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Reports: Oklahoma adds two from the portal

Brothers Tanner and Jacob Groves have chosen Oklahoma after starring at Eastern Washington last season

John E. Hoover

Reports: Oklahoma adds two from the portal
Reports: Oklahoma adds two from the portal /
Tanner Groves
Tanner Groves / Eastern Washington Athletics

Chalk one up to the transfer portal. Two, actually.

New Oklahoma coach Porter Moser reportedly has added a massive commitment to the 2021-22 team in Eastern Washington transfer Tanner Groves.

The news was reported Sunday on Twitter by ESPN’s Jeff Borzello.

Later Sunday, it was reported that Groves' brother, Jacob Groves, a 6-foot-7, 185-pound sophomore, will also transfer to OU, according to a tweet from Jake Lieberman.

Tanner Groves confirmed all the news on Twitter himself on Sunday evening.

Tanner Groves then informally announced his brother's addition to the OU roster as well.

After announcing that a large list of schools that had contacted him, Groves told Stadium’s Jeff Goodman earlier in the week that he had narrowed down a final four: OU, Texas, Washington State and Portland.

Tanner Groves averaged 17.2 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game this season, to earn Big Sky Player of the Year accolades, including a 35-point performance against Kansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. He posted nine double-doubles while playing in the Big Sky Conference.

Moser has said he fully intended to mine the transfer portal, and most expected him to land a big man.

The 6-foot-9, 235-pound Groves can play in the paint but he also shot 35 percent from 3-point range this season. In his three-year career at Eastern Washington, he shot 37.3 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. Still, he did most of his damage inside the stripe, shooting 62.4 percent from 2-point range.

Groves played in 83 games for Eastern Washington, but only became a starter this season, when he made 24 starts and averaged 27 minutes per game.

After shooting 59.5 percent from the floor in a backup role last season, Groves shot 56 perfect this season as a front-line starter.

Jacob Groves
Jacob Groves / Eastern Washington Athletics

Jacob Groves made 14 starts and averaged 9.3 points and 4.2 rebounds while averaging 22 minutes per game this season.  Groves' big game last year was also against Kansas in the NCAA Tournament, when he scored a season-high 23. He shot 36.4 percent from 3-point range last year and 62.2 percent from inside the stripe.

It’s welcome news for the Sooners, who in the last week watched Brady Manek commit to North Carolina and De’Vion Harmon and Alondes Williams enter the transfer portal.

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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.