Gulley commits to Oklahoma State
Fayetteville High School junior guard Fred Gulley, offered a scholarship to play for the University of Arkansas last April by coach John Pelphrey, committed to Oklahoma State Friday.
Gulley spoke with the Northwest Arkansas Times‘ David Showers Monday.
“I was real excited to get it out of the way,” Gulley said during a phone interview Monday night. “A lot of schools were coming at me pretty hard. I knew it would only get worse and worse as the summer went along.”
California, Stanford, Virginia, LSU, Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Arizona State and Baylor were also recruiting Gulley.
The commitment marks an end to a whirlwind of activity surrounding Gulley, who was reportedly first recruited at the age of 11 by then-Arkansas coach Stan Heath.
Gulley told me on April 18 at the Real Deal on the Hill AAU tournament that the early recruitment had made for a pretty stressful last few years:
“It was sort of scary,” Gulley said. “I’ve been putting in a lot of hours in the gym so I can back it up. I had hype, a lot of hype from a young age. I just had to make sure I could back it up.”
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8 Responses to “Gulley commits to Oklahoma State”
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Common Pelfrey, How do you let someone come into your kitchen and steal the icing from the cake. Also we could use another big man who is athletic and will control the boards when we need that to be done.
landstar44……here we go again. How can you sit there and blame Pelphrey (not Pelfrey) when we do not know the whole situation. I would bet my house they tried hard to recruit Gulley but if you read the article he talks about being able to come in at OSU and make an immediate impact. He probably looked at us and saw we just signed to guards and still have a couple on the team and wants to play early. OSU may be losing some guys next year and gives him a shot at early playing time. These things are not Pelphreys fault. You can’t do anything about that. As for a big man he has one that will be a Freshman that needs to hit the weight room and he is in on others…give it time. Hey, I didnt want to lose Gulley either but if he doesnt want to play for his hometown then so be it. Pelphrey is loading up.
well said dfwhogfan!! alot of people r so willing to point the finger at the coach when a kid does not want to play for a school. when r people going to learn the kid has a mind of his own. not everyone wants to be a hog. whoever wants to be a hog let them and everyone else can play for whatever school of they want! just don’t be mad when arkansas beats them.
anyone notice how many local recruits played this year for memphis in the final 4? none. and zero on the bench.and the only 1 that was on the team left a vacancy in the back of the bus prior to the tournament when he failed a drug test. Larry Finch lived and died for years on the strength of getting locals to stay home and not go to pay for Nolan. Arkansas won a national championship in 94 with corey beck/dwight stewart. Finch with penney hardaway/keith lee did not. Seeing kids from high school stay and play for a hometown college is great for the fans but not so much for the success of the program. i’ve lived in memphis since 79(transferred against my better judgement from south arkansas) and nothing thrills me more than to see memphis(remember ‘76 anyone) lose. so dont be misled that local talent is what makes a program stay on top. its the chemistry of those that choose to play for your institution that makes it go. if all the players memphis put on the court were locals….it wouldnt be a team……it’d be a gang. be careful what u wish for.
headhog47,
But one can’t forget the importance of the inclusion of homegrown studs like <strong>Corliss Williamson</strong> and, most recently, <strong>Ronnie Brewer</strong> for the Hogs.
Sure a team made up of all homegrown talent probably wouldn’t produce championships, but what’s wrong with one or two sprinkled in, especially players that can win championships (see Williamson)?
You can go to almost any school and you’ll see a player or two from that university’s state on the team.
Lets face it. Gulley won’t go four years at OSU. No one with any talent does anymore. That era ended too long ago.
I just added him the the “Eric Mithcell” list. Gulley who? Never heard of him. On to the next.
as i said many months ago….no coach is able to sign or keep ALL of the players that he recruits, whether they be “home grown” or not. it’s part of the process and always will be. lets not whine about the kids that we didn’t land (if they don’t want to be a razorback, then i don’t want them anyway), and work hard with the student athletes that did decide to come here.