Tulsa Basketball: Massive Golden Hurricane rebuild in store for 2016-17

Few teams in America lost as much as Tulsa basketball did this spring. The rebuild will involve nearly 10 new faces.

Do you know what a team returning just 19 percent of its points looks like? Because I sure don’t.

That is the situation facing Frank Haith in his third year as head coach of Tulsa. After winning 20 games last season and reaching the NCAA Tournament, a big step backwards is in store for the rebuilding Golden Hurricane.

Just one double figure scorer returns in senior Pat Birt. The only other returning player who played regular minutes last season is sophomore reserve Sterling Taplin. The two incumbents combined for just 15 points a night, with most of that coming off Birt’s 12.0 average.

If Tulsa is going to even sniff the postseason, Haith’s huge recruiting class is going to have to step up in a big way.

Five freshman, three JUCO transfers, and a major conference transfer take center stage this season.

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Headlining the class is former Rutgers power forward Junior Etou. The 6’7″ junior was a three star guard when he committed to Rutgers.

Etou averaged 7.4 points and 6.6 boards in 2014-2015 for the Scarlet Knights. He also showed some pop from range at 31 percent. Etou has the versatility to slide over to small forward if needed, but he also has the toughness on the glass to play down low.

Jaleel Wheeler from Kilgore [TX] College looks to be the most exciting of the junior college guys. The 6’4″, 195 pound guard was an NJCAA All-American in 2016. Wheeler poured in 22.3 points per contest on 51 percent shooting, including 40 percent from deep. He also added 2.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.

Wheeler could be the favorite to help flank Birt and Taplin.

Fellow JUCOs Corey Henderson and Geno Artison will help on the perimeter and at forward, respectively.

The freshman consist of a few interesting playmakers that could do solid work this upcoming season.

Travis Atson from Brooklyn won two state titles in high school, Joseph Battle was Mr. South Carolina after averaging 31 points and seven boards as a senior and Will Magnay was named the top defensive player on his U-20 Australian tournament team. Arkansas All-State guard Lawson Korita and bruising forward Martins Igbanu from Georgia round out the first year players.

All five could play a role at some point this season due to the amount of minutes remaining.

Growing pains are coming for Tulsa in 2016-17. Haith has done well on the job thus far, but so many new faces means that his team is going to struggle at times during this upcoming season.

Next: 20 breakout candidates for 2016-17

It helps that Tulsa has one of the better incoming classes in the American Athletic Conference. Repeating last year’s fifth place finish would be a feat though.