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OU Basketball: Oklahoma Lands Dayton Transfer Kobe Elvis

After a stretch of nothing but bad news, the Sooners brought in a talented, experienced guard who can contribute all over the floor.

John E. Hoover

Mar 23, 2024; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Dayton Flyers guard Kobe Elvis (24) drives against Arizona
Mar 23, 2024; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Dayton Flyers guard Kobe Elvis (24) drives against Arizona / Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

Porter Moser finally landed one.

The Oklahoma basketball coach on Tuesday secured a verbal commitment from the NCAA Transfer Portal, and Moser hopes Kobe Elvis represents a new momentum for the program.

Elvis, a 6-foot-2 transfer from Dayton, averaged 9.4 points, 3.5 assists and 2.4 rebounds as a junior last year for the Flyers.

It’s finally a bit of good news for the Sooners, who missed out on the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row, then watched as four major contributors (three starters) left via the portal, then failed to add any newcomers out of the portal despite multiple visitors and reports of mutual interest. Bringing in Elvis to kick off this new stretch of basketball should help the Sooners as they move into the Southeastern Conference next season.

Elvis started 33 games last season and averaged 28.5 minutes per game.

In three seasons at Dayton, Elvis played in 86 games (80 starts) averaged 9.0 points, 3.0 assists and 2.2 rebounds.

Elvis began his career at DePaul, where he averaged 5.2 points per game in 19 games (four starts) as a true freshman.

Elvis is a career .442 shooter, with a 3-point percentage of .362. He shot nearly 42 percent as a freshman at DePaul, 36 percent as a sophomore at Dayton, 33 percent as a junior (he missed 15 games with a knee injury) and 37 percent last year as a senior.

Elvis hails from Brampton, Ontario, Canada, where he was a standard at Bill Crothers Prep, averaging 26.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.8 steals per game as a senior.

Among the highlights of his 2023-24 season was a stretch of six games in a row in double-figure scoring, including back-to-back games of 24 points against Troy and 27 against Cincinnati, in which he went 14-of-14 at the free throw line.

Elvis finished in double-figures 15 times last season.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.