Sam Grooms finishes 3rd in the nation among Juco players

[Sam]

According Juco recruiting.com

Final 2011 top 100.

Some other notable players.
"Baylor's player X" Pierre Jackson is number 1.
Redland's Nurideen Lindsey is 2nd (St Johns bound)
Phil Jurick is 6th
Jerermy Jones (KSU bound) 7th.
Stringtown's Tyrus McGee, going to ISU, is 15yj
Rob Goff is 18th

 

[seniorsooner]

The fact that Goff is #18 doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence in this list.

 

[WTSooner]

According Juco recruiting.com

Final 2011 top 100.

Some other notable players.
"Baylor's player X" Pierre Jackson is number 1.
Redland's Nurideen Lindsey is 2nd (St Johns bound)
Phil Jurick is 6th
Jerermy Jones (KSU bound) 7th.
Stringtown's Tyrus McGee, going to ISU, is 15yj
Rob Goff is 18th

Casey Arent #22

 

[thegreyghost]

Arent in at #22

 

[cvangild]

I love how so many on here like to rip Goff as if he sucks. You can't simply just look at stats. Yes he averaged 9 pt/game, but I believe he only played an average of 20 min/game. If you extrapolated that to say 32 min/game that that would be roughly 14 pt/game and around 10 reb a game since he averaged 6. Those stats aren't too shabby.

There is a reason why he was a pre-season AA. We could have defintely used him for this upcoming season.

 

[skyvue]

Yes he averaged 9 pt/game, but I believe he only played an average of 20 min/game.

I'm not trying to dog the young man, but doesn't the fact that he only averaged 20 minutes a game on a juco team tell us something?

And it seems he wasn't taking care of business in the classroom, either, which is the last thing we need.

I wish him well, but I'm not sorry to see him go. Enough with the marginal players about whom we have to cross our fingers and hope that everything goes smoothly in the classroom and on the court.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

Not to "rip" anyone, but Goff is apparently having significant difficulty with the academic side of college life.

Best wishes to him. I hope things work out for him.

:OUbball-logo:

 

[EufaulaSooner]

Grooms is supposed to be the #3 juco in the nation? REALLY?! I would assume that would mean he is big-time. Easily a starter next year. Probably an NBA player. But it seems as though these things are not expected of him. Half the people on here don't think he'll even start for us. And didn't he average single digits in points and assists?

What am I missing? Is juco talent just not that good anymore?

If he is anything close to the #3 juco player, I would assume we are in for greatness at PG. Quannas White was a very good PG for us, and I can't imagine he was any higher than the #3-ranked guy in the country.

 

[rickjames]

Number 2 on the list, Nurideen Lindsey, right down the road from Norman at Redlands. Same college we got Taj Gray from, and a shooting guard who could make a huge impact. Why did we not strongly pursue him?

Btw, it says Redlands is in Kansas. It is in Oklahoma.

 

[WillJennings]

Number 2 on the list, Nurideen Lindsey, right down the road from Norman at Redlands. Same college we got Taj Gray from, and a shooting guard who could make a huge impact. Why did we not strongly pursue him?

Btw, it says Redlands is in Kansas. It is in Oklahoma.

Lindsey heading back east to go to school was a forgone conclusion.

 

[realdallassooner]

Look at the list from the year before and see how many of the top ten turned out to be bigtime players.

 

[stoopified]

I'm not trying to dog the young man, but doesn't the fact that he only averaged 20 minutes a game on a juco team tell us something?

.

No.If you check the stats for Hutch you would see the Dragons played a lot of players.Their coach played 10-11 players regularly.They had one player (their pg) who played about 36 minutes a game,the other players played between 10-20 minutes.

 

[Manicd]

The fact that Goff is #18 doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence in this list.

OR that they have Redlands Community College as being in Kansas.

 

[garyeb2]

Grooms is supposed to be the #3 juco in the nation? REALLY?! I would assume that would mean he is big-time. Easily a starter next year. Probably an NBA player. But it seems as though these things are not expected of him. Half the people on here don't think he'll even start for us. And didn't he average single digits in points and assists?

What am I missing? Is juco talent just not that good anymore?

If he is anything close to the #3 juco player, I would assume we are in for greatness at PG. Quannas White was a very good PG for us, and I can't imagine he was any higher than the #3-ranked guy in the country.

NBA caliber?, big time? greatness? I don't think that list implies any of those things. Not for Grooms or anyone else on that list. If someone else had put together a simular list, the players may have been ranked differently. But, what is telling is that one can go almost 50 deep on the list and see that those players, for the most part, are getting a chance to continue their careers at good competitve schools. And no, JC's don't have the talent that they used to. These prep schools are skimming off some of the better players that aren't ready to qualify. But, with that said, this ranking is another bit of the ample evidence that Grooms is a quality player. He wasn't without options. He didn't have to come here and put himself in the position of having to unseat last years starter to get playing time. But, he did. All that I know is that when he came in here for a visit. And after getting on the court with Blair, He couldn't wait to get committed. As for the "half of the people here that don't think he will start." Well, I think that some people are projecting Capel's abilities and his processes on to Kruger. Mayby they saw Capel bring in some sub-par Juco's just to fill out roster spots and assume that is what they all do. Capel came in here as a 31 year old kid ill-prepared to do the job he accepted. Kruger is a seasoned pro. It is unlikely that they would do anything the same.

