The obvious truth is that Jai Lucas is not coming to Oklahoma leaving us to ask the question, "Who is going to take the ball up the floor for the men's basketball team next season?" Since the point guard by committee experiment was a failure last season Jeff Capel announced Monday that Omar Leary has signed a national letter of intent with Oklahoma and will be here for the 2007-08 season.
Leary was a first-team National Junior College Athletic Association All-American point guard for Northeastern (Colo.) Junior College. He started 31 of his 32 games at Northeastern last season and averaged 14.0 points, 2.5 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.8 steals in 28.6 minutes per game. He has two years of eligibility left at Oklahoma.
This may sound like sour grapes but I have grown tired of the Jai Lucas circus. For a guy who hasn't set foot on a college basketball court and isn't even a top 10 recruit there is way too much hoopla about him. He could turn out to be an All-American but at this point I would gladly take a kid who actually is an All-American even if it is at the Junior College level.
Last season Leary led his team to the national tournament in Hutchinson, Kan., where he earned all-tournament honors. With averages of 21.5 points and 5.5 assists over four games (his team went 3-1), Leary was the tournament's third-leading scorer and top assists man. He also went 13-for-30 from 3-point range (.433).
This is the guy we need! He's beyond the freshman learning curve and has the ability to both run the floor and become a threat to score. Looking at what Capel did last season without a true point guard you have to be ecstatic about what this team can do with a true point guard along with the rest of this freshman class.
Here's what his former coach at Northeastern had to say about him.
Things are definitely looking up!
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