Biggest recruit that "got away"

[WaymanFan]

For Billy Tubbs, Larry Johnson would clearly be the best player OU finished second in getting. However, the guy who may have "got away" which cost OU a title back in '88 was none other than BRENT Price. Would his presence have tipped the scales for OU that year?

For Kelvin Sampson, the guy we finished second for which may have cost us the '02 title was Reggie Evans. We wound up with Ronnie Griffin instead...big dropoff there.

For the Jeff Capel era, I'm not sure who would have fit in nicely on that '09 team which may have made a difference in advancing even further. The only guy I can think of who would not have altered the makeup of this team is John Roberson.

 

[cowboysooner]

For tubbs, the biggest two losses were Mark Price and Larry Johnson. If we had offered Price earlier and before he committed to G Tech, we would have gotten him, and we just didn't have the money to pay Johnson what Vegas and Tark could pay.

For Sampson, too many bigs to list here, Mason and the Grahams. He came in 2 or 3 on a number of juco and high school bigs that could have made a difference, including Sheldon Williams. The rape allegation probably ran Williams out of town. He also made some recruiting mistakes. He grossly underestimated Epke. I watched that kid all through high school and never understood why OSU and OU didn't want him. It is an absolute mystery to me. He also made a mistake of pulling Kelenna's schollie and giving it to DeAngelo Alexander. He waited until it was too late to offer Obie M.

Please note that the above comments are not meant to diss Sampson, I loved the guy. I wish he were still the coach.

As for Capel, who knows. If he had a good point guards during his tenure (he had good players playing point that weren't point guards), he would have had a radically different win loss record I think. He recruited so many kids at once, I couldn't tell who he really wanted and who was really interested. Of the kids that took a recruiting visit, some of the better players would have been Barnes, Jones, Reed, Hinrick, Carter, Galloway, Lamb (not sure if he visited) and Orton.

 

[jmizzy4ou]

Sometimes finishing number 2 is just a formality. Many of ther named guys never really considered anyone other than their top one, just as many of OUr recruits were Sooner locks from their youth.......

 

[BigTime]

Sometimes finishing number 2 is just a formality. Many of ther named guys never really considered anyone other than their top one, just as many of OUr recruits were Sooner locks from their youth.......

Yeah I was trying to go for a list of guys that we had a legit chance at because I agree that sometimes kids have one team the entire process and the runner up never really had a chance.

 

[OUHoops]

The Larry Johnson recruitment was right before my OU Basketball memories fully kick in.

Anyone remember any specific stories surrounding OU's recruitment of him?

Was it surprising he ended up at UNLV with him being from Texas?

 

[stoops4pres]

How about this obviously didn't happen, but what if it did? scenario: Reynolds and James sign with OU, Maynor transfers to OU with Capel. After sitting out a year you have Reynolds/Maynor in the backcourt, plus James and the two Griffins. Austin Johnson and Tony Crocker come off the bench.

That lineup just wouldn't be fair. Why must you torment us?

 

[stoops4pres]

The Larry Johnson recruitment was right before my OU Basketball memories fully kick in.

Anyone remember any specific stories surrounding OU's recruitment of him?

Was it surprising he ended up at UNLV with him being from Texas?

Beat me to it.

Had no idea Grandmama ever considered OU (if he in fact was).

 

[stoops4pres]

For tubbs, the biggest two losses were Mark Price and Larry Johnson. If we had offered Price earlier and before he committed to G Tech, we would have gotten him, and we just didn't have the money to pay Johnson what Vegas and Tark could pay.

For Sampson, too many bigs to list here, Mason and the Grahams. He came in 2 or 3 on a number of juco and high school bigs that could have made a difference, including Sheldon Williams. The rape allegation probably ran Williams out of town. He also made some recruiting mistakes. He grossly underestimated Epke. I watched that kid all through high school and never understood why OSU and OU didn't want him. It is an absolute mystery to me. He also made a mistake of pulling Kelenna's schollie and giving it to DeAngelo Alexander. He waited until it was too late to offer Obie M.

Please note that the above comments are not meant to diss Sampson, I loved the guy. I wish he were still the coach.

As for Capel, who knows. If he had a good point guards during his tenure (he had good players playing point that weren't point guards), he would have had a radically different win loss record I think. He recruited so many kids at once, I couldn't tell who he really wanted and who was really interested. Of the kids that took a recruiting visit, some of the better players would have been Barnes, Jones, Reed, Hinrick, Carter, Galloway, Lamb (not sure if he visited) and Orton.

