ST. LOUIS —Middle Tennessee State is home to eight transfers. Six of them play this year — two are redshirting — and average of combined 29.7 points per game. Two of them transferred from Division I schools, six from junior college. Three played at multiple colleges. One had two years of prep school. Some had grade problems. Some had ego problems. Some didn’t play enough at other schools or just weren’t happy.

They all have a story of how they ended up at the nation’s newest Cinderella school. They all have a long, sometimes difficult journey, that seemed to be validated with one of the greatest upsets in college basketball history. Now, they’re all set to face No. 10 seed Syracuse (20-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) at 6:10 on Sunday at the Scottrade Center.

Here is the story behind each of the No. 15 seed Blue Raiders (29-5, 13-5 Conference USA) six contributing transfers.

Perrin Buford, Sr., Guard, 12.1 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game

Buford had a personality problem coming out of high school in Decatur, Alabama.

“I just had the know-it-all attitude,” Buford said. “You couldn’t tell me nothing.”

Going to JUCO changed him. He realized he wasn’t as good as he’d propped himself up to be. He realized he needed to work.

The first stop was Motlow State Community College in Tennessee. Then when his coach Jerry Nichols left to coach at Southwest Tennessee Community College, Buford went there with him. Buford said he always knew that he was a Division I talent, but at the time, college coaches disagreed.

He used to get attention back home as being one of the best players. But it all died down when he didn’t make it to the D-I level. He said that people didn’t understand what JUCO was and wrote him off. They didn’t understand the work he had to put in just to get noticed by D-I coaches.

Buford said Nichols was the first coach that believed in him. And that spurred his personal development. And when it came time to pick a D-I school, he knew MTSU because he had a second cousin that played there. Motlow was located just a couple minutes away. It was always so close to him, and now it’s where he’s living out his greatest achievement.

“You have to enjoy the process,” Buford said. “That’s why success is so magnified. Because you know what you do when no one is looking. And then when everyone is looking it’s a shock to them. But you’re like, ‘I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life.’”

 

A media member looks at the MTSU roster on Saturday. Margaret Lin | Senior Staff Photographer

 

Darnell Harris, Sr., Forward, 11.7 points per game, 4 rebounds per game

Harris made four stops before he finally got to Middle Tennessee State. He played at two prep schools to improve his grades. He went to Wisconsin-Whitewater, a D-III school because the coach did him a favor. Then he went to Northwest Florida before finally getting Division I looks.

“I didn’t have good grades coming out of high school,” Harris said. “I wasn’t eligible to play Division I right away. So I went to prep school and tried to get my grades up. Things didn’t work out there. So I had to go D-III.”

His grade school coach was an assistant at Whitewater. He was a “mentor” to Harris. His choices were to either go the JUCO route and continue a Division I dream, or play D-III. He chose the latter, but after a year, the UWW coaching staff pushed him to try and play at the JUCO level. A year later, Harris was visiting Kent State and MTSU. On the fourth try, he’d made it.

He scored 15 points in the win over Michigan State, playing just 28 minutes. He was on the court, arms raised high in the air when the final buzzer sounded.

“Just getting here, it makes it all worth it,” Harris said. “It makes the journey worth it. I went on that journey for a reason. And to see it all pay off is a dream come true.”

Jaqawn Raymond, Sr., Guard, 5.2 points per game, 2.1 rebounds per game

Raymond is the only MTSU player to ever compete against someone on Syracuse. And “compete” is a relative term. On Feb. 16, 2012, Raymond’s North Carolina State team faced off against Michael Gbinije’s Duke squad. Raymond didn’t enter the game. Gbinije played one minute.

Not really getting an opportunity is the reason why Raymond left the Wolfpack. He was recruited by Sidney Lowe, the former head coach who resigned before Raymond arrived on campus. Current head coach Mark Gottfried honored the commitment, but Raymond didn’t feel like he would fit in after sticking it out for a year.

