Will this kid be added to the "one that got away" list?

[AdaSooner]

James Woodward scored 24 points in Edmond Memorial's win over Putnam City last night. He's obviously ending his senior season in style. He has put up impressive numbers in every scoreboard I have seen in the last few weeks.

Forget the fact that signing James might have improved OU's chances with Jordan. The question is, will the older brother be one of those Tulsa players that makes us wish he was wearing a Sooner uniform? It has happened before. Will James be added to the list of those that got away?


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q0TDBFseCs&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

 

[stoopified]

Could be,but that is nothing new for all in state talent,not just Tulsa area.Oklahoma is not a bigtime state for college basketball.OU,oSu,Tu,ORU; none of them are basketball powerhouses and that means an awful lot of GREAT state players have not only snubbed OU but all state schools.Do the names Bill Cartwright,Mike Maddox,Kevin Prichard,,Mark Peice,Xavier Henry,Kelena Azubuke, Sheldon Williams ring any bells?

There are a lot of players who want to go where basketball is king,they don't want to be stars at a school where hoops is overshadowed by football.The above list is only a very partial list of Ok hs basketball talent which fled the state. Recruiting stud sto to OU for roundball is tough and always has been.

 

[bgrch1350]

He will only be added to that list is if we don't use all of our scholarships or we give his scholarship to someone of equal or less talent.

 

[bgrch1350]

Could be,but that is nothing new for all in state talent,not just Tulsa area.Oklahoma is not a bigtime state for college basketball.OU,oSu,Tu,ORU; none of them are basketball powerhouses and that means an awful lot of GREAT state players have not only snubbed OU but all state schools.Do the names Bill Cartwright,Mike Maddox,Kevin Prichard,,Mark Peice,Xavier Henry,Kelena Azubuke, Sheldon Williams ring any bells?

There are a lot of players who want to go where basketball is king,they don't want to be stars at a school where hoops is overshadowed by football.The above list is only a very partial list of Ok hs basketball talent which fled the state. Recruiting stud sto to OU for roundball is tough and always has been.

FWIW..We did add D.Alexander and R.Humphrey and they both left the program b/c of Sampson

 

[WTSooner]

He will only be added to that list is if we don't use all of our scholarships or we give his scholarship to someone of equal or less talent.

To be fair, those scholarships weren't available when Woodard made his decision. From everything I've read, Hield and Hornbeak are the better prospects. And we were done recruiting guards after those guys signed. LK didn't know that Newell was going to transfer, or maybe Woodard gets and offer. Or maybe not. If OU missed on this kid, so did a lot of other schools. His offer list, even given that he had a younger brother that was suppose to be a stud, was pretty average.

FWIW..We did add D.Alexander and R.Humphrey and they both left the program b/c of Sampson

There haven't been too many Oklahoma studs that turned down OU/OSU, and didn't go to a basketball powerhouse. There is NOTHING to be upset about when that happens. If I was a kid that grew up in Oklahoma, but wasn't a huge Sooner fan, I'd probably pick KU/Duke/NC over OU as well. That isn't a knock on OU.

And Deangelo Alexander didn't leave OU b/c of Sampson. He left because he cheated in school, got caught, and was going to miss the entire next season, so he transferred. And Hump has admitted leaving was a mistake, and he and Sampson are still close. Whomever told Hump he could be the next Scottie Pippen should be locked away.

And OU has recruited guys like Tisdale and King and from Oklahoma. Bookout. Ere went the JUCO route, but OU was going to get him out of HS too. James Hall who never qualified (still the best OK HS player I've ever seen). Renzi Stone had some nice offers if I remember right.

 

[scrybe]

OU,oSu,Tu,ORU; none of them are basketball powerhouses and that means an awful lot of GREAT state players have not only snubbed OU but all state schools.

Oklahoma WAS a basketball powerhouse as recently as the early 2000s. But we let Sampson get away and we haven't been the same since (That's no knock on Kruger; I believe we will return to the powerhouse plateau under our current coach).

 

[TheGimper]

Oklahoma WAS a basketball powerhouse as recently as the early 2000s. But we let Sampson get away and we haven't been the same since (That's no knock on Kruger; I believe we will return to the powerhouse plateau under our current coach).

Not to nitpick, and we all know what happened after this, but we did go to an Elite 8 after Sampson.

 

[Max Power]

Not to nitpick, and we all know what happened after this, but we did go to an Elite 8 after Sampson.

and we went to a Final Four with Him

 

[bgrch1350]

and we went to a Final Four with Him

It might as well been the championship game with Capel b/c thats who we lost too...The Champions(UNC).

 

[SilliSooner]

Could be,but that is nothing new for all in state talent,not just Tulsa area.Oklahoma is not a bigtime state for college basketball.OU,oSu,Tu,ORU; none of them are basketball powerhouses and that means an awful lot of GREAT state players have not only snubbed OU but all state schools.Do the names Bill Cartwright,Mike Maddox,Kevin Prichard,,Mark Peice,Xavier Henry,Kelena Azubuke, Sheldon Williams ring any bells?

