Kameron McGusty, Oklahoma’s freshman shooting guard, has all the makings of a star.
You hear about his potential from every possible direction. Friends, teammates, coaches and TV announcers alike all insist McGusty, the highest-rated recruit of the Lon Kruger era, is destined for big things with the Sooners. You saw a glimpse of it in the box score against Kansas State, too. McGusty scored 20 points on the road against the Wildcats, something Buddy Hield never did. Neither did other Sooner greats like Stacey King or Isaiah Cousins. Blake Griffin didn't do it until Jan. 7 of his freshman season — exactly nine years before McGusty's feat.
“Personally, I don’t know what an NBA player looks like, I’ve never had the privilege to coach somebody who’s gone that far, but I’ve also coached enough players to know that Kameron’s special,” McGusty’s old high school coach, Shannon Heston, said. “I know the young man and I know basketball and I don’t see why he can’t.”
McGusty, who will make his first career start against No. 2 Kansas Tuesday night, wasn’t always talked about so glowingly. There was a time when the combo guard from a small town in southwestern Texas had major questions. During his early years at Seven Lakes High School in Katy, Texas — he would spend three years there before finishing his senior season at Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, Kansas — McGusty struggled to give consistent effort.
“I think sometimes he just maybe got bored with stuff and we had to find ways to motivate him more,” Heston said of those early years. “When we would take the court on a Tuesday or Friday night, Kameron knew, for the most part, night in and night out he was going to be the best player on the court and he would pick and choose his moments when he wanted to go hard.”
During practices, McGusty would play his heart out on one drill and then take the next off. When it came time to play a game he would rest on defense or float to the corner to conserve energy for later.
“He would kind of pick and choose his moments when he wanted to try and take over,” Heston recalled.
There was a moment Heston recalled vividly, it was the first game of the season for the varsity team at Seven Lakes and they were playing against the Clear Falls Knights. Shortly after the opening tip, McGusty, then a sophomore making his first appearance on the varsity squad, checked into the game for the Spartans.
“Kameron checked in and a play and a call didn’t go his way,” Heston said. McGusty said he didn’t quite remember what happened, but he knew it upset him, and he didn’t hide his emotions. The outburst didn’t go over well with Heston or the rest of the coaching staff and they pulled him from the game.
As McGusty made his way back to the bench, his demeanor had soured and when his teammates reached out for high fives, McGusty passed by without offering a hand to anyone.
The coaching staffs’ response?
“We didn’t play him the rest of the game,” Heston said.
Heston said McGusty’s benching wasn’t to punish, but to teach.
“It just kind of stuck out to him that he needed to act right, behave right and not let bad calls affect his body language and how he was going to treat and talk to his teammates,” he said.
McGusty was upset, but with himself.
“I had never been taken out for trying to make a play because I’ve been a playmaker my whole life so it was just frustrating … I was just used to being the man,” McGusty said. “And I needed that. I went home, thought about it and thought about how I can’t do that. I’m a better person than that. It helped me mature.”
Later on during that same season, McGusty was named the District MVP thanks to a unique blend of scoring and playmaking. With McGusty, it was never a matter of the physical game, but rather the mental one.
McGusty isn’t and wasn’t lazy. In fact, Heston named him as one of the hardest workers he’s coached, but the game just came freely to him. Some players are self-made. They spend countless hours working and growing their game in order to be good. McGusty was already good, that extra work was needed to make him great.
“A lot of it comes naturally,” McGusty said. “I mean some players work for a lot of things, some players have God-given ability and I was blessed with that, thankfully. I always get in the gym too, but some things on the court just can’t be taught and I can do them really well.”
As a sophomore, McGusty’s ability to score in bunches meant that he was receiving visits from DI schools on a regular basis. They were smaller, but they were starting to come more frequently. Big 12 schools were coming too, like Texas Tech and Baylor and Oklahoma, but all had the same concern: would McGusty be able to keep his motor running constantly? Oklahoma, more so than anyone else, was intrigued.
