When Oklahoma basketball completes its 2024-25 roster, there will be eight newcomers, one of which is a freshman guard from small-town Oklahoma named Dayton Forsythe.

He hails from Dale, a community of a few hundred people some 30 miles east of Oklahoma City. And although he grew up in a state that takes great pride in its flagship university’s football tradition, Forsythe always maintained aspirations of glory on the hardwood — particularly glory in the crimson and cream.

"When my parents would ask me what I wanted to do for my birthday, it would always be either an OU game or a Thunder game,” said Forsythe. “We’ve always been OU fans, and we went to a good amount of the Buddy Hield games."

The ones who have paid close attention to Forsythe, spent time around him, or watched him in person have long known that he is special. But at least until recently, he remained a well-kept secret to the region and the nation at large. Forsythe decided to play in a local AAU tournament in Norman with a group of old friends from his basketball circle. What began as a pre-graduation hoops fling turned into a viral one-man show from the three-time state champion.

"I was feeling good that day, I guess,” he said. “Honestly, parts of it kind of felt like Rucker Park in Norman, Oklahoma.”

Forsythe wasn’t just feeling good; he was in nuclear mode. By the end of the contest, he’d poured in an obscene 55 points — and though some accounts dispute that final tally, there was no doubt that day as to who the most dominant player on the court was.

"I guess I don't know what a three-star or a four-star or five-star is,” Dale high school coach Jeff Edmondson said. “People are calling him a three-star, and I've seen him dominate kids who were always ranked on whatever list and five-stars or whatever, but I told everybody if I'm picking or I've got the first pick in the state or whatever, I'm picking Dayton Forsythe with my pick anytime."

For Forsythe, the journey started at a very early age.

"My dad was a girls' basketball coach, so like after school or something, me and my brothers would all be in the gym for hours watching their practice or standing there shooting or whatever, so basketball has always been a love of mine since I can remember," he explained.

And it soon became apparent to those closest to Forsythe that the youngster had a gift. Dayton’s dad, Josh Forsythe, mentioned a moment in fifth grade that’s especially memorable to him.

"There was the MAYB national championship in Wichita, Kansas, and they won it,” Josh recalled. “They beat a really good team, and Dayton had a really good game. He was kind of scoring on all three levels and doing his thing. It was a really big national tournament, on a big stage. It was in a big gym, and it was the biggest stage he had ever played on.

"There have been a few moments early that you're kinda like, 'Okay, he has a chance to be pretty good because he has some understanding. Some little thing that you see, as a former coach, that probably a lot of people probably don't. Just his understanding and his pace. He doesn't get sped up by people. The mental side of things, he was a little bit ahead of a lot of kids. He always seemed to, and this was something that we always talked about, just [make] the right play. It sounds simple; it is simply said, but it is not simply done."

Jay Lakin, who coached Forsythe from fifth to eighth grade, can remember exactly when he knew the electric young guard had the goods.

“I saw it — I'm being serious — since the fifth grade,” said Lakin. “When he joined us, we beat some good teams nationally. For instance, we were playing down in nationals in Dallas, and he couldn't make it on Saturday. So we played a team on Saturday and we lost to them by like 20 something, just a really bad game. He shows up the next day, we run the table, and we end up beating that team that we lost to, with two top-10 players on that team, one is going to Texas, one is going to UConn, and we end up beating them by 28. It was like a 56-point swing.

"He just always makes the right play. And I was thinking, there weren't ever really a lot of times where he made like a last-second shot, but it was because he always made the right play."

Especially once it became evident that Dayton's potential was truly elite, Josh made sure his son didn't grow complacent or entitled. He coached him hard, and he established a high standard.

"There were moments where there were crossroads," Josh remembered. "Maybe there was a struggle here or a struggle there. There were things that I needed to say to him that he needed to hear, that were harsh. I feel like they were important for him to know and understand if he was going to choose to play this game at the next level. He needed to understand, this is what it was going to take.

