DenverSooner
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Would you pull any scholarships? I might.
If you were coach, would you cut anyone
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thebigabd
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I would likely declare that no job and no minutes are safe next season, and that everyone will be evaluated equally over spring, summer, and fall practices. I would distribute improvement plans for each player, which could include physical requirements. If they aren't willing to put in the work, they may transfer, or they may not play.
I would also have an honest conversation with some of the players saying they are welcome, but their chances of playing significant minutes are unrealistic and I will help them find another option if they choose. If they want to participate with this team, it will be mostly practice and mop-up minutes.
I would also have an honest conversation with some of the players saying they are welcome, but their chances of playing significant minutes are unrealistic and I will help them find another option if they choose. If they want to participate with this team, it will be mostly practice and mop-up minutes.
SoonerTraveler
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So what else is new. This happens every year at every program.
I would attempt to recruit over anyone and everyone. If I had the signatures of more talented players, at that point, I would go to the lazenbys and CJ coles and let them know their scholarship has been taken by someone else.
Absolutely not. I'd maybe try to convince a kid of seeing the upside of transferring to a better situation for them, but pulling scholarships of kids who are doing what is asked of them is ridiculous. You aren't paying these kids, it's not a job, you shouldn't be able to essentially fire them. The solution is to not hand out desperation scholarships to kids who have little chance of being worth them on the court.
And no player would ever commit, nor would any coach let you recruit their players once you took a single scholarship away with no reason other than you thought they were good anymore.
Now, telling players they aren't going to see minutes due to their performance is a different story and happens everywhere. Pulling a scholarship is an entirely different subject, one that faces massive backlash with every coach and future recruits. You lose the trust of every recruit when you pull a scholarship.
In my mind the biggest problem is offering the wrong kids scholarships in the first place. OU needs better talent - top to bottom. I find it hard to believe that Freeman and Polla were vetted extensively by the coaching staff - the travel bills would've been through the roof if done properly. And I'm sure Lazenby is a great kid, but preferred walk on status would've been more appropriate. Now our hands are tied.
You would think so but it doesn’t seem to affect nick saban, urban Meyer, et al. Maybe hoops is different mentality but it is a two-way street. The player can transfer whenever they want to, leaving the coach high and dry, why is it different for the coach, who is coaching for his actual job?
We don't really have a recruitment problem. It's a development problem.
MsProudSooner
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Or a work ethic problem?
Possibly.
Football is a different animal when there's 85+ players all coming from different areas for the most part.
Also, you named the top end schools, places people want to go, not the middle of the road schools, where they usually don't get top talent, which is what OU basketball is.
As for the last part, players are hurt by that. There's a reason OU does their best to stay away from troubled kids, those who might have issues, whether it's grades, off court stuff, etc. OU doesn't liked taking fliers unless they have some history and think they can overcome it. That has nothing to do with the potential player and anything they did to OU, that has to do with players before them that screwed over schools. Also, coaches get up and leave just like the players do for different jobs. A similar example would be schools who hire and fire coaches every year. If a school decided to fire a coach after 1 year because they stunk, and did that every year, coaches would eventually stay away from that program/AD, because there would be 0 trust.
AdaSooner
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It’s both. I have pointed to a number of examples that show recruiting and player development have been a weakness the past two seasons, when it should have been at an all-time high after our final four run.
mardaddy51
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I’m not understanding jumping ship on Polla so early?! He’s a true freshman! If anyone needs to go, it’s Freeman & Lazenby. Those guys have shown they can’t hack it at DI level. OU might benefit more by just using the Sam Presti approach. Supreme athletes/average to below-average shooters. It works a lot better in college than in the NBA.
As i've said in other posts. Huge head scratcher for me.
I don't have a problem with cutting players that need to be cut, my problem is just who in the world are you going to get at this juncture for next year? Late signing period is usually slim pickings anyway. I was mildly excited about recruiting until the gut punch that was losing Khavon Moore to Texas Tech. And before that getting a commit from a guy nobody had even heard of...
Our best recruiting class came after the final four. Last year's class was the 2nd highest. So I'm not sure where people are getting this idea that recruiting has sucked when it's been the best we've had under Kruger. This year's class isn't technically good, but we also only had 2 scholarships to offer, 1 we are getting a high 3* player, the other is a JUCO UR player.
NY Soonerfan
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I'd put the over/under on career points scored at OU for Polla at 200, if he stays three more years. If we have to rely on him for anything at all, we're in way more trouble than many think we are. I understand he was a freshman, and may still need time to assimilate to the college/US game, but he moves in slow motion, can barely jump over a piece of paper, is constantly out of position on defense and always the last person on the floor to jump for a rebound. And yes, I get he only saw limited minutes, but a lot of his inefficiencies are not from lack of minutes. He's nothing more than a big body to foul people. I hope and pray I'm wrong, but he just looks like a fringe player on a small conference team, let alone a B12 team. It's the eye test, pure and simple. And, coupled with the fact that our current coaching staff doesn't seem very adept at developing big men, it's extremely ambitious to think Polla will ever play meaningful minutes.
And yes, I completely agree on Freeman and Lazenby. I don't agree with cutting scholarships or anything like that, but they are not remotely close to B12 caliber players.
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From a recruiting standpoint, James, Odomes, McGusty, Lattin, Trae, Doolittle, and Manek were all clearly Power 5 players. We beat out other Big XII schools for every single one of them.
Muni has been a successful project, and Shepherd added quality depth at point. Freeman and Lazenby may never find their spot on this team, but I doubt they'll be around much longer. The jury is still out on Polla.
Could we have done better than Freeman and Polla? Perhaps. But the bigger issue is the lack of development thus far from guys like Odomes, McGusty, Lattin, etc. This team isn't lacking for talent.
NY Soonerfan
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I'm probably a bit naive, or giving him too much of the benefit of the doubt, but I'm still optimistic McGusty will develop like I and probably most people thought he would after such a promising freshman year. I just think he got overwhelmed by Trae being so great and dominant this year, and he struggled finding his niche, dealing with less playing time, coming off the bench, etc.
He still showed some flashes of the brilliance he showed as a freshman, it was just way too few and far between, and I think a lot of that had to do with the lack of rhythm he was unable to get. Some of that he probably brought upon himself, but I'm hoping that with a more consistent role and playing time, he will develop back into a 15-17 ppg player that he was threatening to be after his freshman year. If we're to have any kind of sustained success next year, he really has to be that kind of guy.