There are a lot of players who want to go where basketball is king,they don't want to be stars at a school where hoops is overshadowed by football.The above list is only a very partial list of Ok hs basketball talent which fled the state. Recruiting stud sto to OU for roundball is tough and always has been.

Bill Cartwright?

Did you mean Winford Boynes?

 

[stoopified]

Bill Cartwright?

Did you mean Winford Boynes?

No,I meant Cartwright but Boynes was the other Capitol Hill product that left the state that I was trying to think of.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Bill Cartwright?

Did you mean Winford Boynes?

Azuibuike was committed to OU but Bookout and D. Alexander weren't going to play with Kelenna, so Sampson pulled his offer to get Alexander and Bookout. Kelenna's dad was a headcase anyway and KS probably didn't want that headache.

Mike Maddox and Kevin Pritchard weren't even recruited by OU because they weren't considered to be that good. Neither were ever AA level or even All conference players but good solid players at KU. When Pritchard was recruited, we had Mookie, we all know which of the 2 was the better player. I'd say Tubbs knew what he was doing there. When Maddox was recruited, we had Jackie Jones, Damon Patterson, William Cheese Davis, etc., and all of those players were better than Maddox.

Henry and Williams never considered OU, so we never had a chance with them anyway.

Price wouldn't come to OU because at the time we were a nobody in basketball and his dad was mad at OU for not offering him the HC job when Bliss left. I don't remember if Tubbs recruited him, but I would guess he did.

 

[Big Old Booger]

FWIW..We did add D.Alexander and R.Humphrey and they both left the program b/c of Sampson

I don't really know where you come up with your information, but you really need to check your facts. :facepalm

 

[OUHoops]

D'Andre Wright from Lawton is definitely going to be on there. Sam's gonna have a video of him in a couple weeks with some of his junior highlights. I've seen some of it and it's going to hurt to watch. What a great get he's going to be for Tulsa.

 

[mattham4]

Price wouldn't come to OU because at the time we were a nobody in basketball and his dad was mad at OU for not offering him the HC job when Bliss left. I don't remember if Tubbs recruited him, but I would guess he did.

Yes, Billy recruited Mark and we did have a shot but you're right, Denny held a grudge for a LONG time about being passed over.

Obviously the situation wasn't something that couldn't be overcome (Brent ended up here under Tubbs). GA Tech wasn't a "somebody" in basketball but Cremins and his staff did a great job recruiting Mark.

 

[vbdad]

Cartwright is from Elk Grove California. He did play with Winfred Boynes.

We recruited Mark Price extremely hard. If he had come to Norman we would have won a national championship with he and Tisdale.

We did recruit Kevin Pritchard and Mike Maddox. Pritchard harder than Maddox. They both went to KU and were good players but not superstars. Billy had it rolling at that time but Pritchard would have helped us. Dumas was the star Maddox's year and he went to the aggies.

 

[mattham4]

Did we recruit Steve Hale or was he a "given" to go to a national power?

 

[sportsfan]

If Oklahoma has a player that is D-1 I think OU should offer. If the player decides to go somewhere else it is on the player and the school doesn't look bad for not offering.

 

[rickjames]

Huge mistake not recruiting Ekpe Udoh from Edmond. He and BG together would have been absolutely sick

 

[cowboysooner]

We didn't offer Mark Price until very late and after he had already committed to G. Tech. We offered, he considered us, and we were his dream school, but he just decided to honor his committment. I don't see anything wrong with that.

I don't really blame Billy on Mark. He was a little thin skinny kid that nobody thought could play D-1, except GTech. After he scored about 1000 points on Booker T and Wayman, everyone including Billy changed their minds. Kid has the integrity to keep his word to Cremins. Again, what is wrong with that. Like someone said, we would have been unstoppable with Mark and Waymon. His game against Booker T was the best single game performance I have ever seen in high school. They "boxed and I" him the entire game. Can't remember the kids name, maybe someone else on here will, but Booker T had a kid run into the tunnel and start guarding him before warmup just to intimidate him. Obviously didn't work. Boy, that was one unbelivable Booker T team -- what talent.

Sampson made a huge mistake failing to recruit Epke. I don't know what happened there. You could see his talent. It would be interesting to know what happened there. Kelvin didn't recruit or offer Obi until late in the process as well. I thought we should have offered him all along as well. Again, don't know if there was something other than Sampson wanting to go in another direction. It would be interesting to talk to Kelvin about it. I have always wondered if Kelvin thought Obi was going to OSU, and due to that, Epke was probably going there as well, and so he just didn't want to waste his time recruiting them. Just a theory, I don't know if there is anything to that. A lot of people thought Obi was a tweener and wouldn't work out in college, and maybe Kelvin thought that as well.

But I'm no expert, and there are a lot of kids I thought Tubbs and Sampson should have recruited that they didn't or didn't until it was too late.