Indianapolis guard Paul Scruggs transferred from Southport to Prolific Prep in California on Tuesday. He’s the third high profile 2017 prospect in Indiana to head to a prep school this year. Here’s an overview of the transfers.

With the transfers of Jaren Jackson Jr. and Paul Scruggs, the race for Mr. Basketball has disappeared for the most part. It looks like Kris Wilkes will have a straight path to the award unless Fort Wayne Snider’s Malik Williams posts a monster season. It would have been a fun race that might have rivaled 2014 with Trey Lyles, Trevon Bluiett and James Blackmon Jr.

Indiana as a state has been generally unaffected by transfers to prep schools in the past. In most areas, especially New York City, there has been a long trend of its best players heading to prep schools. In the past, the kids that left Indiana for prep schools while underclassmen were players that needed academic help. That is not the case this year with Jaren Jackson Jr., Paul Scruggs and Justin Roberts.

The aspect that makes the Scruggs transfer juicy is that rift between his mentor and travel coach, Mike Peterson, and his high school coach, Kyle Simpson. The two worked together with the Under Armour travel program, the Indy Hoosiers. The relationship was fractured last high school season, and apparently, it never healed. Simpson has now formed a new travel team, G3 Grind, with Under Armour.

Mike Peterson told the Indy Star that his relationship with Simpson did not cause the transfer. The transfer seems too coincidental for the cause not to have been the rift. The gossip adds to the narrative, though.

The draw for these players to prep schools is the ability to play a national schedule. The prep schools don’t have the travel restrictions that the IHSAA places on schools. Places like La Lumiere, Findlay Prep and Prolific Prep play across the country all season long. La Lumiere played a tournament in Hawaii last season. That is an easy sell to kids.

Selfishly, I would like all of the best players to stay in Indiana. I do have a healthy respect for prep schools that bring in talent, coach them hard and make them perform in the classroom. From the outside, La Lumiere in LaPorte, Indiana does those things. Daily competition enhances progress and prepares players for the next level. I was excited for Jaren Jackson Jr. since he was going to play against Jeremiah Tilmon (Illinois commitment) and Australian import Jacob Epperson. Both are 6’10”+ and high-major talents. Unfortunately, Tilmon transferred back to his hometown for his senior year. Jackson will still have Epperson to practice against daily.

From my experience, most transfers end up being a neutral or lateral move. They play a national schedule, but the atmosphere and attention aren't the same as the Indiana tournament. They are playing against better competition in practice, but many coaches don’t push the players hard because they will leave just as easily as they came. The state of Indiana is recruited as hard as any area in the country, so the player’s recruitment rarely increases with a high school (not post-graduate) transfer.

The risk of a high school transfer usually outweighs the reward unless it is a school like La Lumiere, Oak Hill Academy, Montverde Academy or an NEPSAC school on the East Coast like Brewster Academy.