good update on Sooner Willie Warren

Nice article! Sounds like Willie has grown up since he left OU. He appears to be more mature now, with a better sense of what it means to take advantage of the opportunities you're blessed with.

It would be interesting to know if he would have come back to OU for another season, instead of jumping to the NBA a year early? That's the feeling I got when he continued to talk about exercising patience in making business as well as life decisions.
 
I will always have a special place in my bball heart for Willie. Honestly is a good dude. And I loved his passion and he was a GREAT freshman player and just wasn't ready to accept that much responsibility and leadership as a true sophomore. Not a lot of people(especially a 19yo) could deal with what he had to in those turkeys that he had come in.
 
jackson_supersooner said:
I will always have a special place in my bball heart for Willie. Honestly is a good dude. And I loved his passion and he was a GREAT freshman player and just wasn't ready to accept that much responsibility and leadership as a true sophomore. Not a lot of people(especially a 19yo) could deal with what he had to in those turkeys that he had come in.
Click to expand...

WT is right about Willie and his teammate's girlfriend. That was not a cool thing to do, plus it caused a bit of a rift (more like a locker room fight) with the teammate in question.

Still, there was a lot to like about WWIII. He was a great player and a competitor deluxe. You're spot on about the nincompoops he had to put up with when he was a junior at OU. I lay most of the blame for a disaster of a season on TMG and Tiny. Willie's role was minor compared to those two.
 
I thought TMG was the "bad apple" that influenced Tiny ...... who was a follower. McKenzie was no saint either.
 
JBaker said:
McKenzie? Not sure who you're talking about. Maybe Willis?
Click to expand...

No, wrong year. I was talking about Lawrence McKenzie when he got in trouble at the Alaska Shootout in 2004. Sampson suspended him and 2 other players (Drew Lavendar and Brandon Foust). They all transferred to other schools after that year. McKenzie was ultimately a decent player at Minnesota.

I got TMG and Drew Lavendar mixed up. Both were undersized PG's who left OU early. Lavender was a decent kid who transferred to Xavier.

The 3 went out after curfew and McKenzie got arrested for using a fake ID. OU got in some trouble for paying his bail. No big deal really. Boys will be boys......
 
I never understood the love affair with WWIII with some on this website. He was a cancer and we now know the reasons the big time programs stopped recruiting him. We would have been better off getting Clark who went to Arkansas, even if his dad was a problem, than getting Warren.

I hold him as accountable as anyone for ruining the program from a player perspective.
 
Big Old Booger said:
I never understood the love affair with WWIII with some on this website. He was a cancer and we now know the reasons the big time programs stopped recruiting him. We would have been better off getting Clark who went to Arkansas, even if his dad was a problem, than getting Warren.

I hold him as accountable as anyone for ruining the program from a player perspective.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%.
 
Big Old Booger said:
I never understood the love affair with WWIII with some on this website. He was a cancer and we now know the reasons the big time programs stopped recruiting him. We would have been better off getting Clark who went to Arkansas, even if his dad was a problem, than getting Warren.

I hold him as accountable as anyone for ruining the program from a player perspective.
Click to expand...


Agree 100% too!
 
Lots of blame for the decline of the program.

But man I still get sad thinking of what might have been if sampson didn't get caught and damian james, scotty reynolds would have come.

PG: Reynolds, AJ
SG: Godbold, Neal
SF: Carter, Crocker
PF: Taylor, James, clark
C: Longar, James

Then the next year add blake griffin. geez
 
Not a fan. Hope he grew up and is doing ok in life but his impact on the program was forgettable at best for me.
 
SoonerBounce13 said:
Lots of blame for the decline of the program.

But man I still get sad thinking of what might have been if sampson didn't get caught and damian james, scotty reynolds would have come.

PG: Reynolds, AJ
SG: Godbold, Neal
SF: Carter, Crocker
PF: Taylor, James, clark
C: Longar, James

Then the next year add blake griffin. geez
Click to expand...

don't think Blake was comign to play for Sampson, but the rest of that roster would have still been outstanding
 
dahldennsull said:
don't think Blake was comign to play for Sampson, but the rest of that roster would have still been outstanding
Click to expand...

he would have been here...Taylor wasn't going to transfer anywhere that BG would be able to play at a high level so OU was the only spot.
 
I'm as big a Kelvin fan as the next guy, but I don't think he was going to get Blake. And that is fine. The roster he would have assembled, IMO, would have been better than the roster Capel assembled with Blake.

Don't forget, Kelvin was in on a couple of stud JUCO's that ended up at Indiana with him. At least 1-2 of those kids would have been at OU the following year had Kelvin stayed.
 
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