"I remember one time, at a really big tournament, 7th-grade summer maybe, I think we were playing the number one team in the nation. They were loaded, they wound up beating us, but it was a really good game... Let's just face it and be honest, Dayton does not really look the part. He looks like a kinda dorky white kid. So when you're that age and you're playing in these really big tournaments, and you're the lead guard, and you look like you do, and we're playing these teams that just got some dogs, they live and die by the press. They were going to pressure you. That's what they do; they were going to try to rip your heart out. There was a game where they were guarding him 90 feet, and they're kinda getting into him and talking to him, putting their forehead on him. They were getting after him, and he turned it over once or twice, and he showed a bit of frustration. He let them see it. He let them see his frustration, and he got upset. Then what happened was it got worse.

"I just remember letting him have it after that game," Josh continued, "and just telling him 'You can't do that, man. That's like blood in the water, and once they see that, it is going to get worse and worse and worse, and you can never let that happen again. You can never let anyone see frustration or emotion.' So I think that was a big moment for him. Since then, I don't ever remember anybody ever getting to him mentally. There will be bigger challenges ahead with that type of stuff, in the next year or two when he is going against guys that are two or three years older than him. He understands that he can't let that happen. I think that was a big thing for him."

By the time he reached junior high, Dayton had begun to garner national acclaim for his play on the hardwood. In a sense, he had arrived. But once Dayton decided that he was ready to go full-throttle towards a career in basketball, Josh made sure that his son understood what it would take to work past that "dorky white kid" stereotype.

"I remember having a serious talk with him, and it wasn't very long after that moment where somebody got to him," said Josh. "It was a situation where he really had been playing really well, and you know people start talking, and there were two rankings, and they are silly because they are ranking sixth or seventh graders. But, he was all the way up to No. 13 in the nation. It's really dumb, but that brings it to the point where you start talking about things and thinking about things. I remember the conversation that we had where it was like, 'Is this what you want to do?' and he was like 'Yeah, Dad, this is what I want to do.' He's known it from a young age that this is what he wanted to do. He was really good at baseball, and is. But probably because of me being a coach and just being a gym rat and going to scout games and watch games and break down film and stat film and all that with me, that's probably a little bit of why he loves basketball.

"The conversation was 'Okay, what do you want to do?' [He said], 'I want to play basketball.' 'Okay, well, I want you to look at yourself; I want you to think about what God blessed you with and also think about what you don't have that others will have, your strengths and your weaknesses.' At that time, I don't remember how tall he was, but I'm like, 'I hope you're tall or as tall as I am, but you may be 6-2 or 6-3. So that means what? That means we got to be a point guard.' The stereotypical 6-2 white kid is a stand-in-the-corner three-point shooter. So we had that conversation, like, you can't be that. That has to be a given. If you want to go play at a high level, you obviously have to do that, but you have to do other stuff. You've got to be able to score at the rim; you got to be able to shoot a mid-range; you got to be able to play off two feet; you got to be able to create for others and yourself off the dribble; you got to be able to make the right play, and you have to be able to show that you can defend. Because, people will think, eventually, that you won't be able to guard.

"You have to be able to check every box; you need to be a 4.0 student; you need to be able to be a great teammate, a leader, all those things. That is something that I think he really focused on from that point on, being able to check every single box, not just one or two."

In his freshman season at Dale, Forsythe averaged 18.9 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.2 assists.

"I've told some people this story," said Josh, "and this is the truth. In Dayton's freshman year, he was our best player, but our oldest son Dallen was a senior. There were a couple of other seniors who were really good players as well. It was a little bit of an interesting dynamic, not only having three really good seniors on the team and you're a freshman, but one of them was your brother, and he's the point guard, so you start sharing that duty. It was just an interesting deal. He didn't want to do too much, but he needed to do more. I feel like all those guys handled it really well. I think Coach Edmondson did an amazing job handling it, and I think as the year went on, everybody started seeing and understanding. I know Dallen knew. Dallen said it from the jump. He knew, and he didn't fight it. I appreciate that from him."

