OU announces Booker signing

I don't know why any OU fan would not be excited about a kid who receives praise like this from his high school coach?

"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.
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When one of our greatest needs next year was to bring in a player who can shoot from the perimeter, Frank Booker fits that description perfectly. He's a great student with a 3.7 GPA. He's a 6' 4" guard who averaged 28 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists his senior season in high school. He also averaged 4 treys per game and captured MVP honors in several events he participated in. What's not to like about this kid?

I have been a Frank Booker fan since he visited OU a couple of months ago. I'm thrilled that he is officially a Sooner now!
 
The same people who were crying for an outside shooter are now crying because we got one.
 
Welcome to the Sooner Nation Book! I can't wait to watch you fill it up.
 
OSU has 3 players in the '13 class who are in the Rivals top 150. How do they accomplish this? Hopefully Ford will coach them DOWN.
 
Obviously Booker can play. Anybody who gets a D1 scholarship has game.

What's up for debate is whether or not he has enough game to perform against top 40 teams and make a difference. No other top 40 coach in the country thinks so. That's a fact. Either OU is the only program in the nation who thinks he does or is having to settle due to no better options.

The odds are against him.
 
bocabull said:
Obviously Booker can play. Anybody who gets a D1 scholarship has game.

What's up for debate is whether or not he has enough game to perform against top 40 teams and make a difference. No other top 40 coach in the country thinks so. That's a fact. Either OU is the only program in the nation who thinks he does or is having to settle due to no better options.

The odds are against him.
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How many top 40 coaches were still looking for a guard, and had a realistic chance given location, during the late signing period? I'd guess not many.
 
WTSooner said:
How many top 40 coaches were still looking for a guard, and had a realistic chance given location, during the late signing period? I'd guess not many.
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That's the point. They all chose somebody else. I don't know the knock on Booker, but given his scoring I assume he's lacking the foot speed to keep up with top flight prospects. Time will tell. We're pretty stacked at guard with Buddy, Hornbeak, Cousins & Woodard so I'm not expecting Booker to play much.

The success of the season is going to hinge on Clark Spangler & Bennett. They have to surprise to the upside.
 
Clearly there is no place in basketball for a slow dude that can drain three's, said nobody ever at any level of basketball.
 
Didn't look slow to me watching his videos. Probably wouldn't call him fast, but he looked quicker than Pledger, which should be plenty quick enough to make a solid contribution.
 
From what I've read, Booker comes from a 2A school. I don't know how schools are classified in Georgia. But, 2A is probably a small school.

He was probably available because he is a small school hero. A lot of those guys don't work out in Div. 1. But, some do. Paige and Clarke come to mind.

I doubt that Kruger would have brought him in unless he thought the kid could contribute to winning efforts in the Big 12.
 
bocabull said:
That's the point. They all chose somebody else. I don't know the knock on Booker, but given his scoring I assume he's lacking the foot speed to keep up with top flight prospects. Time will tell. We're pretty stacked at guard with Buddy, Hornbeak, Cousins & Woodard so I'm not expecting Booker to play much.

The success of the season is going to hinge on Clark Spangler & Bennett. They have to surprise to the upside.
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You're wrong about Booker's minutes. He will be the best perimeter shooter on the team next year. That, alone, will earn him quality minutes. If the only thing he can do is shoot from the perimeter, I might not make a prediction like that. That's not the case, though. He's a hard worker who can also defend, pass and rebound. In other words, he's the type of guard Lon Kruger looks for. I'm betting he'll be an important ingredient in our rotation next season. Remind me if I'm wrong. ;)

You're assuming there has to be a knock on Booker because he signed late. Ever heard of a late bloomer who improved his stock by waiting until the April signing period? Kids like him usually wind up at a mid-major like Butler, leaving us to wonder how the heck did major college programs miss out on a player like that? Nearly every team in the NBA has a player or two most of us never heard of, because they landed at an obscure school somewhere and never got the attention they deserved. Booker is the exception, he was signed by OU. I'm not saying he's a future NBA player. My point is that it's not uncommon at all for recruits who blossom late to become really good players in time.

IMO, Frank Booker was a great find. He's just the kind of player OU needed to fill the perimeter scoring void left by Steven Pledger. Sure it's possible for Hornbeak, Cousins, Hield and Woodward to improve enough in the off season to hit a high percentage from deep. I hope they do. That will keep teams from keying on Frank the way they did on Steven. But if you're looking for a sure bet on our roster to keep defenses honest by hitting perimeter shots, Booker is your man.

I agree that the success of Clark, Spangler and Bennett will be important to our success next year. But the key to our season will be how well our guards perform. Our bigs aren't good enough to carry the team.
 
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Hopefully he's able to create on his own. We've been sorely lacking in that.

25mob said:
Isn't this the same stuff folks were saying about this years team. How about waiting until the team starts playing before we start with the negative post.
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Much easier to be negative than to actually contribute something.
 
I think this is a really good get. By reports he is a great shooter and a PG to boot, so his shots beyond the arc should have plenty of opportunities. It would be nice to be able to quickly shoot our way back in games if we need too.
 
bocabull said:
That's the point. They all chose somebody else. I don't know the knock on Booker, but given his scoring I assume he's lacking the foot speed to keep up with top flight prospects. Time will tell. We're pretty stacked at guard with Buddy, Hornbeak, Cousins & Woodard so I'm not expecting Booker to play much.

