He would have really helped ISU had he redshirted as a freshman. Not sure was ISU coaches do not persuade freshman to redshirt more often instead of having them sit on the bench. Doesn't make sense to me. Oftentimes they just need time to mature physically.
This day in age with recruiting these kids are told how great they are an probably over-promised playing time just to get a chance at signing some of them so I doubt the staff was telling him when they were recruiting him "you probably won't play much while Monte Morris is here so if you commit we would like to redshirt you for a year." I'm guessing he would not have signed at ISU if redshirting his freshman year was a likely possibility when he also had multiple offers from other D1 schools including at least 2 or 3 other Big 12 schools if I recall.
Just look at the high number of transfers every year lately. Doesn't matter who you are, a lot of these kids expect to play meaningful minutes right away so I doubt voluntary redshirts are as common as they used to be. In football it's a much easier sell because unless you are a high profile recruit, you likely will not play much if at at all at a power 5 school and the redshirt season makes sense physically and maturity wise to get a shot at cracking the 2 deep right away after sitting the year out.
I'm glad Custer found success at Layola. The MVC is a 1 bid league so had they slipped up in the MVC tourney they probably would not have even made the dance. There is no guarantee that had he stayed at ISU he would have become the player he turned into. There is a huge difference in the level of talent in the MVC vs the Big 12. I'm just glad that he's getting his 1 shining moment right now because he seems like a good kid that works hard and found a situation where he is happy and succeeding.