Transfer Tanner Groves down to Texas, Oklahoma, Portland and Washington State

Tanner Groves, the 2020-2021 Big Sky player of the year is in the transfer portal and announced his four finalists as Portland, Washington State, Oklahoma, and Texas. Groves who averaged 17.2 points with 8.0 rebounds a game last year put his name in the portal after coach Shantay Legans left Eastern Washington to take the Portland job.

Groves is known for his huge performance against Kansas in the NCAA tourney where he scored 35 points and made 5 3’s. He also had a solid 17-point 9-rebound outing against Washington State in the first game of the season.

Tanner and younger brother Jacob were part of the mass exodus of Eastern Washington players to transfer out of the program. The Groves brothers are known to be very close and could want to play as many as two more years together.

With Portland already landing Mike Meadows, Jack Perry, and Tyler Robertson you have to assume they are recruiting Jacob as well. A “source” told me that Washington State is also targeting Jacob Groves.

Tanner Groves took advantage of extended playing time this year. He played 9 minutes a game during his Sophomore campaign and scored 5.1 points per game along with 2.8 rebounds. His minutes went up to 27 per game and points and rebounds jumped up significantly.

Groves was playing behind Mason Peatling his Freshman and Sophomore year. With him graduating after the 2020 season it provided an avenue for Groves to play more. Groves does a good job using his body to create positioning in the post. He has a capable three-point shooter shooting 34.9 percent on 2.6 attempts per game and is also a willing passer. Each of these schools would be getting a nice player who can handle the step up in competition.

Here’s Groves fit with each of the four schools on his list.

Washington State Cougars

Currently, Washington State doesn’t have any scholarships available so someone would have to transfer out to take Tanner and if Jacob came along two players would have to leave to have enough spots. The Cougars finished 14-13 last year and are expected to return every major contributor besides Isaac Bonton to is expected to go pro and Jaz Kunc who transferred to Iowa State.

Washington State also added transfers Tyrell “Ghost” Roberts from UC San Diego and Michael Flowers from South Alabama. The Cougs could have a pretty impressive frontcourt adding Groves to rotation along with All Pac-12 Freshman Efe Abogidi and Freshman Honorable Mention Dishon Jackson. The addition of Groves would help Washington State be closer to their first NCAA tournament since Tony Bennett was the head coach there.

Texas Longhorns

The Texas Longhorn lost their coach Shaka Smart to Marquette and replaced him with Chris Beard from Texas Tech. Beard is a University of Texas Alumni who was a student manager during his time at Texas. The Longhorns have been active in the transfer portal with already landing Timmy Allen from Utah, Devin Askew from Kentucky, and Christan Bishop who was at Creighton.

Beard is known as a defensive coach that is also incredible at teaching the X’s and O’s. Even though Groves is known as an offensive player he’s smart, fundamentally sound, and would be used nicely under Beard.

Portland Pilots

Under old Coach Terry Porter, Portland has won 1 conference game in the last three seasons and ended the season 321 in Kenpom. This Portland job is a complete rebuild and has had 12 players transfer out since Legans was hired. Currently, according to Verbal Commits, the Pilots have seven players currently on their roster. The WCC is a better league than the Big Sky but Groves would have an opportunity to be the go-to guy for Portland.

You can expect the familiarity with Legans along with the relationship to be a big reason why Portland is in his final four. With already being in the system you can expect Groves to already know his role if he were to commit.

Oklahoma Sooners

With Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger retiring the Sooners decided to hire Porter Moser from Loyola Chicago. Moser is an incredible teacher who did an incredible job at Loyola he took the Ramblers to a Final Four in 2018 and a Sweet 16 in 2021. They had Kenpom’s No. 2 defense in the country last year and put on a clinic with how fundamentally sound they were. On offense, Moser used big man Cameron Krutwig as kinda the College Basketball version of Nikola Jokic.

They ran him out of the high post and ran cutters off and also used him as a roller on pick and roll. Even though Groves isn’t the type of passer as Krutwig it would be interesting if Moser uses him in that role.