Could Oklahoma Basketball Pull Off a Double Recruiting Bonanza?
By Chip Rouse
If you need anything more to get excited about men’s Oklahoma basketball next season after bringing in a top-25 recruiting class that includes the No. 2 point guard in the nation, how about luring the No. 1 player in the class to Norman.
Have you lost your mind? you might ask. The answer is no. Although far from a slam dunk, the Sooners are actually one of four teams Michael Porter Jr. is considering after his recruitment was reopened this week following his release by the University of Washington from his Letter of Intent to play basketball for the Huskies.
Porter is widely believed to be the No. 1 prep prospect this recruiting cycle and won the high school version of the Naismith Award this season.
The circumstances that led to Porter’s release was the firing of Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar, who recruited and signed Porter Jr. and also happens to be his godfather. Porter’s father, Michael Porter Sr., an assistant coach under Romar, also was let go along with the dismissal of Romar.
How does Oklahoma play into all of this? To begin with, Porter Jr. is a close friend of Trae Young, the highly recruited point-guard prospect, who declared his allegiance to Oklahoma over Kansas, Oklahoma State and a host of other top college programs who were hot on his recruiting trail.
Young and Porter reportedly have talked in the past about playing their college ball together, and after it became known that the latter was going to seek his release from Washington because of the coaching change is believed to have reached out again in an effort to persuade his friend to join him at OU.
“They’ve (Oklahoma) got Trae and before any commitments happened we talked about being college teammates,” Porter Jr. told USA Today. “Now that opportunity is back, and I know we’d do our thing and do something special.”
The Oklahoma City Oklahoman has reported that the Sooners do not currently have a roster spot or scholarship to offer Porter Jr., but you have to believe that if there is any chance to get him to come to OU, the Sooner administration would find a way to make it happen.
Porter Jr. also has identified Missouri and Virginia as potential landing spots, and he didn’t entirely rule out Washington from the process after he reconsiders all of his options.
Right now, you would have to say that Missouri has the inside track of landing the young Porter, who has two sisters playing basketball at Mizzou and with his father having previously served as an assistant on the women’s basketball team at Missouri.
Porter Jr. was already committed to Washington before Young, who was a high school star in Norman, made his choice to stay home and play his college ball at Oklahoma.
Now that he is free to go elsewhere – and not have to sit out a year because he has officially been released from his obligation – does the prospect of being able to play with his close friend outweigh the history Porter’s family has with Missouri?
That is a question I suspect will get answered fairly quickly.
Until then, it is exciting just to ponder what a turnaround would be not only possible but highly probable if Oklahoma were fortunate enough to land two of the best high school prospects in the country in the same year.
I, for one, am all in on the idea of bigger and better things to come the way of Oklahoma men’s basketball, much Sooner rather than later.