I reported this in Hurricane Alley a couple hours ago, and Embery has now made his announcement on Twitter....Arkansas transfer Keyshawn Embery has committed to Tulsa. More in the Hurricane Alley thread.
New commitment from D1 transfer
- Thread starter Chris Harmon
- Start date
Yes, Rod and his dad, Jermaine Simpson, are coaches for the AAU team Oklahoma PWP (Playing With Purpose) on which he and most of the good Oklahoma kids play.
But we have to give Shea credit, as he was the lead recruiter on him while he was in HS and was re-recruiting him after he got his release from Arkansas.
It will really help that Keyshawn knows all the Oklahoma players, especially those coached by his dad and Rod.
Looks like the commitment is already getting a lot of talk on sports social media. It's big to get a highly ranked player, but just getting people talking about our program has been difficult lately so that's really nice to see. I'm cautiously optimistic that this can help us with other recruits.
You’re right. I was hoping for Rod to be hired (I still hope) and we’d get Bryce, and other Oklahoma players would take notice.
Getting Embery-Simpson should have the same effect down the road. I would love to see Phipps, Embery-Simpson and Thompson all on the court at the same time. Throw in some bigs and as with Harrington, we could bake a cake.
Speaking of baking a cake, I really miss the days of playing against Tark the Shark and Riley Wallace of Hawaii. Two fantastic coaches.
Make that a “BIG” big time recruit and I’ll join you.If we get another big time recruit I may quit whining for a whileray:
Tulsa has been blessed over time to compete and win against some very good coaches and some all time greats.
It's nice to have so many in the AAC who coach at a high level. Now we just need to win even more to keep that tradition to going.
Good job by the staff. Makes me less ambivalent about Haith's future. Really makes me feel even better about Shea (was already a fan) and his future influence on the program.
That’s how it all worked back in the day. Shea begat Hill and Thompson and they begat McDaniel, Reed, Swanson, and Parker. No way Parker would have ever looked at us if we hadn’t had all those other guys, even if his dad worked at the school.
Parker was the last heavily recruited local player we signed. That’s a long time.
We were even in on McDonald’s All Americans. I’m still mad Robinson didn’t wait a little while longer on Humphrey. (Who did we take instead? It didn’t work.). Hill was goin our with his sister. It was going to happen.
Part of it is having good local players. There’s no way there’s a Ray Poindexter sitting at JUCO that we could sign now. There’s no way that Swanson would be playing at Wagoner or Coley would be at Eufala. Just doesn’t happen.
Parker was the last heavily recruited local player we signed. That’s a long time.
We were even in on McDonald’s All Americans. I’m still mad Robinson didn’t wait a little while longer on Humphrey. (Who did we take instead? It didn’t work.). Hill was goin our with his sister. It was going to happen.
Part of it is having good local players. There’s no way there’s a Ray Poindexter sitting at JUCO that we could sign now. There’s no way that Swanson would be playing at Wagoner or Coley would be at Eufala. Just doesn’t happen.
Our bread and butter will always be local, we will go as far as the kids who grew up knowing us are willing to take us. Do it right and the players who don't know will come to play with the local kids who did. That's what Self did, he snatched up the local kids and brought in compliments or pieces to fill the hole, like Sheldon and Kurtz giving us a low post presence or Harrington being a swiss knife player.
Right. And so many of those players like Harrington, Kurtz, and Shelton came because of good recruiting and because we had something to sell. One of my main criticisms of this staff is how it didn’t bring in anyone good the first couple of years when we were making the tournament.
It's possible, but not guaranteed. They'll apply for a waiver and see what happens.
Thanks. What are the factors that are relevant to that decision? Coaching change is the big one, I’m assuming. Is the fact that he’s moving a couple hours closer to home an added plus as well?
True. It seems Haith is okay in everything and not great in anything. Surround him with the right staff and there can be a high level of success. Haith alone isn't necessarily a home run, more of a contact hitter.
If we get another big time recruit I may quit whining for a while
rusty-c said:
Yes....We prob. still have two or three 'needs', but if you take a hard look, a "BIG" that
can play both ends is the real one.....That would really change what we would be able
to do with the rest of the roster (i.e., Horne playing the 4 all the time), and possibly
allowing us to expand what we can do on the defensive end.....