And though Dayton's freshman year helped cement his status as one of the finest young hoopers in the state, it ended in bitter fashion.

"At the end of that year, we were No. 1, and we had beaten Oklahoma Union in the area finals, which put us in the state tournament," Josh explained. "We won an exciting game in the first round. Then we were in the semifinals, and we played Howe. We were better than them, but we got off to a really bad start. Couldn't make a bucket. It was one of those nightmare situations where we couldn't put one in the hole, and they were just making everything they shot. It got away from us in a hurry.

"I remember so vividly standing in the back hallway and waiting forever for the boys to come out of the locker room; they started trickling out. Dallen finally comes out, and we hug his neck; there are tears and things said, and it's rough. Then Dayton came out and came over there, and he felt like he let him down. That was hard on him. He felt like he let his older brother down. That was tough."

In that moment of disconsolation, Josh naturally made an effort to comfort his boys. But amidst it all, he issued Dayton a challenge that would help define the remainder of his second son's career at Dale.

"I remember hugging him and we're crying," Josh remarked. "I said, 'This feeling you've got in your gut, this feeling that hurts so bad, I want you to remember it, I want you to think about it for a long time and not forget what it feels like. I want you to fight to the nail to never feel like this and feel this feeling again.' I said, 'You've got three more years. There is only one team every year that walks away from this not feeling this way. I want you to do everything in your power to not feel this feeling again.'

"We would talk about it every once in a while, in the playoffs or right before the state tournament. He knew, and he remembered. Fortunately, it was something that he never felt again."

Both Dayton and his younger brother, Denton, work out with trainer Nate Logan consistently. With regard to the focus in those training sessions, Logan says it's evolved as Dayton has evolved.

"When we first started, the main thing was working on extending his range and his shiftiness," Logan explained. "As he continued to improve on those things, it kind of changed to like, now we need to be able to knock down the three if they go under the screen automatically. Then his ability to create his own shot off the dribble and things like that. His left hand, that's another thing. Right now, I told him we really need to focus on his left-hand finishing, left-hand passes, all of that stuff.

"His conditioning, that's the other focus right now. That way whenever he steps on campus, the best ability is availability and I told him, I was like, 'You're going to be in such good shape you're not going to have to opt for a single rep whenever you guys start practicing or whatever it is.'"

Many have noted Forsythe’s ability to take over a game, which he's done numerous times throughout his high school career. Logan says that killer mentality first reached its zenith in the 2022 state final, when Dale outdueled Cashion behind a transcendent performance from Forsythe.

"It developed over time, but like, very quickly," said Logan. "The one game where you could definitely start seeing it coming along and it being more consistent was that final game against Cashion his sophomore year. He just completely took that game over; I think he had like 38 points. And from there it just started becoming a regular thing."

That victory over Cashion gave Dale its first state title in school history. One year after his father had challenged him never to feel the sting of a season-ending defeat again, Forsythe was hoisting a championship trophy.

"The first state championship we won was super special, just because nobody thought we were going to win it," Dayton remarked. "Everybody was saying we were too young, and it was our first one in school history."

In his sophomore season, Forsythe averaged 21.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 4.8 assists. After that season, Forsythe played 16u EYBL with Team Griffin and was coached by Mark Berokoff, who now coaches at Oklahoma City University. Forsythe had to make the jump from 2A basketball to the highest level AAU basketball has to offer. However, for Forsythe, there wasn’t a drop-off in production.

"In the EYBL," Berokoff commented, "it was not like Dayton was like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm playing EYBL and I just played with Dale.' There was never a drop-off for him, and that tells you... okay, this kid is really special. Because a lot of these small-school kids, it might take them a while.”

"EYBL is crazy,” said Forsythe. “That's the closest thing you're going to get before you get to the college level, competition level. Every single game you're playing against multiple different dudes that are going to be playing either really high-level college basketball, and there's going to be many players that I see in the NBA one day.

