Tanner Groves' Unorthodox Path to Oklahoma Started on Twitter
A random Twitter interaction can change the course of a career.
Tanner Groves knows just as well as anyone else.
The former Big Sky Player of the Year has settled right in at Oklahoma this year, leading all Sooners by averaging 14.8 points per game, but he might not have ever landed in Norman save for a random Twitter direct message.
The sender? OU assistant coach Emanuel Dildy.
“After I entered the (transfer) portal, I think it was maybe like a few weeks into being in the portal, and I was just looking through my Twitter messages,” Groves told SI Sooners. “I saw that Coach Dildy from Oklahoma had messaged me.”
Porter Moser’s staff had just gotten off and running when Groves entered his name into the transfer portal at Eastern Washington, but after first contact was made on Twitter, Groves said it didn’t take long to link up with Moser himself.
“I messaged Coach (Dildy) back and within an hour I was on a long FaceTime call with Coach (Moser) and we just started building that relationship,” Groves said. “And I think within about a week or so, I committed to Oklahoma. And it's been going from there.”
Social media was just one of many ways players like Groves used to get in contact with prospect schools last year. Entering the transfer portal during a pandemic meant there would be no campus visits, and the recruiting process would be entirely virtual.
“Once I entered the portal… it was kind of a free for all for college coaches,” Groves said. “I would get a new text or phone call probably probably once or twice a day from a different school or so.
“And, yeah, just so happened that I was just searching through on Twitter. And then I saw that message (from OU), and so it's just kind of happened like that.”
Groves was able to continue to form a bond with the entire OU staff through a series of Zoom calls and meetings on FaceTime, but it didn’t make the decision to uproot his life any easier.
“It was definitely really hard to make a decision solely based off of a couple phone calls, couple zoom calls,” Groves said. “I think it just comes down to how good of a relationship that you can build with the coaches, assistant coaches and whatnot.
“I didn't necessarily need to see the campus or anything. I’m a I'm a fifth year senior guy and for me, I don't really care (about) location or whatever. I'm just looking for the best fit, wherever I can, I can go and play basketball and flourish within my game and be a part of a good system and winning system…. Oklahoma just turned out to be the best fit.’
Even though everything worked out, Moser said during a Zoom press conference on Tuesday that this past offseason was still an incredibly inconvenient way to build a roster, and not something he hopes to ever have to replicate.
“I never thought I'd be in a world where I'd have to sign like nine or 10 (players) and I couldn't go talk to them,” said Moser, “break bread with them, go meet their families and watch them with my own eyes in practice. That's what I grew up with in this profession for 30 years. I'm so much about that process of getting to know them.
“Many times I've said it was the craziest thing in the world trying to put together a team like I'm talking (to the media on Zoom) right now. I like you all on the screen. I've met a lot of you, but it's hard to build a relationship never being with you guys, right? Imagine doing that recruiting where the families are trusting you to go spend their years with you. This is what our recruiting was."
Since arriving in Norman, Groves has cooly transitioned to one of the key players on OU’s roster this year. Groves is averaging 5.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game to add to his team-leading scoring.
Not only is Groves impacting the game on the offensive end, he’s growing into his role anchoring the Oklahoma defense as well.
“Tanner's a perfectionist. He really wants to get it right,” Moser said. “… I saw him early on just overthinking a lot of things because he wanted to get it right. He was overthinking and when you overthink things you tend to be a little late recognizing things. And what I've seen the last three weeks is his comfortability set in on what we want and what he's to do. And you're seeing his communication level has been really well, his defense has gotten much better, his ball screen coverages. Because I think he just knows and he's more comfortable.
“He cares so much. And sometimes I've seen kids that care that much, that want to get it right, they sometimes are hesitant because they're overthinking everything. He's now, he's starting to react and move and communicate with more of a comfortability.”
The work by the Oklahoma big man behind the scenes has paid dividends on the court.
OU enters their final game before conference play on Wednesday night 9-2 on the season with a pair of victories over then-top 15 teams in Florida and Arkansas, and Groves has played a big part in the Sooners’ success.
Fairly well tested through the non-conference slate, Groves said he’s looking forward to attacking the Big 12 gauntlet, and he’s optimistic about how OU will fare in conference play.
“(We) beat Arkansas by 20 plus shows,” said Groves, “it shows what we're capable of doing. And I think we can be as good as we want to be. I mean, it depends, if we're going to want to put the work in… I've said it before, but I think the only team that can beat us is ourselves.”
Groves said the team has learned from their two losses on the season, and they’re ready to keep applying those lessons against the Baylor’s, Kansas’ and Texas’ of the world.
“In those losses… we beat ourselves,” Groves said. “But in those wins we've been ready to defend every position and defend every possession and then offensively just continue to move the ball and and be aggressive… I think that we're, we're capable of being in the Top 25 for sure. And I've no doubt that we'll be there at some point this season.”
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