Guard Joe Bamisile never planned to be going through the transfer portal process for the second time in two years. He didn’t want to be doing that, but it looks like it’s going to work.
The former George Washington sophomore let it be known last month he was hitting the portal, and he made his intentions known Monday afternoon by picking Oklahoma and becoming the first portal addition for the Sooners for the 2022-23 cycle.
“It’s just amazing, feels so good,” said Bamisile to SoonerScoop.com just minutes after his announcement. “It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.”
Part of that was because of past connections. Bamisile began his college career at Virginia Tech and transferred to GW for the chance to work with head coach Jamion Christian.
Christian was fired following the season, and it was time for Bamisile. To the past he went, which just happens to be the present at OU.
Before Bamisile signed with Virginia Tech, he was committed to Northwestern at the exact same time OU assistant Emanuel Dildy was with the Wildcats as well.
“Look, I gotta figure this all out again,” Bamisile said. “I knew Coach Dildy from Northwestern, so the decision was made a lot quicker than people know. He’s close with my trainer, AAU coach. We have a great relationship that goes beyond basketball. He cares about me as a person.”
And Bamisile is more than basketball. He recently released his first EP under the recording name Phouelisi. Basketball and music are the passions he’ll be bringing to OU.
Bamisile will finish the semester in May and hope to visit OU after that. If not, his first taste of Norman is going to come when he arrives in June.
How little is his knowledge about the location that he said what he did was a Google Earth search of Norman to see the area and its surroundings.
That doesn’t matter to him, though, because he’s looking forward to the college lifestyle of Norman. Bamisile repeatedly said the city life, area of Washington D.C. took a toll on his mental health. He grew up in a more rural area, and the city life just wasn’t what he had hoped or expected.
It wasn’t all bad at GW for Bamisile, obviously, because his production on the court took off. He scored 16.3 points per game, five rebounds, shooting 46 percent from the field and 35 percent from 3-point territory last season.
Bamisile said he’s already a pretty confident guy, but the year at George Washington allowed him to evolve as a player.
“I got to a place where I know what my game is,” Bamisile said. “I know what my spots are, how to get where I need to go. I know what’s a good shot, what’s a bad shot. I became a lot more in tune with myself as a player.”
Bamisile hasn’t met OU head coach Porter Moser yet but has a few phone calls with him. He remembers one call in particular where they spent a long time on the phone talking absolutely nothing about basketball.
That’s the one that sticks out.
“He really cares about basketball, but it’s more than that,” Bamisile said. “There was one conversation where we didn’t talk about basketball. That meant a lot to me, to find the humanity in the coaches.”
Now comes the tricky part. Everybody knows about the one-time free transfer rule, but Bamisile is making his second transfer. He’ll apply for an NCAA waiver and see what happens regarding his eligibility for next season.
The coaching change, the mental health – he has a case, but you never know what is going to be important to the NCAA.
Regardless of the outcome, Bamisile said he’s thrilled to be a Sooner and vows he’s not going through the transfer process a third time.
He’s excited to continue recording music off the court, but he’s hoping he can produce some hits during his years with the Sooners and be another cornerstone of what Moser is building in Norman.