"Just being around that and playing against that every game, and even at our Team Griffin practices and scrimmages, there were for sure a lot of growing moments. There were a lot of times where it was hard because I played baseball in the spring [at] the same time we were traveling on the EYBL circuit, so it was hard. I'd get done with a baseball game late at night and then the next morning at 6:00 AM, I'd be flying out to wherever and playing that day. It was hard; there were a lot of growing moments where honestly I would say that I failed and I had to learn."

Dayton’s first offer came from Berokoff on June 3rd, 2021.

“What struck me about Dayton," said Berokoff, "was: 1) nobody was talking about this kid; 2) he was an incredible passer. Which I think gets overlooked with him. I think the best part of his game is his vision and his passing. The thing that I notice, and I've coached AAU for 35 years, is that Dayton had a will to win that I haven't seen, maybe a handful of guys. Dayton's will to win and his willingness to make other players better is something that I think gets highly overlooked with him.

“Every game meant something to him. Something that I will never forget, when we lost in the Elite Eight at Peach Jam... I mean, the kid was in tears and he couldn't stop crying. It meant so much to him."

Outside shooting was one thing upon which Forsythe did improve over his high school career. In his sophomore season, he shot 38.0% from behind the arc on 3.5 attempts per game and in his junior season it went up to 39.5% on 4.3 attempts per game. Come his senior season, those numbers improved even more, as he shot 40.0% on 5.0 attempts per game.

"When we started going into that 16u season, I always described him as a better, more athletic Bobby Hurley," said Berokoff. "I used that reference a lot when talking to my college coaching friends. He is a better, more athletic Bobby Hurley. He's tough, his vision is incredible, he is a capable defender. As a 16u, he didn't shoot the ball great for us, but his finishing at the rim, his mid-range game, he just didn't shoot the three well that summer. But that's obviously not a concern; he can really shoot the ball now."

Forsythe's improvement in shooting consistency became especially noticeable over the last two years of his high school career. Logan said if there was one area in which he'd seen the most improvement from Forsythe, it was his shooting touch.

"His consistency has continued to improve every single year," Logan observed. "He has always been a pretty good shooter, but like I said when we first started, I told him expanding his range was a key focus. It's been a key focus ever since then. Just because you have to be able to shoot with range, from anywhere on the court, off the dribble or off the catch. So that is something we were constantly focusing on."

Kellen McCoy, who coached Forsythe during his 17u season on the EYBL circuit, is the Director of Team Griffin EYBL. McCoy has been around Forsythe for seven years and has done a lot for him. "Dayton Forsythe is the ultimate winner," said McCoy. "He has the X-factor. He has the toughness, unselfishness, and humility every coach dreams a player would have. People continue to doubt him and they have been proved wrong again and again."

After winning a second straight state championship in 2023, the target was squarely on Dale’s collective back heading into Forsythe’s senior season. The Pirates opened up their season against Preston.

"Pocola, we knew, was probably the team that could play with us," said Josh. "Right below them was Preston. Preston was that second tier; we knew they were really wanting to play and have a chance to beat us."

On the very first possession of his senior season, Forsythe beat his man with a crossover, took it to the rack, and proceeded to posterize a helpless defender.

"That was crazy," Josh laughed. "Like, it caught me off guard. I think it caught a lot of people off guard. It was in traffic, on a kid. They had their best defender on him, and he crossed him up and got by him and then met another guy at the rim and dunked on him; it was great. It was even more crowded than normal, super crowded in the gym. Everybody had just gotten settled in and sat down after the girls' game, and I was actually standing up kind of like on the upper deck part above the bleachers talking to some people, and I'm glad I turned around and watched the beginning because I actually saw it. We just kind of all looked at each other like, 'What just happened?'"

Dayton maintains that didn't set out to flush a monstrous dunk on the season's opening possession. It just happened to be the right play.

"I didn't know I was going to do that; it just kind of happened," he said. "It was cool to be able to do that, especially at home."

Was Coach Edmondson surprised by the dunk?

"Nothing surprises me with what he does," said Edmondson of Forsythe. "He's been doing things like that since I started coaching him in second grade. Whenever he saw the opportunity and took it to the hole and dunked it, it was an awesome play, but it wasn't like I was surprised or anything."

