identical.

Turner (2014-15): 6'5", 205 lbs, 12.8 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 1.0 APG, 1.0 TPG, 0.6 SPG, 36.7 3P%, 83.8 FT%

Henderson (2013-14): 6'4", 200 lbs, 11.7 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 1.1 APG, 1.1 TPG, 0.8 SPG, 37.6 3P%, 84.8 FT%

If anything, Henderson might be a little more valuable than Turner, because he is more than capable of scoring from inside the arc too.

With Henderson in the mix, look for NC State to finish near the top of the ACC standings again.

2013-14 Stats (with Cornell): 32.6 MPG, 16.8 PPG, 4.2 RPG

Vanderbilt was painfully close to being pretty darn good this past season. The Commodores went 21-14 overall but were just 1-9 in games decided by five points or less. Eight of those losses were decided either in overtime or by one possession. And from that roster, James Siakam is the only major piece they're losing.

Enter Nolan Cressler, who somehow managed to score a ton of points for a Cornell team that went 1-26 against D-I opponents. He scored at least 21 points in eight of those games and shot 37.9 percent from three-point range in his two seasons with the Big Red.

The big unknown, of course, is whether he was the silver lining in a very cloudy season or one of the main reasons they struggled so much. Cressler was a great scorer, but Cornell had the worst defense in the country among teams not named Grambling State and he ranked second to last on the roster in defensive box plus/minus, according to Sports-Reference.com.

What we do know is that his supporting cast will be substantially better. Wade Baldwin was a good defender and distributor as the freshman point guard, and Damian Jones is an outstanding presence in the post for rebounds and blocked shots.

Vanderbilt already has a handful of capable three-point shooters, but Cressler just might be the best of the bunch and could be the difference that leads the Commodores to actually win some of those close games next season.

2013-14 Stats (with Marshall): 36.7 MPG, 16.3 PPG, 5.5 APG, 2.2 RPG

Bruce Pearl's first season at Auburn went about as well/poorly as most expected. Taking over a team that lost three crucial seniors from a 14-16 season without much of anything in the way of incoming recruits, Pearl did what he could on the immediately eligible transfer market.

The Tigers still went just 15-20.

But Pearl's biggest catch in last summer's transfer bonanza was the one guy who spent the entire season on the bench. Antoine Mason, K.C. Ross-Miller and Cinmeon Bowers were great additions, but Kareem Canty could be a real difference-maker over the next three years.

In his one season at Marshall, he averaged 36.7 minutes per game, which was just barely lower than his 37.3 field-goal percentage. He was put in the position of simultaneously serving as the team's starting point guard and shooting guard, leading the Thundering Herd in field-goal attempts by a margin of 4.9 per game and in assists by a margin of 3.7 per game.

At Auburn, he should be willing and able to fully embrace the point guard position. Canty will still do plenty of scoring, but his efficiency should increase drastically now that he isn't the only viable scoring option on the roster.

2013-14 Stats (with Boston): 31.3 MPG, 13.3 PPG, 7.1 APG, 3.6 RPG, 2.1 SPG

Mo Watson Jr. is Creighton's second new addition ranked in our top 10, giving the Bluejays legitimate hope for a quick bounce back from what was a largely disappointing 2014-15 season.

In his second and final season with Boston, Watson ranked second in the nation in assist rate and 27th in steal rate.

In the Patriot League semifinal against Army, Watson had 10 points, 17 assists and one turnover. You read that right. It was the type of performance that led many to assume that Boston would be the team to beat in that conference the following season—right up until he decided to transfer and immediately became one of the most prized possessions on the market.

With both Devin Brooks and Austin Chatman graduating this summer, Creighton desperately needed a ball-handling guard. Beginning in November, the Bluejays will have one of the best in the country.

2013-14 Stats (with West Virginia): 31.4 MPG, 17.2 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 1.6 APG

Creighton is adding two of our top 10 players, but West Virginia is responsible for letting two of our top 10 players go. Imagine how much more the Mountaineers could have done this past season with Terry Henderson and Eron Harris.

Instead, NC State benefits from Henderson and Michigan State becomes a serious contender for the NCAA title because of Harris.

In 2013-14, Harris averaged 6.4 three-point attempts per game and shot 42.2 percent in the process. That's a significant improvement from the last extremely talented Harris that the Spartans had. Gary Harris averaged 6.5 three-point attempts two seasons ago, but he only shot 35.2 percent.

Eron Harris is the rare breed of both volume and accuracy and should go a long way toward helping Michigan State continue to excel without Travis Trice playing the role of three-point assassin.

2013-14 Stats (with Boston College): 31.4 MPG, 14.3 PPG, 7.3 RPG

In the recruiting class of 2012, Sean Miller signed a pair of 5-star power forwards in Brandon Ashley and Grant Jerrett. Jerrett left for the NBA after one season and Ashley is leaving this summer.

Miller also added a 4-star power forward this past summer, but Craig Victor elected to transfer rather than wait for more playing time.

And yet, Arizona is in great shape at that position because of a 3-star small forward that signed with Boston College in 2011.

Ryan Anderson was a beast in his final two years with the Eagles, recording 13 double-doubles on rosters devoid of other useful options in the paint. He was all Boston College had, and he still got the job done.

If he can come in and put up those types of points and rebounds again, Arizona might finally make a Final Four under Miller's tutelage.

Advanced statistics courtesy of KenPom.com. Recruiting ratings courtesy of 247Sports.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.