|
November 10, 2011
Henry Is a Sooner
Eddie Radosevich
SoonerScoop.com Less than 24 hours after officially announcing the signing of two Rivals150 players in Buddy Heild and Jelon Hornbeak Oklahoma basketball head coach Lon Kruger received more good news Wednesday afternoon with the commitment of 6-foot-9, 200- pound three-star Jarion Henry.
"I had a long talk with my Mom and she wanted me to go there and keep me around but more importantly I thought it was a good fit for my style of play. Oklahoma has good fans and new coach and everybody is going to want to know what he's about so I thought it would be good to start with somebody new and everything," said Henry, who is the son of former Sooner Skeeter Henry (1988-90).
"He's always said it was good town and good fans and that if you give them a show they are going to come out and support and I felt good about that."
Henry, who hopes to enroll at Oklahoma in January, is hoping to petition the NCAA Clearinghouse for a mid-semester enrollment.
"I should be enrolling in January and I'm going to try and see if I can come in and play. I'm going to try and see if I get cleared by the NCAA and I could be ready right when Big 12 conference play starts," said Henry.
Currently enrolled at La Jolla Prep the Sooner legacy admits it wasn't only the Sooners up-tempo style of play and ties to the school that won over his services beating out Providence whom Henry had visited just last weekend.
"(Lew Hill) was just really consistent with me. He had been recruiting me since I was like a sophomore and then he didn't know where I went while I was in Texas. He was trying to find me while I was still in high school and recruit me and knew my Dad but he didn't know that (Skeeter) was my Dad," said Henry.
"People say my game is like a Lamar Odom or Jalen Rose. But Magic (Johnson) when it comes to like 'IQ' on the court. Magic said that himself. I'm actually trying to post on Youtube right now. We're standing next to each other and was calling me 'Young Magic'," laughed Henry.
"It was a like a year or two ago. I was playing AAU ball and he seen me play so after the game he was just talking to me and stuff and they were recording it and he was saying, 'I want to see him do bad things on the court this year'. Then the next year I went out and I averaged 15 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists and we won state my senior year going 39-2."
Which makes the Sooners assistant's persistent recruitment of the talented and crafty big man even more understanding.
"Getting my team involved is one thing that I really enjoy on the court. I don't care about points more so than making plays with me and my teammates. I'm 6-foot-9 right now well really 6-foot-10 in shoes but people say I'm 6-foot-9 so I'm very versatile. I can come out on the perimeter but I can also make plays for everyone else," said Henry in an analysts of his game that helped lead Dallas (Texas) Kimball to a 4A state championship. "I'm getting my jumper right, right now you know so everything else is getting there. And I love pressing. I love that we press like every play. I don't like slow tempo games. That's not basketball."
And as if Hill needed any more help during Henry's recruitment current Sooner sophomore basketball player Cameron Clark and Sooner gridiron star Kenny Stills also helped lead the charge.
"They had been recruiting me and stuff so I wanted to go check it out and got the chance to do that a couple weeks ago. I had never really given Oklahoma a chance because the coach they had before didn't really fit my style of play," explained Henry.
"But yeah I knew some the team like Cameron Clark and Carl Blair who was my host and it was good to get to know him and then on the football team one of my guys is No. 4 Kenny Stills. He's a Cali guy."
With the commitment to the Sooners Henry becomes the third Rivals150 player recruited to Norman in the up-start Lon Kruger era joining Heild- Rivals.com No. 94 ranked player- and Hornbeak- Rivals.com No. 89 ranked prospect.
...More... To continue reading this article you must be a member. Sign Up Now for a FREE Trial |
|