 

[Krugerfan52]

Grooms is supposed to be the #3 juco in the nation? REALLY?! I would assume that would mean he is big-time. Easily a starter next year. Probably an NBA player. But it seems as though these things are not expected of him. Half the people on here don't think he'll even start for us. And didn't he average single digits in points and assists?

What am I missing? Is juco talent just not that good anymore?

If he is anything close to the #3 juco player, I would assume we are in for greatness at PG. Quannas White was a very good PG for us, and I can't imagine he was any higher than the #3-ranked guy in the country.

The #3 ranked Juco player last year was Anthony Salter. A 5-11 PG. He signed with Hawaii. He averaged 1.4 ppg before leaving school.

The #5 last year was Andre Clark, the former OU commit who went to Arkansas, couldnt crack the starting lineup on their 13-18 squad, got in trouble then went to TCU.

Kyle Cannon - juco all-american
Omar Leary - juco all-american
Nick Thompson and Orlando Allen - highly ranked juco players

Yes. The juco ranks have dropped of quite a bit.

 

[playmakr]

Grooms is supposed to be the #3 juco in the nation? REALLY?! I would assume that would mean he is big-time. Easily a starter next year. Probably an NBA player. But it seems as though these things are not expected of him. Half the people on here don't think he'll even start for us. And didn't he average single digits in points and assists?

What am I missing? Is juco talent just not that good anymore?

If he is anything close to the #3 juco player, I would assume we are in for greatness at PG. Quannas White was a very good PG for us, and I can't imagine he was any higher than the #3-ranked guy in the country.

There's your answer.

 

[garyeb2]

The #3 ranked Juco player last year was Anthony Salter. A 5-11 PG. He signed with Hawaii. He averaged 1.4 ppg before leaving school.

The #5 last year was Andre Clark, the former OU commit who went to Arkansas, couldnt crack the starting lineup on their 13-18 squad, got in trouble then went to TCU.

Kyle Cannon - juco all-american
Omar Leary - juco all-american
Nick Thompson and Orlando Allen - highly ranked juco players

Yes. The juco ranks have dropped of quite a bit.

Just off the top of my head, I can think of a couple of McDonald's All American's that didn't work out too well.

 

[boksooner]

Everybody likes to rip on Juco talent, but who are some recent successes? ABD, I'm looking at you.

 

[campbest]

Have said it multiple times...All-American nominations for JUCO are based on getting to Hutch for the national tournament. There are plenty of JUCO players who can make a postive impact given they are put in a position to use their strengths (perimeter shooter, rebounder, etc.)

With that said, JUCO ball is not as good as it was 10 years ago.

 

[thebigabd]

Everybody likes to rip on Juco talent, but who are some recent successes? ABD, I'm looking at you.

The problem is not that juco talent isnt available, its that the evaluation and ranking system is bogus.

In the Big 12 this past year, we saw lots of impact juco players.

JP Olukemi came in and averaged double-figures right off the bat for OSU. Darrell Williams was Big 12 Rookie of the Week a couple of times and was clearly a very good player before getting into trouble.

Others in the Big 12 are Jamie Vanderbeken, Marcus Relphorde, Lance Jeter, Ricardo Ratliffe, and there are more that I am not thinking of.

Good juco players are practically everywhere, but you can't rely on the Juco AA tag, their national ranking, etc at all. Marquette and St. Johns were loaded with them. Marquettes top 4 scorers and rebounders were juco players, and they went to the NCAA Tournament.

The best national juco players (If I had to make an "All Juco" type team) this year were probably:

Dwight Hardy (St. Johns-Guard) - Averaged 18 points a game and put St. Johns on his back and into the NCAA Tournament in Steve Lavins first year. He caught fire in the Big East and might of won POTY if not for Kemba Walker.

Darious Johnson-Odom (Marquette-Guard) - Named Second Team All Big East. Averaged 16 points a game. First year player out of junior college. Led them in scoring

Will Clyburn (Utah, now ISU-Small Forward) - Led the Utes in scoring (17.1), rebounding (7.8), double-doubles (8), 3-pointers (62), 3-point percentage (40.3 percent) and steals (34). He was ranked the #53 juco player in the country and he came in and was the best player in the Mountain West outside of Jimmer.

Jimmy Butler (Marquette- Forward) - All-Big East Honorable Mention..Averaged 16 points and 6 rebounds per game for Marquette.

Gary Flowers (USM-Forward) - Averaged 19 points and 8 rebounds per game for USM. First team C-USA. Led them to 22 wins, which is a very good year for Southern Miss.

But, there are lots and lots of guys from the past 2 years who would be starter caliber and all-big 12 caliber guys out of junior college. You just have to get the right ones and not look at the rankings or the juco aa list.