Logan said he might have been the only one in the building who actually expected it.

"I was probably the only one in the gym that just kind of sat there and was like 'Yup,' like I expected that," he chuckled. "Because a few weeks prior, we were talking at a workout and I was just like, 'Man, you should obviously probably be getting several dunks a game, like easy.' I was like, 'Honestly, you should make it a goal to catch a couple bodies.' Then on the very first play of the season, he does that, and it was a little bit of a surprise just because it was so fast that he did it. I thought he would probably do something like that in the third or fourth game maybe. But he did it the very first play of the first game, so that was kinda the surprise factor about it."

The poster dunk on the first play of the season was the first of many impressive moments for Forsythe during his senior season. Another notable moment was his performance against Metamora in the Illinois Tournament of Champions; at the time, Metamora was ranked No. 16 in the nation.

In that game, Forsythe scored a ridiculous 49 points, which helped him secure tournament MVP honors.

"That was just one of those games where the opportunities were opening up for me," he said. "It was super special to be able to go play on that kind of stage with our little 2A Dale team."

In hindsight, that 49-point outburst is all the more impressive given that Dayton's health was ailing at the time.

"A lot of people don't know this, but he was actually a little bit sick," Josh recalled. "On the way there, on the charter bus, he was kinda sick. Played the first game; it was a fun game. We played really well and won. Then the next day was the Hoover, Alabama game. That game was the game that Dayton was running a fever. He was running like a 101 [degree] fever. He played really well, had like 36 points. [Hoover] went on to win their second straight 7A state championship.

"He was better by the fourth day. That game was just crazy. It was like, you know, we're not going to win the tournament because we let Hoover come back and beat us, but this was a prideful type deal. It was a cool opportunity because we knew they were No. 16 in the nation. We knew they had two or three D1-type players. You can look back at Dayton's career, and there are a bunch of these types of games where in these really big games he will be very unselfish early and get people involved and see how it is going to go, and then when he needs to and feels like he has to, he will just kind of start taking over. He kind of has that feel. That's kind of what happened. He started taking over."

Edmondson didn't even realize that his prized guard had hung darn near half a hundred on the opposition until the buzzer sounded.

"Honestly, I had no idea that he had 49 until I looked up after the game at the scoreboard," he admitted. "I knew he was having a good game, but he is so unselfish."

Forsythe averaged 25 points, eight rebounds, and five assists in games against 4A-7A schools. In the four biggest games of his life, the three state championship games and the Tournament of Champions final game, he averaged 34 points.

The Dale Pirates are a tight-knit group on and off the basketball court, and it's that dynamic (plus Dayton's brilliance, of course) that has helped spur the program to three consecutive titles.

"They really are a bunch of brothers," said Edmondson. "It's been a joy for me; my son's in that group, he's a year younger than Dayton and he started also, so him running around with Dayton and Denton and all those guys, it's just been great... We would go play a tournament on Saturday, and the next day, they would all spend the night at one of the houses, then they'd be out playing football in the front yard or they go to the backyard and play wiffle ball or they'd go ride bikes. So, it's been really fun watching those kids grow up."

And though the first two championships carried a great deal of significance, the third title might well be the one that means the most to Forsythe.

"We all knew it was our last ride," he noted. "It was our last time to play together. It was the last time I got to play with Denton. So just going out on top like that was obviously number one. There was no other way we were going to end it off other than winning a third straight. We've played together since we were little. We all grew up at Dale, and we all dreamed of winning state championships together. Just seeing that come to a reality was super special."

For Forsythe, it wasn’t just about getting to play and win another state championship with his friends. This time, he did it in conjunction with his younger brother.

