Villanova should be the model for this program

[Eielson]

Go back and look at their recruits. Brunson was a highly regarded 5 star guard, but the rest of these guys were in the top 50-100 range, which is exactly where OU has historically gotten players in.

And yes, Villanova has elevated their program above where OU has been. But when they were recruiting these guys they were very much in the neighborhood of a team like OU.

Yeah, Villanova isn't recruiting like Kentucky, Duke, KU, etc. Most of their guys could have been reasonably recruited at OU. In fact, Scottie Reynolds, one of Wright's better players, signed an LOI to come here. Guys like Sumpter, Ray, and Foye don't look that much different than Hield, Cousins, and Hornbeak coming out of HS.

 

[hoopsaustin]

Go back and look at their recruits. Brunson was a highly regarded 5 star guard, but the rest of these guys were in the top 50-100 range, which is exactly where OU has historically gotten players in.

And yes, Villanova has elevated their program above where OU has been. But when they were recruiting these guys they were very much in the neighborhood of a team like OU.

Spot on.

 

[thebigabd]

OU's kind of in a weird position from a roster perspective.... It's one of those deals where they will return a lot of guys from bad teams. Is it better they are back? Or is it worse that they can't go out and reload on different players?

Also some weird log-jams... Doolittle, Manek, Kur, McNease, Polla, Freeman... That's a lot of forwards. But can you count Polla and Freeman?

So you think OU needs more players in the paint but they have 5 or 6 scholarship players in there... So don't recruit more post players, only guards? But then you have James, McGusty, Odomes, Bienemy, Shepherd... many of them have been around for a few years, but it was on bad teams.

Could either be a great roster situation or a horrible one.

 

[sperry]

Yea... OU can't recruit like that. OU needs to really build a team and not recruit the best available player. Fill out roles on the team and get good, fundamental players. You can nab your star player every now and then but the heart of the team needs to be good, tough players.

As for next season.... what are the needs? I think rebounding, defense, and shooting are needed. Of course, you need a point guard or some kind of combo guard to fill that role assuming Trae Young is gone.

Couple of juco names floating around... Antun Maricevic and Ricky Torres... These guys fit what OU needs next season.

Antun is from Croatia, playing at Casper CC. Averages 16/8, can shoot, 83% foul shooter, and is 6'10'' 245.. Supposed to be like Vladimir Broadziansky down at TCU. Fits right in at PF next to McNease. OU does not have a Croatian Sensation, and I think I speak for everyone saying they need one. Maryland, Wichita State, UCONN, OSU, and a few others are after him now and his recruitment is opening up.

Ricky Torres is a 6'3'' combo guard from Missouri West Plains CC... Shoots 43% from the 3pt line and averages 17 points, 8 assists, and 5 rebounds per game... Recruitment starting to open up and has offers from Virginia Tech, Washington State, and a few others early in the period.

Add a couple guys like that to Kur Kuath and Jamal Bienemy and you had a heck of a recruiting class for OU. Nothing too fancy, but good, solid basketball players to fill roles.

Good lord, do a LITTLE bit of research. Again, Villanova's guys aren't elite 5 star kids. Here are the guys that have made up their run of the 5 years:


Daniel Ochefu #42(Competition: Temple, Virginia, WVU)
Ryan Arcidiacono #57 (Competition: BC, Florida, Georgetown, Notre Dame)
Kris Jenkins #74 (Competition: Clemson, Miami, Rutgers, Xavier)
Josh Hart # 84 (Competition: Arizona, Georgetown, Memphis, NC State)
Phil Booth #85 (Competition: Georgetown, Iowa, Indiana, SMU, Virginia)
Mikal Bridges #95 (Competition: Seton Hall, South Carolina, Virginia Tech)
Jalen Brunson #20 (Competition: Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Virginia)
Donte Divicenzo #120 (Competition: BC, Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse)


OU can absolutely get players on this level. In fact, Buddy Hield and Jelon Hornbeak fit this profile almost identically, and they were signed in Lon's first class when the team was coming off a disastrous 3 year run.

 

[sperry]

OU's kind of in a weird position from a roster perspective.... It's one of those deals where they will return a lot of guys from bad teams. Is it better they are back? Or is it worse that they can't go out and reload on different players?

Also some weird log-jams... Doolittle, Manek, Kur, McNease, Polla, Freeman... That's a lot of forwards. But can you count Polla and Freeman?

So you think OU needs more players in the paint but they have 5 or 6 scholarship players in there... So don't recruit more post players, only guards? But then you have James, McGusty, Odomes, Bienemy, Shepherd... many of them have been around for a few years, but it was on bad teams.

Could either be a great roster situation or a horrible one.

It's the ratio. The ratio of 6 guards (one of whom in Odomes doesn't really play like a guard) to 6 big men. You want like an 8-5 guard to post ratio.

 

[cjhsooner]

I always forget about that title they had in the 80's, that already made them 100% better than OU, who has none. And I also forgot about their location, 300 miles from 70 million people...whereas OU is in the middle of a basketball canyon. Yeah, completely comparable programs that are nearly the same level.

 

[sperry]

I always forget about that title they had in the 80's, that already made them 100% better than OU, who has none. And I also forgot about their location, 300 miles from 70 million people...whereas OU is in the middle of a basketball canyon. Yeah, completely comparable programs that are nearly the same level.

Man, a whole lot of dumb in this post.

 

[mict085]

We need to recruit better athletes and better basketball players. We have too many unathletic players. Too many weaklings. They have neither the strength nor the basketball IQ to be good players.