Monte Towe was an assistant at N.C. State when Raymond was being recruited. And when Towe went to MTSU, it helped ease the recruiting process and make the choice of where to go easier.

“I didn’t play as much as I wanted to,” Raymond said. “So I talked to my coaches and my teammates and they said the best thing for me personally is just transferring and go somewhere that will fit me.”

As soon as head coach Kermit Davis called, Raymond visited three days later and signed within a week.

And on Saturday, Raymond had the highlight reel play of the day, going up and under on a layup and falling to the ground and extending MTSU’s late lead to six. It’s not Tobacco Road. It’s not the ACC. But he’s still playing basketball.

“This experience has been one of the top moments in my life,” Raymond said. “And I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

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MORE COVERAGE:

• Meet MTSU: Giddy Potts and the making of the nation’s best 3-point shooter
• Gallery: Players preview the Syracuse-Middle Tennessee State matchup
• What Syracuse players and coaches had to say about facing MTSU

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Aldonis Foote, Jr., Forward, 2.8 points per game, 2.0 rebounds per game

Foote was crying on the way home from Missouri State. He was crushed after one of the most painful moments he can remember.

He was supposed to go to school and play for the Bears. A transfer success story from Trinity Valley Community College. But when he was at MSU, the coach told him that not all of his grades came in on time and that they couldn’t honor the commitment.

It was on his way back that he got a call from Davis. He said he could be a guy that would help him in all aspects of life, on and off the court.

“Coming out of high school, I definitely wanted to go D-I. But in high school, as a kid, you’re so caught up in the publicity and being one of the best players on the team,” Foote said. “And being one of the best players around the state (Illinois). There wasn’t too much focus on school.

At community college, Foote had to “start over.” The type of road that no one wants to take, he said. But when he got that call from Davis, it validated everything he went through in going to Trinity Valley the year before and even the difficult experience he had just hours before.

“It all worked out,” Foote said. “Honestly, I believe anywhere I went it would have worked out. I love the game.”

 

Aldonis Foote takes a photo of a teammate getting interviewed. Margaret Lin | Senior Staff Photographer

 

Xavier Habersham, Jr., Forward, 3.2 points per game, 1.6 rebounds per game

Habersham had run out of options when he went to Hill College after dropping out of junior college for failing a required math class.

He reached out to a coach who talked to Swede Trenkle, the head coach at Hill.

“That was like my last option for the summer,” Habersham said. “I had no other schools that wanted me. He basically took a risk on me.”

Trenkle had played with Davis in college. And Trenkle vouched for Habersham when the recruiting process started. He had another offer from Stephen F. Austin, but liked the lure of Conference USA over the Southland. He went from a guy without options to being wanted within a year.

“It is crazy. I never would never have thought I’d make it this far,” Habersham said. “With me coming to Middle Tennessee, I knew that we could make a good run. I never thought we’d come this far.”

Quavius Copeland, So., Guard, 4.7 points per game, 0.9 rebounds per game

Copeland isn’t the first person in his family to decide to transfer to MTSU and play basketball there. His brother LaRon Dendy, currently playing overseas with Provence Basket, played one season at MTSU in 2011. He was the leading scorer and Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year.

“I knew it was a good program from his perspective,” Copeland said. “I knew Coach Davis. I just wanted to come here and play the best role I could.”

Copeland said he visited six different schools after he decided to transfer from Gulf Coast Community College. He considered playing at Cal, but still decided to go to Murfreesboro and play for the Blue Raiders. Dendy didn’t push him to come, but he certainly vouched for his experience.

On Friday, after a Bryn Forbes 3 cut the MTSU lead to three early in the second half, Copeland raced the ball up the court before MSU could get back on defense. He scored a bucket and got fouled, allowing his team to punch back once again after the Spartans made it close.

“We all come in, and Coach Davis gets us to fit well,” Copeland said. “And that’s just how we roll.”

Published on March 19, 2016 at 8:04 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3