"My freshman year I got to play with my older brother for just one year, and we obviously didn't win it that year, sadly," he said. "That one was super special too because he was a senior and I was a freshman. I was the young guy getting to play with all of the older guys. I looked up to all of them. Then me getting to do the same thing with Denton coming up and playing, it was super special; I wouldn't trade it for the world. There were a lot of good times and there were a lot of battles we had. Sometimes Coach wouldn't let us guard each other because we would always go at it. It was awesome getting to play with him, getting to win state championships. [It's] something we dreamed of. We got to watch my dad coach in state tournaments, and then getting to grow up and do it and play in the big house together, it was awesome."

Forsythe wrapped up his senior season averaging 20.1 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.3 steals while shooting 52.9% from the field, 40.0% from behind the arc, and 87.3% from the free throw line. He had a plus-minus of +22.9.

Throughout Forsythe's recruitment, the "dorky white kid" stereotype unsurprisingly came into play.

"The questions became 'How tough is he?' and then it became 'Can he guard a Power Five point guard?'" said Josh. "We knew he was tough enough, physically and mentally. He really focused his last season on the EYBL to show the coaches that he can guard. He's fighting over screens and trying to defend at a high level; that was a question mark because of how he looks. I get it; you've got to ask those questions."

Berokoff maintains that from a defensive standpoint, there is nothing about Forsythe's game that is worth worrying over.

"I think he is a capable and willing defender," said Berokoff, "and I don't see him having issues."

Forsythe got his Oklahoma offer on December, 31st, 2022. The recruitment process was one that his parents handled with neutrality. They resolved never to push Dayton one way or another, even though Josh (and most of his family) have always been OU fans.

"Once it started picking up," said Josh, "like his junior year — from the very jump, my wife and I were like 'We're not going to push one way or another; the most important thing is the fit and him playing for the right person.' We honestly did not push or — I don't want to say didn't care, because in the back of my mind, yeah, I wanted him to go to OU — but that was never told to him.

"My mother was an OU fan, and I remember when he started getting some offers, I remember her saying something to him. I had a long talk with her and tried to explain to her that I do not want anything to enter his mind [like] 'Oh, I need to go here because Grandma wants me to, or Dad wants me to, or Aunt Mandy wants me to go here.' I did not want any of that to enter his mind as far as disappointing someone. I wanted him to only focus on the right fit and playing for the coach that he feels like he connects with and he wants to play for. That was super important for us."

Forsythe took an official visit to Oklahoma on June 16th and ended up committing to the Sooners on July 23rd. What was it that made Forsythe pull the trigger on a commitment?

"It was really the closest that I got with Coach Moser," he said. "Obviously, growing up, OU is somewhere where I always wanted to be. Being a fan and being from here, getting to play for my home state and stay here and represent and keep building a legacy here was something that went into it."

Even though Forsythe always wanted to be a Sooner, the Forsythe family still wanted to make sure they did their due diligence.

"When Coach Moser was really wanting Dayton to commit," said Josh, "we were not wanting to rush it because it was so important for him to go somewhere and stay. We don't want him bouncing around like everybody does. We want him to go somewhere and stay, and we wanted to make sure that he had all his options and opportunities before he committed.

"He wound up still committing early. There were a bunch of schools that were going to bring him in; obviously, Villanova came in [to the picture] in July and offered. There were a bunch of other schools that were really close to offering, but the word spread that he is getting close to committing to OU, and I think that kind of kept some schools from offering right at the end. He had some visits planned; we were going to go to Wake Forest. Stanford had just gotten really interested. There were some other schools that we had already planned on visiting in the fall. But Coach Moser really needed him to commit, so Dayton being Dayton, in his mind, he knew that is where he wanted to go, and he really wanted to play for Coach Moser. When it came down to it, it was like, do we take a chance on maybe that OU scholarship not being there? That was something that he did not want to gamble with. It was really important for Dayton to not disappoint [Coach Moser], and so he didn't take any of those visits; he just went ahead and committed right there."

"The ultimate deal was Coach Moser," said Dayton. "I'm going to love getting to play for him, getting to learn from him. He's had a lot of success with guys like me, like Clay [Custer], and a bunch of other people that he has had. I think I fit what he does perfectly, and I think what he does fits me perfectly. It's going to be awesome; he loves toughness, he loves guys that are all about winning, and I love that."

