As Liberty basketball sits here at 4-12 (1-12 against DI competition) and 0-2 in the Big South, many may wonder if the talent just isn’t there right now. Well, this post is not to disparage the current Liberty basketball players since they are doing their best to represent Liberty University and its athletic program. But there have been plenty that have “gotten away” recently.

You are probably all aware of Seth Curry who, after one season at Liberty, transferred to Duke. The Senior Blue Devil Captain has helped Duke to a #1 ranking and 15-0 start. In Curry’s only year at Liberty (’08-’09), he averaged 20.2 points per game. At Duke, he has seen his points per game increase every year from 9 as a sophomore to being the team’s 2nd leading scorer this year at 16 points per game.

Another one that got away is Evan Gordon who is at Arizona State of the PAC-12. The Sun Devils are 13-2, and Gordon is averaging 10 points, 3 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game while playing 30 minutes a game. Evan has started in all 15 games this season for the Sun Devils. Gordon, the son of Liberty standout Eric Sr. and brother of the NBA’s Eric Jr., played 2 seasons for the Flames from 2009-2011. In his freshman campaign, Evan averaged 12 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. Gordon was named to the 2010 Big South All-Freshman team, and was named VASID All-State Rookie of the Year.  He saw his scoring increase to 14.4 points per game in his sophomore season.

A name that many Flames fans may have forgotten is Chris Perez. Perez is now starring at Atlantic Sun member Stetson. Perez played at Liberty during his freshman season (2009-10) before transferring to Stetson. While at Liberty, Perez only saw an average of 15 minutes of game action per game while scoring 5 points per game. As a Sophomore at Stetson, Perez averaged 13.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. This season Perez has turned it up a notch; he is Stetson’s 2nd leading scorer at 14.8 points per game. Perez has averaged over 30 minutes per game during each of his 2 seasons at Stetson.

Patrick Konan also left Liberty after his freshman season to transfer to America East member New Hampshire. As a Junior, Konan is averaging 10.8 points and 4 rebounds per game while seeing 30 minutes of game action each night. In his first year at UNH, Patrick averaged 9.7 ponits and 5.8 rebounds per game. These numbers are up from his freshman season at Liberty (2009-10) when he averaged 6.9 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.

It’s nearly impossible to build a program when so much high level talent continues to transfer.

In this photo you can see Perez (0), Konan (23), and Gordon (far right).


*Stats, records, and rankings are as of January 9th, 2013.