What appeared a couple of days ago to be optimistic news regarding the return next season of Oklahoma basketball guard De’Vion Harmon has now flipped the other way.
On Thursday, it was reported by Riley Gates of 247Sports and several other news outlets, including the Associated Press, that Harmon and OU teammate Alondes Williams had entered their names in the transfer portal.
Harmon had originally announced his intention to declare for the NBA Draft, even though his chances of getting picked in the two rounds of 15 selections each that constitute the draft process appeared iffy at best.
Earlier this week, new Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser told reporters he felt good about prospects of Harmon returning to the Sooners next season, even though the sophomore guard has indicated that he still intended to explore his NBA prospects.
We know from his introductory press conference, after being named the new Sooner head coach replacing the retired Lon Kruger, that Moser was a high-energy, glass-half-full personality. Even so, his conversations with Harmon apparently weren’t as fruitful as he had led Sooner fans to believe.
Either that, or Harmon had his might made up after learning that there was going to be a coaching change, deciding that it was in his best interest to move on, either at the next level or with a change of environment at another school. He would still have two year of eligibility remaining, but it appears that it is his desire to play professionally.
ESPN.com ranks Harmon as the 14th best player available in the transfer portal.
Harmon averaged 7.4 points a game as a true freshman and was Oklahoma’s second leading scorer this past season with a 12.9 scoring average. Williams was a junior-college transfer who played two seasons at OU. This past season, he started 14 games and averaged 6.7 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.
Four-year starter Brady Manek has also entered his name in the portal as a graduate transfer, making it six different Sooners — Austin Reaves (draft), Kur Kuath (draft), Harmon (transfer), Williams (transfer), Manek (transfer) and Trey Phipps (transfer) — who have either declared for the NBA Draft or decided to transfer from the program.
It will be a different looking team under new head coach Porter Moser
Moser did land his first 2021 signee this week in three-star point guard Alston Mason out of Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park, Kansas. Mason averaged 22.4 points this past season along with 4.7 assists and 2.0 steals per game. He shot 44 percent from three-point range his senior season.
In addition, the new Oklahoma head coach was able to reconfirm the commitment of four-star shooting guard C.J. Noland, one of the top recruits out of the state of Texas. Noland had previously committed and signed with the Sooners last November, but there was some concern that he might be reconsidering after the announcement of the retirement of Kruger, who had recruited him.
Noland is clearly the top prospect in OU’s incoming three-member 2021 class. The other commitment is a local prospect, another guard, Bijan Cortes from Kingfisher, Oklahoma.
Moser doesn’t only have his eye recruiting eye on next season, he’s looking beyond that to 2022-23. The OU head coach extended his first scholarship offer for the 2022 class to four-star power forward Zuby Ejiofor, rated as a top-10 power forward and the No. 41 overall prospect nationally by 247Sports.
With six scholarship players appeared to be gone from the program, Moser will likely turn to the transfer portal as roster reinforcement for the 2021-22 season. More than 1,200 players have reportedly entered the portal for next season, and there will be more now that the NCAA has waived the transfer rule for next season only, allowing a player immediate eligibility instead of having to sit out for one season if he transfers to another school as a non-graduate.