I agree with OP that OU could mirror what Villanova is doing, if we had the coaching staff to do it. But, we don’t.

 

[thebigabd]

You feeling ok, Sperry? You've been pretty hostile lately. Things going ok up in Sperry, OK for you? What's got you down buddy? You can tell us....

 

[sperry]

You feeling ok, Sperry? You've been pretty hostile lately. Things going ok up in Sperry, OK for you? What's got you down buddy? You can tell us....

No connection to that town. And no more hostile than usual.

 

[mict085]

I always forget about that title they had in the 80's, that already made them 100% better than OU, who has none. And I also forgot about their location, 300 miles from 70 million people...whereas OU is in the middle of a basketball canyon. Yeah, completely comparable programs that are nearly the same level.

This is completely inaccurate. There is plenty of talent from Kansas City to houston, OU’s traditional recruiting ground, to build a national title roster. Our location is not the problem. Mediocre recruiting and too many busts are the biggest problem.

We really need some major roster turnover, but we’re unlikely to see it. This kind of team is exactly what you can expect when you recruit these types of players. Our roster is kind of a mess.

 

[sperry]

This is completely inaccurate. There is plenty of talent from Kansas City to houston, OU’s traditional recruiting ground, to build a national title roster. Our location is not the problem. Mediocre recruiting and too many busts are the biggest problem.

We really need some major roster turnover, but we’re unlikely to see it. This kind of team is exactly what you can expect when you recruit these types of players. Our roster is kind of a mess.

Plus, we can recruit East coast guys as long as we're not shooting for the cream of the crop. It's not unreasonable for OU to expect to be able to sign 2 top 150 kids plus a transfer or under the radar kid in every class. Hell we did it in this last class, the problem being Trae turned out to be too good and will be a one and done.

 

[cjhsooner]

This is completely inaccurate. There is plenty of talent from Kansas City to houston, OU’s traditional recruiting ground, to build a national title roster. Our location is not the problem. Mediocre recruiting and too many busts are the biggest problem.

We really need some major roster turnover, but we’re unlikely to see it. This kind of team is exactly what you can expect when you recruit these types of players. Our roster is kind of a mess.

We did land a few, you are right. Under Capel. And look what happened: he got OU is hot water with the NCAA. OU is not a power of any sorts in basketball, and usually get sloppy seconds, unless the kid is from Oklahoma, or has hefty family ties here (Harmon). Hield was not highly sought after. Until OU gets a coach who can land those kids, this is the product we will have. 2018 may be the worst year in 20 years.

 

[topcat]

We should have capitalized on a FF run and got in on a few elite players. Evaluation and development led the program to a 10th and 9th in the conference finish.

 

[thebigabd]

We did land a few, you are right. Under Capel. And look what happened: he got OU is hot water with the NCAA. OU is not a power of any sorts in basketball, and usually get sloppy seconds, unless the kid is from Oklahoma, or has hefty family ties here (Harmon). Hield was not highly sought after. Until OU gets a coach who can land those kids, this is the product we will have. 2018 may be the worst year in 20 years.

Some truth to that, only it doesn't have to be that way. OU needs to find really good players who fill roles and fit well together. As we have already discussed, OU's roster situation is a mess. It's a result of going after best player available and not filling needs and positions to create a cohesive team.

They need to do a better job scouting and get players we "need" earlier in the process instead of chasing the big guns around for too long.

 

[sperry]

We did land a few, you are right. Under Capel. And look what happened: he got OU is hot water with the NCAA. OU is not a power of any sorts in basketball, and usually get sloppy seconds, unless the kid is from Oklahoma, or has hefty family ties here (Harmon). Hield was not highly sought after. Until OU gets a coach who can land those kids, this is the product we will have. 2018 may be the worst year in 20 years.

Hield's profile was almost identical to the guys that Nova gets.

 

[Matthew G]

We should have capitalized on a FF run and got in on a few elite players. Evaluation and development led the program to a 10th and 9th in the conference finish.

Except we did. We got the #27 recruiting class in the nation and the 3rd best in the Big 12 after the final four. You guys just call those players trash though.

 

[mict085]

Except we did. We got the #27 recruiting class in the nation and the 3rd best in the Big 12 after the final four. You guys just call those players trash though.

You can look at recruiting rankings or you can watch the players. They’re weak, physically and mentally, and we need better players. We need better, stronger athletes and more talented players.

 

[Matthew G]

You can look at recruiting rankings or you can watch the players. They’re weak, physically and mentally, and we need better players. We need better, stronger athletes and more talented players.

Don’t say we didn’t capitalize on the final four run when McGusty was the highest rated recruit since the Capel days. That class following the final four is our highest ranked class in the Kruger era. So we did capitalize on it based on recruiting rankings. The players themselves likely don’t fit our offensive style, which is different than saying we need more talented players. OU doesn’t get high talent players. Buddy wasn’t a high talent player. Cousins wasn’t a high talent player. They became great players through their work ethic.

 

[vbdad]

We need a leader desperately. They have had no leadership for two years. Jordan's issues last year really hurt the team and this year we tried to give it to a freshman. He was great but a leader he was not.

We need toughness in the program. Some of this is just luck but we have to get more physical and mentally tough.

We have to get some guards and wings who can dribble the ball. Rashard, CJ, and Doolittle all struggle with more than a dribble or two. McGusty is slightly better but once he starts dribbling he only can see the bucket.