Midyear madness: Georgia point guard to USF

TAMPA -- For the third year in a row, USF is getting an impact midyear transfer from a major conference power.

Mike Mercer, a 6-foot-4 junior guard who was dismissed from Georgia's basketball team last week after coach Dennis Felton said he'd become a "disruption to the team," will transfer to USF next month, Foxsports.com reported Sunday night.

Mercer, a five-star recruit rated as the nation's No. 5 point guard by Rivals.com out of Snellville, Ga., three years ago, was Georgia's second-leading scorer last season, averaging 13.5 points per game. He missed the final 10 games of last season with a knee injury, and was serving a 15-game suspension this season, reportedly for a violation of Georgia's academic attendance policy for missing tutorial sessions last spring.

If Mercer enrolls in January, he would have to sit out this season and the first month of next season, with eligibility with the Bulls for the rest of the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons. He'd be in the same class as sophomore Chris Howard, who is in his second season as the Bulls' starting point guard.

USF's top two scorers, center Kentrell Gransberry and guard Jesus Verdejo, were midyear transfers two years ago from LSU and Arizona, respectively. Next month, the Bulls will get a boost from guard/forward Aaron Holmes, a midyear transfer from Florida State last season.

Comments

[Brendan]

I would like to know what he did that was so "disruptive" to the team.

[Windbane]

Wow, I hope he works out as well as the other guys have. What were the star ratings for Gransberry and Verdejo?

[Ari Hinkelberger]

This whole transfering route is going to have to be the way until we have a great season and people start listening to the recruiting calls. Its really hard to sign any decent talent out of high school when you have only won seven conference games in three years.

I still have been pretty impressed with how the team has begun to look.

We seem to be shooting better from the free throw line and I like how we push the ball up the court.

Hopefully we can put something together come conference time.

[JL]

Well, it is not academics so I would imagine Heath thinks he can keep this kid under control?

Good luck...

[JL]

By the way, missing the tutorials? For the Georgia basketball team??

Remember the class tests that the Bulldogs had? The questions were...

How many halves in a basketball game?

How many points for a 3-point shot?

And many more demanding questions like that!

hahahhahahahaha

[JL]

10 seconds on Google...

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/quiz?event_id=600

[Dave W]

Oh boy, this guy sounds like trouble. If an SEC team disciplines a 5* guy, he has got to be bad news. Heath is obviously looking for a quick fix and taking a big risk here.

Let's find out what those distractions were. I don't think that Heath's job will be on the line with this leap of faith, but if Mercer fails, you better believe he won't be allowed to take another risky transfer.

Windbane- both guys were 3* on Scout. They really missed on KG. Holmes was 4*.

[BullsG]

What you have to remember is Stan knows Dennis Felton(UGA HC) so naturally the two have talked about Mercer and feel that a change of scenery will do him some good.UGA has some strict conduct policies and this is not the first time a highly regarded player has been forced out of that school.BTW that player has went on to have great trouble free success at a rival SEC school.He is going to make a lot of money in the pros soon.

[Reality]

Oh yes, Georgia is very strict.....ha ha..

I think this is a good pick up for the Bulls.

Heath gets to continue his tradition of recruiting thugs and letting institutional control fail.

I hope USF wins quick, because who knows how long before trouble strikes.

[tj]

Another flunky for USF, you guys will take anybody.

[Stephen]

Wow is Jim Leavitt recruting for basketball as well now?

[Jimbo]

And so USF continues to build their athletics programs with other schools' discarded thugs... why am I not surprised? Is this really a state university, or is it just a satellite branch of a correctional facility. As a Floridian, I'm embarrassed by the way this school is run.

[Chris]

Is there anyone USF won't take? This kid couldn't hack it at GEORGIA for academics?? USF truly has the lowest standards of any college I've seen in a long, long time. The Bulls new motto:

"Sick of being harassed by the law or dealing with pesky college classes? COME TO USF!"

USF=Pathetic.

[Nick Saban]

Told you so.

[Ari Hinkelberger]

Oh give me a break...

All the Randy Moss fans out there love to critique..

When was the last time we had any trouble with anyone..

Does it really matter??

Just a bunch of hot air. The kid has to be on campus for a freakin year before he is even allowed to play a minute on the court.. So don't get your panties in a bunch.

[JL]

I am an alum, and it does tick me off that we are taking this reject.

I do not care how good he is.

[Embarrassed Floridian]

This school is an embarrassment to Florida's state university system.

[JoeB]

This guy was a stud coming out of HS. When I lived in the ATL, Mike Mercer was a HS legend. Could have gone to any school he wanted to. Chose to go to UGA. At times he struggled with the college game. Hopefully he'll be OK after sitting out a year.

[Reality]

Exactly Ari, we as citizens of the area have to have this guy in our community for a year before he can even play a game.

On the bright side, Depaul and Rutgers have been AWFUL early on, so maybe USF can work closer to the Big East Tournament.

[Mike]

Haha, another model recruit for USF.

[Bill]

looks like a bunch of ucf fans have taken over this blog

[Dave W]

Ari is right, not since David Sills have we had any trouble with the basketball program (there has been attrition, for sure, but legal issues have been nonexistant). However, in basketball, a lot of times you have to take chances on guys like this to move forward- look at St. John's. If it pays off, you can then recruit solid citizens who can play some ball, but at our juncture, we have to pick between citizenry and talent. I think that we have a solid bunch of guys on the team so if Mercer just hangs around with Bozeman, he should be fine.

But if it backfires, Heath is in trouble as I said earlier.

And UCF fans, if you can give your coach a second chance, we give a player a second chance (first time in BBall).

And how many bad citizens have we taken in football? Most of our transfers have genuine reasons for coming home (evidenced in the hardship waivers that are distributed). Others come for PT (Julian Riley in FB, Capko, KG {behind Rolle, Big Baby, and Tyrus Thomas at LSU}, Verdejo). What's wrong with a guy wanting to play?

[Ari Hinkelberger]

Heath isn't going to be in trouble no matter what happens.

Heath has been handed a program that can't even draw a 1k fans to a game. This team has won a whooping seven conference games in three years. ALl these guys complaining surely werent at any of the first two games.

And I am sure none of these boneheads will show up when Heath turns this thing around either.

Just a bunch of non-sense. Nobody mentions the text book scam that half of Alabama's offensive line was running during this season and got caught. Nobody mentions FSU's star linebacker having a boxing match with a tallahassee cop this past season -- only to miss all of ZERO games. Nobody mentions the weed that Brandon James, UF's star returner had on him in G-vill this year.

Its college. Its young kids. Its life.

This kid doesn't bother me.

USF must save tons on their recruiting expenses, they just wait for thugs to get booted out of good programs and they scoop them up. A complete embarassment. When you look down the sidelines it looks like a prison team.

[john]

John,
The difference is when these guys go too far and get thrown out of there schools USF picks them up. How bad is that. Mike Ford.

[no name loser]

64-12. It's amazing how many ucifers peruse our blog!

ucif=pathetic

worry about your own teams losers!

[no name loser]

64-12. It's amazing how many ucifers peruse our blog!

ucif=pathetic

worry about your own teams losers!

[Mike]

You are all making these statements about him being a thug... you don't even know the reasons why he was kicked off, so how can you judge him by that? He is about as good as his aau teammate louis williams, who now plays for the 76ers 11.4 ppg. I really wouldn't be complaining...you'll see