New head men's basketball coach Porter Moser and his staff won't be the only fresh faces in the Oklahoma men's basketball program in 2021-22. Moser announced the signing of four transfers on Monday, bringing the number of new players on the roster to seven thus far.
| "I love our freshmen and I love adding some more quality veterans who have experience and can pour into the young players." Porter Moser |
Joining the Sooners for the 2021-22 season are super senior forward Ethan Chargois (pronounced SHAG-wah; from SMU), super senior guard Jordan Goldwire (from Duke), redshirt senior forward Tanner Groves and his brother, junior forward Jacob Groves (both from Eastern Washington).
The quartet joins returning senior guards Umoja Gibson and Elijah Harkless, junior forward Jalen Hill and redshirt sophomore center Rick Issanza. OU's three freshman signees are guards Bijan Cortes, Alston Mason and CJ Noland.
Said Moser, "We lost so many veterans from last year, guys who logged a lot of minutes. I love our freshmen and I love adding some more quality veterans who have experience and can pour into the young players. The energy and talent level of our young guys is going to be really good, but we wanted to blend in more experience. Signing these four players helps us accomplish that, and we're still going to add a couple more pieces."
Ethan Chargois | F | Tulsa, OK (SMU)
Tulsa product Ethan Chargois started 86 of his 108 career games at SMU, averaging 9.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 24.1 minutes per contest. Despite his large frame, he also flashed an ability to shoot from the outside by knocking down 120 career 3-pointers (made 31.8% of his attempts). Chargois finished his SMU career ranked 40th in school history in scoring (1,024 points), 33rd in rebounds (531), tied for 13th in blocked shots (70) and 18th in games started.
The 6-9, 235-pounder started all 17 outings this past season and averaged 8.8 points, 5.4 boards and 2.5 assists (ranked second on the team and 15th in the American Athletic Conference) per game as the Mustangs finished 11-6 overall. His season included a 20-point effort against Houston Baptist (18 in the first half) and a sixth-career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Chargois' most productive statistical season came in 2018-19 when, as a sophomore, he averaged 12.4 points and 6.2 rebounds while making a career-high 45 treys and shooting a career-best .349 from behind the arc. He scored at least 20 points three times that season (including a career-high 25 vs. Southern Miss and 21 at Houston) and finished with at least 17 on another six occasions.
Chargois starred at Union High School in Tulsa and helped his 2013-14 squad win the 6A state title as a sophomore.
Moser on Ethan Chargois: "Ethan is a skilled big who had some really good years at SMU in a strong conference. He's a mismatch guy. He can take some smaller guys down low and he can bring some bigger defenders out to the perimeter. And he's got a high I.Q. and can pass and facilitate from outside. I also love that he's from Oklahoma. Throughout the recruiting process, he kept on talking about how much he wanted to play in his home state. I just loved to hear that. He's got one year left and we talked about making it the best year of his career. We'll start on that right when he gets here this summer."
Jordan Goldwire | G | Norcross, GA (Duke)
An experienced 6-2 point guard from Norcross, Ga., Goldwire played in 116 games at Duke. He joins the Sooners as a graduate transfer with one season of eligibility remaining.
During his senior season with the Blue Devils, the guard averaged 5.8 points, 4.0 assists, 2.1 rebounds and 2.2 steals in 28.5 minutes per game. He led the ACC in assist/turnover ratio (+2.82), ranking seventh in the conference in assists (4.0) while averaging only 1.4 turnovers. His 2020-21 assist/turnover ratio stands as the seventh best in Duke single-season history.
A member of the 2021 All-ACC Defensive Team, Goldwire ranked second in the ACC and third among all major conference players in steals per game (2.2) in 2020-21. The new Sooner is expected to pair well in the OU backcourt with Harkless, who was second in the Big 12 in steals (1.9) last season.
Goldwire's defensive mentality and veteran leadership will be a strong fit to the culture and style Moser is creating in Norman. While coaching Loyola University Chicago last season, Moser's squad ranked second in adjusted defensive efficiency (KenPom.com), allowing only 87.0 points per 100 possessions. Loyola foes scored just 56.1 points per game — the lowest opponent scoring average in the country.
Moser on Jordan Goldwire: "Jordan has been on the highest stage in college basketball at Duke. He's older and has played a lot of games at a very high level. He's a big guard, he makes good decisions, he makes guys better and has a good assist-to-turnover ratio. He's a steady guy who's a true point guard, but he can also score it more than he has. I think he's looking for an expanded role offensively, and we're looking for that for him, as well. He's a super-high character guy, he defends and he's efficient on offense. I love all those traits about him."
Tanner Groves | F | Spokane, WA (Eastern Washington)
The 2021 Big Sky Conference Player of the Year, forward Tanner Groves averaged 17.2 points, 8.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.1 blocks while shooting 56.0% from the field as a junior at Eastern Washington. He comes to Norman with up to two years of eligibility remaining.
A 6-9 forward hailing from Spokane, Wash., Groves ranked second in the Big Sky in rebounds and field goal percentage while finishing fourth in scoring and sixth in blocked shots. In 24 games this past season, he tallied nine double-doubles and scored at least 20 points seven times.
Groves made his name known during the NCAA Tournament by scoring a career-high 35 points against No. 3 seed Kansas. He was 11 of 18 from the field (5 of 11 from 3-point range) against the Jayhawks and registered five rebounds and three blocks. He and national player of the year Luka Garza (36 points vs. Oregon) were the only players to score over 30 points in a game during the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
Over his three-year career, Groves is shooting 54.7% from the field, 37.3% from behind the arc (41-110) and 74.0% from the free throw line.
Moser on Tanner Groves: "Tanner is just a perfect fit for what we do offensively. Watching him facilitate with his passing is reminiscent to how Cameron Krutwig played for us at Loyola. And Tanner's got that same ability to come out to the perimeter. What we're really excited about is his ability to stretch you out by knocking down the 3. You saw it against Kansas in the NCAA Tournament. And he embraces contact. I think we're going to be able to do a lot of out-and-in with him — bring him out on the perimeter and bring him inside — and go through him offensively. We really hit it off and connected on those pieces. And I love the fact that he's won, he's been on the NCAA Tournament stage and he wants to play at the highest level."
Jacob Groves | F | Spokane, WA (Eastern Washington)
Joining Tanner Groves in the transfer to OU from Eastern Washington is his younger brother Jacob Groves. A 6-7 forward, he is coming off a sophomore campaign at EWU in which he averaged 9.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game while shooting 55.2% from the field, 36.4% from 3-point range (16-44) and 75.7% from the foul line.
Like his brother, Jacob Groves recorded his career high in points in EWU's NCAA Tournament outing against Kansas by totaling 23 points to go along with a career-high-tying nine rebounds. He shot 8 of 11 from the field in the outing and made 4 of 5 attempts from long distance.
Moser on Jacob Groves: "I really like Jacob. He's one of those guys who got better and better every day last season, and when we dug in and watched clips from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, you could see his confidence grow. He's longer than you think and he's got a high release on his shot. With him and Tanner, we bring in a pair of guys who have Big 12 size and a high skill level. I love how skilled both of them are. Jacob's got a real edge to him that people will see quickly. That's what sticks out. He's got that edge and wants to be really good. I think he's just going to get better and better and better."