Embery-Simpson is a wonderful start, and it does have us thinking (and hoping) in
terms of what might now be possible...His commitment obviously means more than
just getting a really good player....It may well signal a positive change in the direction
of our program......
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If he's got big onions and it rubs off on his new teammates, that would be a positive change as well.
Yep, we need a kid who wants the ball in his hands at the end of the game. Not sure we've had that player (who's also been worthy of it) since Juice and Shaq left.
This is probably the most important thing of all. Lack of intestinal fortitude was one of our biggest issues last year.
I love the commitment and wanted Embery when he committed to Arky but he didn't show a lot his freshman year to warrant some of the high expectations I'm reading,....at least hasn't yet showed it. .
Mpg ppg rbg apg
14.6 4.1 1.2 0.6
17.4 3.9 2.2 2.1
Freshman year comparison between Embery and Joiner. Doesn't look like Embery played point from those stats fwiw.
Still believe Embery can be a high level player. He just needs to show it before we anoint him as someone whose going to have the ball in his hands at the end of the game.
Yeah I’m not convinced the “highly recruited in high school, didn’t do much as a freshman” transfer is great for us. Have any of them lived up to their high school potential. Scott is a pretty average role player, the St Louis guy never played, Barnes is a TBD to be generous. Any others who have succeeded?
Etou was great and Horne looks destined to be a 15ppg guy by the time he's done
He's still a great pickup especially due to being an in-state kid. Just saying pump the breaks a little based on his college performance to date. Some highly ranked guys work out while others don't.
I like to wait at least till halfway through their sophomore year to judge any player, highly ranked transfer or not.
Etou came as a junior though so we had a little more info on him. Agree on Horne, he’s the one who seems to have the potential to be more than a decent role player. But I guess we need decent role players too (just not only decent role players).
He didn’t contribute much on a horrible team. He might contribute but he’s likely to be a piece of the puzzle, not a solution.
System, coaching, and who you have in front of you makes a big difference. Haith’s system was perfect for Etou.
Hopefully that's the case with Embery. I imagine it's not easy to be a freshman playing Anderson's style
Haith's done well with Anderson's recruits before! LOL
I think Embery still has a shot to do well. I'll criticize Frank for a million things that he's done... but this isn't one of them. I think not being the 5th guard off the bench will help Embery. It will give him more confidence and that should effect his shooting.
I think Embery still has a shot to do well. I'll criticize Frank for a million things that he's done... but this isn't one of them. I think not being the 5th guard off the bench will help Embery. It will give him more confidence and that should effect his shooting.
Moving from 5 to 7 to 12 to 15 ppg is kind of whaat you need from solid contributors. He ended up being good but he wasn’t great. I don’t think he disproves my concern. Which is that these guys who don’t do much as freshmen somewhere else are likely to have a limited ceiling. They turn out to be quality role players but rarely more than that. We need quality role players but this strategy should be limited to filling out the roster and is rarely going to give us the difference maker we need. We take a lot of these guys and I’m concerned that maybe we should focus less on them and more on the guys who can really move the needle. Tho we probably go for these guys because we haven’t been able to get similar or better quality out of high school. That’s not good. But the recruiting issues are hardly news.The info we had wasn't particularly impressive though
I think it’s reasonable to be skeptical of guys that haven’t shown much at this level but I also think we have an unrealistic standard if 15 points and 8 rebounds in 30mpg leaves something to be desired
I think we’re in the same page. Etou was a good player for sure but he wasn’t a great player and to compete in this conference we need a great player or two. I think that’s unlikely to come from a transfer who didn’t do much before transferring. Those guys just don’t have a very high ceiling. Etou was a very good role player and he’s probably close to a best case. Though I think Horne might be an exception. The transfer avenue isn’t necessarily bad but it’s a way to finish a rotation, not to build the driver if the teams we want.
Poindexter ( sapulpa ?) , Caleb Green would gladly have signed with Tulsa . John Phillips blundered by taking Charles Ramsdell instead .