Didn't KA switch his commitment to Kentucky? I don't remember Sampson pulling his schollie, but I could be wrong.

 

[WTSooner]

OU pulled their offer to Az b/c neither DA nor Bookout wanted to play in college with him. Had Az committed to OU, Bookout would have went to OSU. That isn't a trade I'm willing to make.

 

[5hrenergy]

Ekpe Udoh and Caleb Green. These were 2 guys out of high school that should have gotten the full court press from Sampson.

Yes, it's very easy to say that but I doubt very highly you were saying this when they were HS seniors. Almost nobody was after Green and Udoh going to Michigan was a bit of a surprise as not too many high majors were after him as well. I saw Keith Langford as one, I think that is a great one as he was very underrated IMO. I think he's tearing it up in Europe right now. Also, Hinrich. Man he turned out being great. Funny how Kansas has done this to us several times.

 

[Sooner04]

For Billy Tubbs, Larry Johnson would clearly be the best player OU finished second in getting. However, the guy who may have "got away" which cost OU a title back in '88 was none other than BRENT Price. Would his presence have tipped the scales for OU that year?

Whose minutes would Brent have stolen? Sieger was unconscious in the Final, and pretty much the lone reason KU didn't run us off the floor in the first half. Brent would've been wonderful to have in either '89 or '90 though, that's for sure.

Mark Price to Wayman Tisdale. Good grief.

What if Tubbs is able to keep Mark Wade happy and has him running the point on the '85 team? Dude still holds the single-game record for most assists in the Final Four.

We were in the running for Larry Johnson until the very, very end.

Kelvin barely missed out on both Hinrich and Langford. But if he gets Hinrich do we still sign Hollis Price?

 

[coolm]

me

 

[WaymanFan]

Whose minutes would Brent have stolen?

For starters, Terrance Mullins. That was the one supposed weak spot on that '88 team - a shooter off the bench. I thought Tyrone Jones would have fit that bill, but he didn't play much that season. Brent may have been the difference. I do remember a direct quote from Billy Tubbs when asked about coaching Brent Price: "I loved coaching him. I wish I could have coached him for four years."

 

[WaymanFan]

The Larry Johnson recruitment was right before my OU Basketball memories fully kick in.

Anyone remember any specific stories surrounding OU's recruitment of him?

Was it surprising he ended up at UNLV with him being from Texas?

Here is what I remember. Larry Johnson signed with Dave Bliss and SMU out of high school. However, he was a Prop 48 casualty, and wound up going the JUCO route. As good as a prospect as he was coming out of high school, he really took off in junior college. Everyone tried to get in on him, even schools who didn't usually go the JUCO route.

Since I have a great memory for useless information, I remember this quote in the Sporting News (verbattum) from his JUCO coach shortly before picking UNLV. It pertained to every school imagineable trying to get in on him: "It's UNLV or Oklahoma. Everyone else is wasting their time."

 

[sybarite]

Larry Johnson
Bad News Barnes
We were in it for Shaq

 

[NMSooner'80]

Tubbs era: Larry Johnson, Richard Dumas (not sure if we had that much of a shot, but he was an in-stater), Shea Seals (see Dumas' situation), Mike Maddox, Brent Price the first time around, Brian Hopgood.

Sampson era: Desmond Mason, Joe Adkins, Etan Thomas (not sure how close OU was on any of those guys, but the latter two were great in-state prospects).

Bliss era: Orlando Woolridge (went to Notre Dame but almost committed to us back in '77), Matt Clark, maybe Leroy Combs (Overton was considered the state's best prospect in '79, but Combs was probably still a "miss" on OU's part).

 

[Sooner04]

Joe Adkins was an OU lock for a long time, at least that's the story I always heard. And then one day Sutton stopped by......

 

[One More Rebound]

Isaiah "J.R." Rider-Billy Tubbs came close to getting him...

 

[dubyac]

not the biggest... but did hear chianti roberts on the radio a few days ago say he was a huge ou fan, absolutely loved billy tubbs and in his mind he was gonna go to ou... then had an in-home visit with coach sampson... and as soon as sampson walked out the door, he looked at his mom and said well, i guess ou is out... apparently sampson had a big personality conflict with his mom... too bad, he was a solid player his whole career...

 

[Sooner23]

Did Kelvin recruit Estell Laster?