Blair vs Grooms

[NickZepp]

Maybe Grooms is good enough to beat out Blair. But I doubt anyone has really seen Grooms play. I do agree that Blair can't be a terrible ball handler like he was last year. If he doesn't improve in that area as well as defense, he will probably be beat out.

 

[JBaker]

Carl Blair as a sophomore was as good as Austin Johnson as a sophomore.

 

[skyvue]

Carl Blair as a sophomore was as good as Austin Johnson as a sophomore.

They were pretty even in many ways.

Blair had many more assists than AJ (140-87), averaging one every 5.9 minutes of playing time to AJ's 8.4 minutes of playing time, and AJ had many fewer turnovers (44-91), averaging one every 16.6 minutes of action to Blair's one turnover every 9.1 minutes of playing time.

 

[thebigabd]

Carl Blair as a sophomore was as good as Austin Johnson as a sophomore.

AJ was 6'3'', a far superior athlete, led much better teams, much longer, and was just a better overall player. Nobody in their right mind would pick Carl Blair over Austin Johnson.

 

[WTSooner]

I Disagree. New coach with a new system, everyone has to earn their starting spot all over again.

Yes and no.

Do Cam and Osby have to show up and practice hard to be named starters? Sure. But that is literally about all they have to do.....show up and practice hard.

 

[campbest]

Blair > Grooms.

 

[AdaSooner]

Carl Blair as a sophomore was as good as Austin Johnson as a sophomore.

Carl was actually better at breaking down defenses off the penetration dribble than AJ. There is no comparison, though, when it comes to defense. Austin was one of the best defenders on the team throughout his career. He also averaged 1.4 TOs as a sophomore (1.5 for all four years), compared to Carl's 3.03 average per game last season.

I repeat what I said earlier. Blair has to improve his defense and his ball handling if he wants to keep his job as the starting point guard. That's assuming, of course, that Grooms is as good as advertised, a question none of us can really answer for sure. I'm certainly not willing to concede the starting job to him just yet, which is why I included a very big "IF" in my initial statement.

 

[vbdad]

Grooms was definately brought in to be the starter. If Blair is the better player than he will be the starter but they believe Grooms will be better. For sure Newell won't be at the point.

 

[WTSooner]

but they believe Grooms will be better.

I love it when posters post something that is 100% opinion, yet they word it as fact.

Unless you know the staff, you have no idea if your statement above is correct or not.

There were "better" pg options available to look at if the staff was looking for a definite starter. People thought Chris Walker and Omar Leary would be much better than they were too.

 

[WTSooner]

guys, use the google. you can finds articles and evaluations on both these guys (rivals.com.scout.com,ect) going back as far as '05. grooms has always been the better player. he is a different class of player than blair. if they were race horses blair would be a useful $5000 claimer. grooms could win for $20,000. with that, i hope neither one of them would be good enough to play on an oklahoma team 3 yrs. from now.

Did you just make this up?

Scout:
Blair - 2 stars, unranked ( http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=3403368 )
Grooms - 2 stars, unranked (http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=4166075)

Rivals:
Blair - Unranked, no stars
Grooms - Can't even find a HS profile of him.

Out of HS, a short two years ago, Blair had an offer from NO, a D1 school. According to Scout, Grooms had no D1 offers, and we all know he went the JUCO route.

I've seen absolutely nothing that ranks Grooms ahead of Blair.

 

[cowboysooner]

I don't have any real information just opinions, but I think vbdad is exactly right. You aren't going to bring in another point guard, with Blair having 2 year left to play, that is a juco guy unless you think he is better than Blair.

Again just my opinion and nothing more, but I believe our single biggest deficiency this last year was at the point. We need better point play to improve. Maybe Carl can improve dramatically and be what we need, I'm not one to put anything past a kid. I'm not against that occurring. I'm all for Carl. But unless he is dramatically improved, he doesn't nearly handle the ball well enough to run a D-1 team. At the moment, neither does Newell. This is the very reason Capel was scouring the earth trying to find a point that could handle the ball and the very reason Kruger gave this priority when he got here.

I don't know anything about Grooms, or whether he is the answer, and I'm not pulling for him, unless he is an adequate ballhandler and man defender. If so, I want him at the point and I'll bet the coaches will as well. If Carl or Cal improve enough to earn that job, its ok with me. I don't know any of these kids and will pull for all of them.

Bottom line for me, if you think either Blair or Newell handle the ball well enough today to run a successful D-1 team against good competition, you don't know what you are talking about. Maybe they can get there, but they don't have that skill at the moment. This is an opinion, but it isn't just my opinion, it is the opinion of the last staff and the new staff. I say let the kid that handles the ball best win the job.

 

[coolm]

our biggest deficiency was at the point?

you're kidding...right?

Our biggest deficiency was in the paint. Without a single shred of doubt.

 

[garyeb2]

Did you just make this up? Scout: Blair - 2 stars, unranked ( http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=3403368 ) Grooms - 2 stars, unranked (http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=4166075) Rivals: Blair - Unranked, no stars Grooms - Can't even find a HS profile of him. Out of HS, a short two years ago, Blair had an offer from NO, a D1 school. According to Scout, Grooms had no D1 offers, and we all know he went the JUCO route. I've seen absolutely nothing that ranks Grooms ahead of Blair.

you didn't look hard enough. grooms got no offers out of high school because he didn't qualify. as recently as dec '10 he was contacted by north carolina and louisville. i'm tired of this. there probably aren't 12 people on the planet that thinks blair should be playing d1 ball in a bcs caliber conference. how so many of them ended up on this message board is a mystery to me. i don't know how good grooms will be. but, if he isn't better than blair then kruger made a mistake.