“He was a kid that we were on for a long time,” Chris Crutchfield, an Oklahoma assistant, said. “He was really laid back and didn’t play hard but he was a talented, real smooth player and he just never came out of that 75 (percent) mode. You know, he played at that 75 mode, that speed, and just never got to 100.”
Lew Hill, another assistant with the Sooners who has since left Oklahoma to take the head coaching job at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, took over recruiting duties when it came to McGusty. As a player, he represented everything Oklahoma was looking for in a guard: he could score at will, handle the ball, create for his teammates and defend. Hill said it was McGusty’s versatility that initially drew Oklahoma’s eye, he just wished the guard would play harder.
“I used to tell him all the time, ‘you gotta play harder,’” Hill said. “Imagine if he plays hard with the gifts that he has.”
After that sophomore season, McGusty’s team traveled north to visit Hill and the Oklahoma Sooners for a basketball camp. As McGusty excelled on the court, Crutchfield and Hill still didn’t see enough to offer a scholarship. There were still questions about McGusty’s motor and Hill decided it was time to sit down and talk about it, one on one.
“Well I’m always honest with kids,” Hill said. “I sat down and told him what he needed to do to get better, what he does good now and how he needs to improve and he just really liked my honesty with him.”
That talk was just as instrumental in molding McGusty as the benching was.
“He basically just laid down the foundation for the type of player he could see me being when I come out of high school and then when I get to college wherever I play at,” McGusty said. “He really gave me some confidence”
When he got back to school for his junior year, the switch flipped. And it never went back off. McGusty averaged 22 points per game his junior season at Seven Lakes and his recruiting stock soared.
“As soon as he got back he changed it,” Crutchfield said. “We went down in the fall to recruit him and you could see he changed and that’s when we offered him a scholarship. The rest was history.”
McGusty played in the Under Armour Grassroots Basketball Circuit between his junior and senior seasons. As an unranked recruit at the time, McGusty paced a field that included the No. 1 player in the country, Josh Jackson, in scoring.
“(McGusty) really opened a lot of eyes,” Heston said. “I think just the comments that he was hearing from not just one school or two schools, but from all the big schools that were recruiting him, I think he did a good job of self-reflection and he understood what he needed to do if he wanted to meet his goals and live out his dreams.”
McGusty spent his senior season at Sunrise Christian Academy, Hield’s alma mater. When he committed to Oklahoma, he did so in part because of the opportunities to play and contribute early, but also because of the sense of family he got in Norman.
“He wanted to be around family,” Hill said. “Somebody who pushed him and somebody he could talk to and trust.”
Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger fit that bill. So did Hill. McGusty said the two would talk almost daily. And even though Hill is no longer around, McGusty said that family feeling is still there.
“There’s not one time where I’m off the court or I’m like ‘man I can’t be around so and so today,’” McGusty said. “We’re always out and about having fun, always with each other. I think we gel real good.”
McGusty said the family atmosphere has helped his college transition. Everyone looks out for each other, and each pushes the other.
“Any time someone sees you doing something wrong or wants to help you out, they always have something to say,” McGusty said. “It’s like a family … It’s not just one individual that’s uplifting and trying to help the younger guys, everybody is trying to help.”
McGusty said it’s still been challenging at times to keep his aggression high day-in and day-out, but going against guys like Christian James and Jordan Woodard has helped push him, helped keep his motor running all the time.
“Of course I try to play as hard as I can every day but sometimes you just come in and you’re like, ‘man I’m tired today, my body’s beat up, I’m banged up,’ but you just have to overcome that,” McGusty said. “Everybody’s good, you can’t take any plays off and that’s one thing I’ve been working on. Trying to get my motor going, get into the game and get more aggressive and help my teammates out more.”
And so far, through the first half of his first season at Oklahoma, McGusty has done just that.
“He figured it out,” Crutchfield said. “Since he’s been here he’s been a really, really good player.”
McGusty is ready to keep working and keep growing as a player. His comfort level within the Sooners’ offense has risen, his confidence has never been higher and he’s starting to assert himself as one of the Sooners’ go-to scorers.
The motor, the one that stalled McGusty for so long, no longer idles.
