OU Signs High School Guard Frank Booker
Georgia product averaged 27.9 points and 4.0 3-pointers per game as a senior.
Frank Booker
April 19, 2013
NORMAN, Okla. -- University of Oklahoma head men's basketball coach Lon Kruger announced Friday that high school senior Frank Booker has signed a National Letter of Intent and will be a freshman on the Sooners' 2013-14 squad.
Booker is a 6-4, 190-pound guard from Augusta, Ga., who averaged 27.9 points and 4.1 assists per game as a senior this past year for 22-3 Westside High School. A first-team all-area selection and the Region 3-AA Player of the Year, Booker led the Patriots to the Region 3-AA title and to the second round of the Class AA state tournament. He was MVP of the Upstate Holiday Classic (28.9 ppg) and the Lake Marion Christmas Invitational (32.0 ppg) in December, and was named the South Team's MVP at the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association All-Star Basketball Showcase in March (20 points).
A noted 3-point shooter, Booker drained 99 treys as a senior (4.0 per game) and 79 as a junior (2.8 per game). He shot .810 from the free throw line his senior season (171-for-211).
Booker is also a standout academically, ranking in the top 10 percent of his graduating class. The owner of a 3.7 GPA, he earned a scholar-athlete award from Augusta ABC-TV affiliate WJBF in early November.
OU HEAD COACH LON KRUGER ON BOOKER:
"Frank's reputation is as a 3-point shooter, but he's really just a good all-around basketball player who loves to work. He has a great desire to make progress every day and his attitude about working hard and being a gym rat will fit in perfectly with the guys already in our program. He'll step right in and represent OU in a first-class way."
WESTSIDE HIGH SCHOOL HEAD COACH MARVIN FIELDS ON BOOKER:
"Frank is very court-savvy, is an outstanding perimeter shooter and is very unselfish. If he has the green light to shoot from the outside, you can expect great consistency. I would say he's a diamond in the rough. He started all four years and got better every year. His shooting percentage increased every year, he's gotten stronger each year and he's got a very good work ethic. I think Oklahoma got a heck of a player.
"He can fill it up from the outside. And what I say next, don't take lightly. The closest thing I've seen to him in terms of shooting the basketball is that NBA kid, Stephen Curry. Frank had the green light here to do what he can do. Two steps across the half-court circle, if he feels it, it can drop. I've seen it multiple times. 'No, no, that's too far.' Then nothing but net. His last competitive game was the senior showcase in the state about a month ago and the first four shots of the game were from well beyond the arc and were nothing but net. He walked away with the MVP award.
"Off the court, he's a guy who will do what he's supposed to do. He'll go to class, he's very humble. He's a kid who has goals set for himself and he's going to try to reach them. He's a very goal-oriented kid. OU got itself a player, and a good person, too."
