The official Roster Puzzle thread

[WTSooner]

I said the battle will be at the two. If Bieniemy wins it, as I believe he will, that leaves James, Odomes and Martin as the likely candidates to play the three. My money would be on James. He was the strongest this season. If he puts in the time on conditioning again I doubt if that will change,

Eh, I think you are overestimating Bieniemy a bit. He is well outside the top 100 players in this class, and didn't have an extremely impressive offer list. Seems like a player that could be starter good later on, but I certainly wouldn't expect him to start this year over a couple of seniors.

 

[AdaSooner]

Eh, I think you are overestimating Bieniemy a bit. He is well outside the top 100 players in this class, and didn't have an extremely impressive offer list. Seems like a player that could be starter good later on, but I certainly wouldn't expect him to start this year over a couple of seniors.

I don’t expect it either, not right away. Conference time, maybe. He committed to OU so early in the recruiting process (May of last year), that could be why there weren’t more offers.

I try not to get too hung up on who starts. I think we spend too much time on starting lineups and trying to define who will play where (two, three, four, etc.). I get involved in those discussions, but to be honest I see it as a waste of time. Teams play guards and wings at nearly every position these days. Giving them a label is not that important to me.

 

[thebigabd]

Does anyone else see a problem this many players at the 4 and 5?

Muni
Freeman
Kuath
Manek
Doolittle
Polla

Why are they even bringing in Austin Trice if these guys aren't transferring? Or, better yet, why would Trice come here? he isn't guaranteed a starting spot if he does, which is usually a priority for juco players.

 

[sheepdogs1]

Does anyone else see a problem this many players at the 4 and 5?

Muni
Freeman
Kuath
Manek
Doolittle
Polla

Why are they even bringing in Austin Trice if these guys aren't transferring? Or, better yet, why would Trice come here? he isn't guaranteed a starting spot if he does, which is usually a priority for juco players.

Quality over quantity.

 

[Ghost of Gar Heard]

Agreed. I would also add best handles along with Martin of the players on your list. Read a quote from Kruger saying Bieniemy was an excellent defender. Assuming that’s not just coach speak, Jamal may have an edge or two working in his favor.

I've seen Bieniemy play 4 or 5 times. The potential for him to be a good defender is definitely there but I've never been impressed with him at all defensively. In fairness, I don't think his high school coach ever really demanded it from him or any of his teammates, but that team just wasn't a good defensive team and he wasn't at all a good defensive player. There's going to be a huge adjustment to getting him to play good college defense after playing mediocre to poor high school defense.

 

[AdaSooner]

I've seen Bieniemy play 4 or 5 times. The potential for him to be a good defender is definitely there but I've never been impressed with him at all defensively. In fairness, I don't think his high school coach ever really demanded it from him or any of his teammates, but that team just wasn't a good defensive team and he wasn't at all a good defensive player. There's going to be a huge adjustment to getting him to play good college defense after playing mediocre to poor high school defense.

Oh, well. Maybe Lon sees the potential...or, it could be coach speak. We seem to be getting a lot of that lately.

 

[ouleopard]

Don't count on Martin coming here. Does not have an offer at this time.

 

[tmeyer3307]

PG-Transfer-Tranfer/Juco backup
G-James-Bienemy
G-Odomes-Doolittle or other way around
F-Manek-Trice
C-Mcnease-Kuath-Polla

 

[TINY]

Is martin’s offer contingent upon his immediate eligibility? I can’t imagine why we wouldn’t take him anyway, especially with lazenby still on the roster.

 

[WTSooner]

So he publicly committed without an offer? Odd.

 

[CoachTalk]

Hartman RT’d on twitter though.. very odd

 

[OU92Grad]

Hartman RT’d on twitter though.. very odd

As did OU Basketball

 

[sperry]

As did OU Basketball

Yeah, OU basketball official twitter retweeted his commitment tweet, and hasn't removed the retweet. Seems like they would pretty much immediately remove the retweet if a mistake had been made.

 

[usedtobe1]

PG: ?/?
SG: Kris Martin/Jamal Bienemy/Ty Lazenby
SG: Christian James/Rashard Odomes/Kristian Doolittle
PF: Brady Manek/Kristian Doolittle/Kur Kuath
C: Jamuni McNease/Hannes Polla/Matt Freeman

I’m a numbers guy and know we’re allowed 13 scholarship players. I took abd’s list and added Lazenby. That gave me 11.... only counted Doolittle once. That leaves 1 for a point guard and maybe Trice.

Would they take 2 PG’s if they don’t get someone like Trice? That puts a lot of pressure on Bienemy as a PG backup. James can’t do it. WV ate his lunch when we tried to take the burden off Trae by having him bring it up.

I still don’t get where and how Kuath fits in..... he, Freeman, and Lazenby aren’t likely to see the floor much.

 

[sperry]

I’m a numbers guy and know we’re allowed 13 scholarship players. I took abd’s list and added Lazenby. That gave me 11.... only counted Doolittle once. That leaves 1 for a point guard and maybe Trice.

Would they take 2 PG’s if they don’t get someone like Trice? That puts a lot of pressure on Bienemy as a PG backup. James can’t do it. WV ate his lunch when we tried to take the burden off Trae by having him bring it up.

I still don’t get where and how Kuath fits in..... he, Freeman, and Lazenby aren’t likely to see the floor much.

Everything we've heard indicates one more moving on from the current roster.

 

[usedtobe1]

Everything we've heard indicates one more moving on from the current roster.

I think that was supposed to be Freeman, but he has decided to stay.... as reported by AdaSooner.

 

[hoopsaustin]

Thoughts on whether or not any of the walkons could contribute next season, such as Chris Giles? If memory serves me correctly, Giles is the son of a former OU player and turned down other D-I offers to come to OU. Anyone have any thoughts on him specifically? Or Patrick Geha, Read Streller or Marshall Thorpe?

No they won't contribute. They will be good walk ons

 

[CoachTalk]

I think Giles could play spot minutes

 

[hoopsaustin]

I think Giles could play spot minutes

No way. You can plainly see that he's not a D1 guy. If he plays a single meaningful minute I'll eat my shorts. Don't fall for the recruiting rankings he had for a little while.. there's a reason he's a walk on

 

[skyvue]

No way. You can plainly see that he's not a D1 guy. If he plays a single meaningful minute I'll eat my shorts. Don't fall for the recruiting rankings he had for a little while.. there's a reason he's a walk on

My father, who's not a coach, but has been watching basketball for at least 70 of his 89 years, was telling me just last night that he thinks Giles might be a spot option, too (I'd forgotten all about Giles, myself).

Given he had some D1 offers, I suspect the reason he's a walk-on may not be the one you have in mind. He clearly could have accepted one of those offers and NOT been a walk-on.