Leon Gilmore III is transferring from the Bluejay program (Streur/WBR)
The college basketball offseason has become almost like a free agent frenzy as the pool of players that transfer from one school to another has steadily risen to large heights in the past few seasons with an upwards of 600 or more players looking for a bigger or different opportunity. Add that to the pool of fifth year graduate transfers, junior college transfers, and incoming freshman, teams can retool their whole roster quickly. Creighton has entered the race to add another player Wednesday night with the transfer announcement of Leon Gilmore III from the Bluejay program.
Gilmore came into the 2014-15 season with question marks on whether he would play as a freshman. The decision to have him play came pretty quickly from head coach Greg McDermott with uneasiness surrounding the forward position with Avery Dingman nursing a severe ankle injury in preseason practices and how much fifth year transfer Ricky Kreklow would be able to contribute to the team. Gilmore’s redshirt was burned in the first game of the season when he played 10 minutes in the win over Central Arkansas.
After that opening game, Kreklow solidified his position along with Toby Hegner at the power forward and Gilmore saw limited minutes due to Creighton’s tendency to run a three guard lineup. After Creighton’s dismal start to Big East play, Gilmore got an opportunity for extended minutes on the road against #4 Villanova with 9 minutes of play getting 4 points and a rebound in that game.
Leon was suffering some soreness in his knee at times and had an MRI after the Villanova game where it was discovered he had a slight meniscus tear and had a small cyst removed. Having surgery to repair things essentially shut down his season. Gilmore is looking to transfer to a team where he can make a bigger impact right away. We wish him luck.
There were talks of a scholarship spot opening up after visits from junior college prospects Malique Trent and Mychal Mulder visiting the Hilltop two weekends ago. With Gilmore’s transfer announcement, a scholarship could be available to one of them among other players that could fill the spot on the roster.
Gilmore becomes the fourth scholarship transfer in the last three seasons for the Bluejays. Here’s an update on the other scholarship players that transferred out of the program:
- Darian Harris–Harris transferred after his redshirt season from Creighton to Oral Roberts. Harris received a waiver to play immediately and contributed to the Golden Eagles this season as a freshman. He played in 32 of 34 games including moving into the starting lineup in 12 of the final 15 games. Although struggling the first half of the season, Harris played his best ball in those final 15 games shooting at a 36% clip from behind the arc. In fact for the season, Harris was 22-of-73 from three point range and 25-of-83 from the field. He averaged just over 13 minutes per game. Oral Roberts made the postseason in the CBI tournament losing to Loyola in the second round. With only two seniors graduating and two juniors this past season, Oral Roberts is a very young team which will have a lot of competition for playing time. With Harris starting at the end of the season, he has a good opportunity to be in that starting lineup in the future.
- Nevin Johnson-Johnson transferred two seasons ago after redshirting for a year and getting limited playing time as a redshirt freshman for the Bluejays. After transferring to Junior College, Johnson landed at Texas Southern. The Tigers made the NCAA Tournament this season where Johnson averaged over 12 minutes a game and contributed about 3 points and 2 rebounds per game in the 32 regular season and conference tournament games. He did not play in the NCAA Tournament against Arizona. Johnson will head into his senior season with potentially a bigger role with six seniors graduating from the program.
- Andre Yates–Yates transferred two seasons ago as well to Cleveland State after playing some backup minutes to Austin Chatman as a freshman for the Bluejays. After redshirting last season due to transfer rules, Yates started the first 21 games this season for the Vikings and played in all 33 games, including postseason play in the CIT. He averaged 22 minutes a game contributing over 6 points, around 2 rebounds a game and shot 31.3% from behind the arc. He lost the starting job for almost the rest of the season to former MVC-mate Kaza Keane who also transferred to the Vikings from Illinois State. With a young team returning a lot of players, including two starting guards, next season, Yates will have to battle to get back into the starting lineup.