Are we sleeping on the probability of bigtime recruits

Seymore Cox

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 12, 2008
Messages
9,126
Reaction score
217
Tobias Harris played twice last night. First he played on a “made for tv” game (meaning that it wasn’t a part of the normal tournament schedule but was produced by the tournament directors for television purposes). That game featured Harris’ Albany City Rocks team against Michael Gilchrist and Rakeem Christmas of Team Final. Harris played extremely well in front of an ESPNU television audience, about a hundred college coaches, and tons of fans. Not getting sucked in by all the bells and whistles, I split time between that game and Cameron Clark’s Team Texas Elite game. Harris later told me that he ended up scoring about 20 points and, from what I did see, he really played with a little extra “umph.” On one particular play, he had Gilchrist guarding him on the perimeter, who he used a crossover to get around, he drove baseline and met a waiting Rakeem Christmas. Anyone that knows Christmas knows that his strength is defense and normally, a waiting Christmas would shake a player into making a mistake. Not Harris, who charged straight for Christmas and rose to the occassion, getting the hard foul and nearly getting the bucket. Although it didn’t finish in highlight fashion, it showed a lot about Harris’ attitude and abilities and the confidence he has in his game. In his next game, Harris again reach double figures, and I had a chance to talk to him afterwards about his recruitment. As far as changes, he didn’t really have much to add. Harris remains open to adding new schools into his recruitment. I noticed that Bruce Pearl and other UT coaches were following Harris from court to court, so I asked him specifically about their interest, to which he answered, “I like them as a school and they’re coming at me hard.” On Kentucky’s peaking interest, Harris said, “They’re recruitment me hard too, as far as top targets and they’re one of my top schools.” He noted that Calipari is a hard recruiter and that he had offered him a scholarship and added that he will visit Kentucky, “probably in August.” Oklahoma, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, West Viriginia, Rutgers and Maryland were the other schools that Harris felt were really putting in a lot of work and coming on pretty strong.

Scouting: While I did not get to see Terrence’s game first hand, Roy Williams was on the sidelines watching Terrence score thirty plus points. Through the grapevine I heard that Jones did so in a variety of ways, including many from fast breaks.

Recruitment: Oklahoma, North Carolina, Duke, UConn, Florida, Indiana, Arizona, Washington, and Washington State are some of the schools that Terrence listed on Friday. He also added that Kentucky remained on the list and that he speaks mainly with Orlando “Coach O” Antigua. Terrence was hearing from the previous Kentucky staff and when the coaching change occurred he described his feelings toward the switch by saying, “it was big. It really changed the whole program around.” Jones currently does not have any unofficials scheduled, but in the past he has visited California, North Carolina, Oregon State, and Georgetown. Right now, I got the feeling that Jones is still looking around and that his decision may not necessarily be a quick one or in the near future.


Seems like these kids are mentioning Oklahoma early and often. I'm starting to think OU is going to get one of these mega recruits, whether it be Jones, Harris, Lamb, or Grant.
 
Last edited:
For the last three recruiting classes, Coach C has landed at least one McDonald's AA. That's pretty damn savvy.

Until he doesn't, I will go into each recruiting year expecting him to land at least one big time recruit.
 
For the last three recruiting classes, Coach C has landed at least one McDonald's AA. That's pretty damn savvy.

Until he doesn't, I will go into each recruiting year expecting him to land at least one big time recruit.

CO,

Good to see you posting over here, bud! Don't be a stranger....
 
CO,

Good to see you posting over here, bud! Don't be a stranger....

Thanks for the kind words, BigTime. I'm just getting back into the swing of this whole internet posting thing again.lol OU basketball is right next to football in my heart, and it always will be. I'm sure I'll be around as often as possible.:)
 
For the last three recruiting classes, Coach C has landed at least one McDonald's AA. That's pretty damn savvy.

Until he doesn't, I will go into each recruiting year expecting him to land at least one big time recruit.

Well said. Me too.
 
Seems like these kids are mentioning Oklahoma early and often. I'm starting to think OU is going to get one of these mega recruits, whether it be Jones, Harris, Lamb, or Grant.

I couldn't agree more. I like the dialogue I am hearing from the top players this off season. Coach Capel (and his assistants) has become a major player on the recruiting scene.
 
A packed house of coaches, including Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel, Kansas’ Bill Self and our own John Robic, watched the 9:55 NY Gauchos and got in a little face time with Doron. Doron knocked down a long range three and used his changes in speed to get around defenders and get to the rim. The Gauchos feature a lot of talented players including Shane Southwell, Muhammed Lee, Melsahn Belsade and Tauron Bailey, who stole the show and had many coaches asking for his name. Doron finished with 16. Shane Southwell, who has received some interest from UK in the past, fought hard for rebounds and had a tough finish in the lane, finishing with 4 points. Lamb does not yet have a date set up for the visit but he plans on visiting Kansas in the future. Self seems to be making a strong push, as he has been to every one of Lamb’s games that I’ve seen so far. The same can be said of Jeff Capel.

He's going head up with Self on Clark and Lamb. I think this next class will be his best on paper.
 
Dirty don't be surprised if we get two of the bigtime names you have mentioned. We're looking pretty good on these players more than some may think. My preference of the top two players I want changes every day. Today I feel the vibe of getting Terrance Jones and Doron Lamb. BOOMER SOONER BABY!!!
 
For the last three recruiting classes, Coach C has landed at least one McDonald's AA. That's pretty damn savvy.

Until he doesn't, I will go into each recruiting year expecting him to land at least one big time recruit.

It would be great if he does but honestly he does not even have to land a McD's AA or monster recruit. Any team that consistently lands 3-5 top 100 to top 150 (and all are in this range) is going to field a very good team. Sometimes a kid that is ranked as a 75-100 player (Hollis Price) can do as much if not more for a program than a extremely elite recruit (Drew). What I really like about Capel is that he is consistently landing strong recruits.
 
It would be great if he does but honestly he does not even have to land a McD's AA or monster recruit. Any team that consistently lands 3-5 top 100 to top 150 (and all are in this range) is going to field a very good team. Sometimes a kid that is ranked as a 75-100 player (Hollis Price) can do as much if not more for a program than a extremely elite recruit (Drew). What I really like about Capel is that he is consistently landing strong recruits.

Most of the last 25 national championship teams would disagree with you. IF we want to win it all (which I hope our fanbase would want) then Capel has got to keep getting top guys (top 30) in nearly every class.
 
Most of the last 25 national championship teams would disagree with you. IF we want to win it all (which I hope our fanbase would want) then Capel has got to keep getting top guys (top 30) in nearly every class.

Thats a tall order. Only 2-3 schools land an MCDAA every year.
 
The kid doesn't have to always be a burger boy. There is a good chance that neither Cobbins nor Clark play in the MCDAA game. Still yet, landing either of them (or both) would keep us at the level that I am talking about (top 30s kids).
 
Back
Top