Lost in the shuffle of a wild weekend in college hoops was the news of Austin Grandstaff transferring to Oklahoma, completing his departure from Ohio State and Thad Matta’s Buckeyes program.
A former top 50 prospect and consensus four-star recruit out of Rockwall, Tex., just outside of Dallas, Grandstaff’s recruiting process took several turns before he had finally signed with OSU.
Initially committed to Travis Ford and Oklahoma State, Grandstaff decommitted from the Pokes nearly a year ago. After an official visit to Columbus three months later, he was sold on Matta and the Buckeyes, making the call for them once he returned back to Texas. At the time, he told multiple reporters about OSU’s need for scoring guards and that Matta had recruited him to be an immediate contributor.
Of course, recruiting promises are made and broken on a daily basis in college basketball. In actuality, he averaged just 11.5 minutes per game in the 10 games he stayed for, before he and his father announced his impending departure.
Grandstaff can shoot the hell out of the ball, there’s no doubting that. But the question is whether or not he’s ready to be the type of ball handling playmaker and defender that is necessary to play major minutes at the high-major level. In the type of offense that OU runs, there’s no doubt that he’ll get plenty of opportunities to put the ball up, but that would again require him being able to break defenses down the way Lon Kruger and company demand their guards to be able to.
in the end, we’ll have to wait one calendar year to see if Austin Grandstaff transferring to Oklahoma will pay dividends for either side, but as of now, it looks like solid match.
