High major transfers embrace Tech standard

Amaree Abram didn’t come to Louisiana Tech for a sightseeing tour.

He’s in Ruston to work, to establish himself as a go-to option on a winning team for the first time in his college career. And he’s ready to put in the work to get there.

After spending his first two seasons of college eligibility at Ole Miss and Georgia Tech, respectively, Abram has left the high major level — SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, Big East — to join Talvin Hester and the Bulldogs on their mission to return the program to the NCAA Tournament.

“He (Hester) always has high standards and high expectations. It’s our job to meet them,” Abram said. “That’s what I came here for. I came to meet high expectations. I just want to win, man. I have team goals and team goals will take care of my individual goals.”

And the good news for Abram is he’s not alone.

Two fellow high major transfers join Abram on the 2024-25 Bulldogs, with William Jeffress coming from Pitt and Kaden Cooper coming from Oklahoma as part of the next wave of talent brought in to help aid Tech in its mission of postseason glory once again.

For the trio, it’s not so much a matter of coming down a level to Conference USA and Tech as it is finding a place they believe wants them and wants them to succeed — powerful factors in an offseason built on grind.

Jeffress, taking his final season of eligibility at Tech after four seasons at Pitt, has enjoyed his time in Ruston so far, especially the environment established by Hester and the coaching staff.

After playing in 78 games and 22 starts at Pitt, Jeffress is used to long stretches of work and off seasons built on fundamentals and high energy. But he’s never been a part of something like the Bulldogs have going.

“We’re waking up every day and getting to work, fixing some things I would like to work on in my game and in my life. It’s a nurturing environment to be in,” Jeffress said. “We’ve been in the gym these past few months that I got here probably the most I’ve ever been in my life.”

Jeffress is expected to bring athletic ability at 6-foot-7, 210 pounds, along with toughness and experience to make him a viable front court piece. And with other transfers coming in alongside him, Jeffress knows he only has to play his game and let the rest take care of itself.

“They want me to play my game. They want me to play with confidence and impact winning and help give us a chance to make the tournament,” Jeffress said. “When coach Hester recruited us, even the schedule we have he’s not going to schedule anything if he doesn’t have the dogs in the race. No play on Bulldogs. That’s what he told me. I feel like me, Amaree, and a couple of the other transfers are trying to piece it together and have it work out.”

Hester wants Jeffress to be confident in his abilities, including a strong catch-and-shoot game, and realize that coming from the ACC to CUSA doesn’t have to be the demotion the outside world would make it seem.

If anything, Hester believes Jeffress, along with the rest of the highprofile transfers, just wanted a place where he had a purpose, regardless of the league.

“I think he’s loving being loved,” Hester said of Jeffress. “When you’re a role guy for three years you can start being like, ‘Man I want to step up and do a little more.’ I think he’s loving that we’re on him and every day we’re paying a high level of attention to him. I think he’s embraced that.”

It’s not too different from Abram and Cooper, each coming off seasons as role players at their respective schools. Abram played in just 10 games as a sophomore at Georgia Tech after averaging 8 points as a freshman at Ole Miss. Cooper, a 4-star recruit out of high school with offers from UConn, Creighton, Gonzaga, and Kansas, played in 15 games as a true freshman at Oklahoma.

For both guards, Tech has already delivered on some of the many promises Hester gave them when they visited: opportunity and belief.

“He teaches us on and off the court to be great men, put in work. He makes us believe if we put the work in, we can get to where we want. With that belief, it makes me want to do anything,” Cooper said. “I really came because of the confidence he had in me on my visit about his vision for this year and what he believes we can do as a team. I’m all about the team. If he can make me believe it, I trust in it. It’s been true since I’ve been here.”

Abram also wanted something to work toward, but he had help in the pitch of Tech before this season thanks to a friendship with former Tech standout Kenny Lofton, Jr.

“I’ve known coach Hester for a while. He’s been recruiting me since I was a sophomore (in high school),” Abram said. “My boy Kenny (Lofton) was here too. We’re really good friends and it was just a good opportunity for me and coach Hester to meet again. He (Kenny) gave me a great impression. On my visit, it felt like home.”

Bringing in the likes of Abram, Cooper, and Jeffress seemed like a fantasy just five seasons ago when Hester was an assistant at Tech. In fact, from 2018 to 2021 as an assistant, Hester and the Bulldogs brought in just one high major transfer in Andrew Gordon from West Virginia. Over the last two seasons, Tech has had six high major additions.

With the transfer portal shifting roster construction and NIL moving high school talent around, Hester said the idea of making a team out of young high school prospects, with one or two transfers, is a thing of the past.

“It’s not even so much about high school or coming down. It’s about you only get them for one year guaranteed,” Hester said. “If you’re only going to get them for one year guaranteed, you want to get a guy that’s been through the level and been through the process or are you gonna get a guy that’s never seen it before? By the time he figures it out, it might be January, and you don’t know where you’ll be by then. I think that’s the way you look at it. People have figured out that old guys win games. We were pretty old last year having Isaiah (Crawford), Tyler Henry, Tahlik (Chavez), Dravon here for a fifth year too. We’re not as old this year but we have a lot of veteran guys that have played at other levels.”

Hester hopes more players realize for themselves what they want out of a program and go to a place they feel valued. That was the overall message that got each of the additions to Ruston and Hester is ready to see what they bring to the table this winter.

“We talked more about how as you get older you don’t have as much time to accomplish our goals and you keep wasting time. I think they felt they’d be loved here and they’d get an opportunity to show who they really are and compete at a high level without losing too much,” Hester said. “With those guys, I feel like we can compete at a high level as a team. It’s not like you’re going to a place 10 light years away from where you were. It’s a place that competes with the places that you were at.”