Assistant coaches Clayton Custer and Ryan Humphrey were major factors in Forsythe's decision to pick Oklahoma. Custer initially left to take a coaching job at his alma mater, Loyola-Chicago. However, once Emanuel Dildy left for Duke, Moser added Custer back to the staff at Oklahoma.

"We were worried there for a while," Josh said of Custer's initial departure. "It was like, dang, because Dayton got to know him pretty well, and they are a lot alike. He played for Coach Moser, and Dayton relates to him quite a bit.”

Nevertheless, Custer is back in Norman for the foreseeable future, and he's sure to play a key role in Forsythe's development in the Oklahoma backcourt.

“He played the point guard position for Coach Moser for four years," Dayton said of Custer. "I think being around him every day, and him being there, whether it is in practice and I just have a question, he will be able to answer it perfectly."

Of Humphrey, both father and son offered similarly effusive praise.

"When Custer left, Coach Humphrey started recruiting Dayton, and man, he is amazing also," said Josh. "We really like him; he is a great guy. Dayton grew a really good relationship with him."

"He's kind of like a father figure," added Dayton. "He is super fun to be around. He's kind of a player-coach, from what I've seen. He loves all the guys, and he's always there for you."

As his collegiate career begins, Forsythe is focused on being able to contribute from the jump, whether that's in a substantial capacity or a reserve role.

"I'm just trying to get there and work as hard as I possibly can to earn my spot," he explained. "I'm going to keep my head down and do whatever is asked of me, whatever that may be. I'm just going to work super hard and do whatever the team needs and hopefully earn myself a spot to be able to help contribute next year."

And those workouts with Logan continue to represent a key aspect of Forsythe's preparation.

“He constantly sends me different film," said Forsythe of his trainer. "He watches film 24/7; it's either Kyrie Irving or Luka Doncic or Jalen Brunson or whoever. Finding different ways to try to help me better and get prepared. He works super hard at it; he wants us to succeed at the highest level. Definitely wouldn't be where I'm at without him."

And for his part, Logan does his best to keep his instruction digestible — and relevant to Forsythe's individual experience.

"I send him a ton of film on different players and different actions. I recently actually sent him a clip that came out of Porter Moser and the offense he was running and some of the sets, and I sent that over to him just like 'Hey, this is some stuff that you can expect to run whenever you get there, you know, kind of have an idea. I'll send him different game actions and different skills and stuff that he can add to his game. Usually, it's just simple stuff. It won't be anything too crazy. If I'm sending him something about, you know, Jalen Brunson for instance, usually it is just like a two-foot finish or the way he uses his pivot in the paint. Real simple stuff."

Meanwhile, what excites Berokoff is the prospect of what Forsythe can become now that he can hone his skills on the hardwood in a full-time capacity.

"I think what's going to happen is he's going to really be able to concentrate on just basketball," Berokoff observed. "I mean, I love that he plays all these different sports, but he's really going to be able to lock in and be in a weight room where they're going to work with him on that stuff. What you're going to get with Dayton is a kid who has a will to win and he wants to be a Sooner really bad. That's what Oklahoma fans are going to like. You've got a kid right here from Oklahoma who wanted to be a Sooner, had other opportunities, and wanted to stay home. I really think he wants to win and help Oklahoma."

Even though people still continue to doubt Forsythe, McCoy is confident that Forsythe will continue to prove them all wrong.

"When he gets to college," said McCoy, "it will be new and many changes, people will doubt him and he will figure it out and continue to prove people wrong. He wants to be great, and I have no doubt he will be successful at Oklahoma and beyond. Was an absolute pleasure coaching him and having him in our program for seven years."

And the final word belongs to Josh, who sums up his son's mentality thusly:

"Dayton just wants to win."

Not an OUInsider.com premium member? Sign up today to get loads of inside information on Oklahoma football, basketball and recruiting, all for just a few dollars a month. Click HERE to get started!