The success of the season is going to hinge on Clark Spangler & Bennett. They have to surprise to the upside.
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Fair post.

The knock on Booker that I have heard is indeed his athleticism. I hope he gets into Norman really soon and starts our conditioning program with Yo-Yo as that will hopefully help him.

I am glad that Georgia offered him. I don't believe that Georgia Tech ever did. It is always a bit of a red flag when the major state schools don't offer a kid (usually means character problems or a major defect in some phase of that players's game). In Frank's case, it sure doesn't sound like character problems so one could assume it is his lack of athleticism that kept Georgia Tech and some of the border SEC state teams from offering...
 
garyeb2 said:
From what I've read, Booker comes from a 2A school. I don't know how schools are classified in Georgia. But, 2A is probably a small school.

He was probably available because he is a small school hero. A lot of those guys don't work out in Div. 1. But, some do. Paige and Clarke come to mind.

I doubt that Kruger would have brought him in unless he thought the kid could contribute to winning efforts in the Big 12.
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Augusta (Georgia) Westside High School is in Class AA ("Double-A")

http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-high-s...laces-schools-in-classifications-for-2012-13/

2011 ... the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) divided its 440 member schools into the new six-classification structure. Sixty five schools, mostly from the metro area, will make up the GHSA’s first-ever Class AAAAAA group. The rest of the breakdown is 71 schools for AAAAA, 71 for AAAA, 70 for AAA, 66 for AA, and 97 (including 71 that play football) for A.
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*****
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_High_School_Association

The GHSA currently has six classes, AAAAAA, AAAAA, AAAA, AAA, AA, and A, (called "six-A", five-A", "quad-A", "triple-A", "double-A", and "single-A" respectively) based on the schools' student population. Each class has eight regions, numbered 1 through 8, based on the geographic location of the schools involved. Region 1 of each class is usually the southernmost region, with the region numbers generally increasing as one moves north. Regions have been realigned every two years. Starting in 2010 realignment will happen every four years. Regions generally have ten schools, but can range from 4 to 16 teams.

Currently classes are determined with a clear cut off: schools with 2000 and greater enrollment are placed in AAAAAA, 525 maximum enrollment for class A, and the remaining schools evenly divided between the other three classes. Prior to 2008 the largest 15% of schools were placed in AAAAA with the smallest 15% in class A and the other schools evenly divided between the other three classes. Schools (but not individual athletic teams) can elect to play up to a higher classification but cannot play down to a lower classification than their enrollment places them.
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I'll add this.....

I don't think the game of basketball is so simple that we can blame Pledger's woes on not being athletic enough to score against better teams. First, he did have some good games against some good teams. Secondly, Pledger's biggest problem the last couple of years, or really, his entire time at OU, is that there weren't enough other scoring options. Last year he was pretty much it by himself. This year, it was he and Osby. The good teams.....the good defenses, or well coached teams, of course they could slow Pledger up. They could slow him up b/c outside of Osby, they'd rather have just about any player on our team take just about any shot, over Pledger/Osby getting a shot. So yes, in that scenario.....one that has Pledger/Osby sharing the court with Cousins, Cam, and M'Baye.....he was more easily defended.

The key is to get more scoring options on the court. I don't know enough about our inside guys to know what kind of threat they might be. I'm hoping Spangler is a more athletic Bookout. A guy that can get position, and use his body inside to get easy baskets. A guy that finishes well in the paint. I think we have a good start towards getting some guards on campus that can score. Hield. Hornbeak. I think Woodard will do alright. And now Booker. I still have doubts that Cousins will ever score it efficiently, but the athleticism is certainly there. Add a Harris, or a Milton, or a Trier, or another out of state guard, and we should be improving our guard scoring, probably as early as the 2014-2015 season.

To summarize, one of our biggest problems in the last 3-5 years is that we simply have had too many guys playing major minutes that couldn't score it efficiently. Guys that were almost "black holes" on offense for us. And we didn't have a Najera, or a Hollis, to help overcome that. So we either need a stud, or we need better talent across the board.
 
WT has a firm grasp on what Kruger is attempting to assemble.

He would like is to consistently sign guys like Hield, Hornbeak & Woodard who are only expected to give spot duty as freshmen, a little more as sophs, then take over as juniors and seniors. Solid all around players from the region ranked in the top 25 at their position. You stack enough top 25 guys at their position and you are going to constantly have a top 25 team.

Cousins and Booker are a tad below what we would like but they can obviously still play. They just have a hole that has knocked them down a peg in talent evaluation. Cousins is an elite athlete and raw scorer, Booker is the exact opposite. Hopefully they work out, but if you aren't expecting much from them until their junior & senior seasons it's not life or death if they don't. The guy from the next class takes their place.
 
AdaSooner said:
Nearly every team in the NBA has a player or two most of us never heard of, because they landed at an obscure school somewhere and never got the attention they deserved.
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The Thunder have two guys like that. Derek Fisher played college ball at Arkansas Little Rock and Kevin Martin played at Western Carolina. I see no reason to be down on Booker. I seriously doubt he accomplishes what Fisher and Martin have but he can certainly become a really good college basketball player.
 
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