 

[WTSooner]

i don't know how good grooms will be. but, if he isn't better than blair then kruger made a mistake.

I won't bother with the rest of your post, but as to the above statement, how so?

We needed a second point guard, whether he is good, or sucks. We need SOMEBODY that we could run out there when the starter got tired. Newell will be needed for minutes at the 2, so he really isn't an option as the "other" point guard for that reason, let alone that he isn't a pg.

We only had a couple of JUCO pg's to choose from. We needed one. Even if Grooms stinks on ice, you really can't consider it a bad signing.

 

[WTSooner]

you didn't look hard enough. grooms got no offers out of high school because he didn't qualify. as recently as dec '10 he was contacted by north carolina and louisville. i'm tired of this. there probably aren't 12 people on the planet that thinks blair should be playing d1 ball in a bcs caliber conference. how so many of them ended up on this message board is a mystery to me. i don't know how good grooms will be. but, if he isn't better than blair then kruger made a mistake.

On second thought, I don't want to let the first part go.

UNC and Louisville were looking at him b/c they MIGHT have been forced into a situation where they only had one pg, and needed a backup. If there are no other options, really, other than Grooms and the other 2-3 JUCO pg's that were decent, is it really telling of Grooms' talent that UNC was maybe, worst case, going to offer him? LOL. That means nothing.

If Blair was unsigned right now, he'd be getting just as much attention as Grooms.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Grooms was definately brought in to be the starter. If Blair is the better player than he will be the starter but they believe Grooms will be better. For sure Newell won't be at the point.

vbdad doesn't have much history as a poster here, but he's been right on about a few things so far, which leads me to believe he has sources.

Regardless, I agree with Ada...Blair has to improve his defense and ballhandling or he won't be the starter for very long. I'd also like to see him hit an outside shot once in a while, but that may be too much to ask from him.

His strength is getting the ball to the paint and either getting an easy layup or a great assist. I will admit he is very good at that, and the stats show that as well. But the rest of his game is pretty bad...too many deficiencies.

 

[coolm]

I am sorry but there is NO substitute for actual D1 experience. Blair has it and that gives him a HUGE lead over Grooms. period.

He's (Blair) spending an off-season working on his weaknesses while Grooms will just be getting accustomed to his teammates and surroundings.

Blair will start. Grooms will spot him and hopefully grow from the experience.

 

[Big Old Booger]

I am sorry but there is NO substitute for actual D1 experience. Blair has it and that gives him a HUGE lead over Grooms. period.

He's (Blair) spending an off-season working on his weaknesses while Grooms will just be getting accustomed to his teammates and surroundings.

Blair will start. Grooms will spot him and hopefully grow from the experience.

No doubt Blair will probably start the season as the starter, but if he wants to keep the starting job he has to improve from last season.

That's all I was trying to say.

 

[garyeb2]

Did you just make this up? Scout: Blair - 2 stars, unranked ( http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=3403368 ) Grooms - 2 stars, unranked (http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=4166075) Rivals: Blair - Unranked, no stars Grooms - Can't even find a HS profile of him. Out of HS, a short two years ago, Blair had an offer from NO, a D1 school. According to Scout, Grooms had no D1 offers, and we all know he went the JUCO route. I've seen absolutely nothing that ranks Grooms ahead of Blair.

2/15/11 THE CARDINAL CONNECT -"Coach Pitino is stating to show interest in 4 star juco Sam Grooms. Grooms has yet to land an offer from a major program, but, is considered to be one of the best juco point guards in the country. North Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Houston are all activly recruiting him" 2/26/11 The Times Picayune reported that LSU was activly recruiting Sam Grooms. 2/28/11 Tar Hill times- "Here are the names UNC is strongly considering?evaluating as a last signee replacement for Larry Drew. Pierre Jackson, Darius Smith, and Sam Grooms" 3/15/11 St Petersbutg Times. "The University of South Florida is recruiting and in contention for University of North Carolina prospect Sam Grooms.The top juco prospect is also being condidered by other national powers Florida and Kansas" Need i go on? there is more. For people on this message board to dismiss grooms as a role playing backup to blair is misguided. it is incumbent on blair to get much better very quickly if he wants to beat this kid out. not the other way around. now, really don't care who the point guards ends up being. i just want however it is to be better than last years version of blair.

 

[garyeb2]

Did you just make this up? Scout: Blair - 2 stars, unranked ( http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=3403368 ) Grooms - 2 stars, unranked (http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=4166075) Rivals: Blair - Unranked, no stars Grooms - Can't even find a HS profile of him. Out of HS, a short two years ago, Blair had an offer from NO, a D1 school. According to Scout, Grooms had no D1 offers, and we all know he went the JUCO route. I've seen absolutely nothing that ranks Grooms ahead of Blair.

2/15/11 THE CARDINAL CONNECT -"Coach Pitino is stating to show interest in 4 star juco Sam Grooms. Grooms has yet to land an offer from a major program, but, is considered to be one of the best juco point guards in the country. North Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Houston are all activly recruiting him" 2/26/11 The Times Picayune reported that LSU was activly recruiting Sam Grooms. 2/28/11 Tar Hill times- "Here are the names UNC is strongly considering?evaluating as a last signee replacement for Larry Drew. Pierre Jackson, Darius Smith, and Sam Grooms" 3/15/11 St Petersbutg Times. "The University of South Florida is recruiting and in contention for University of North Carolina prospect Sam Grooms.The top juco prospect is also being condidered by other national powers Florida and Kansas" Need i go on? there is more. For people on this message board to dismiss grooms as a role playing backup to blair is misguided. it is incumbent on blair to get much better very quickly if he wants to beat this kid out. not the other way around. now, really don't care who the point guards ends up being. i just want however it is to be better than last years version of blair.