With the recent addition of former Ohio State center Felix Okpara to Tennessee as Rick Barnes and staff continue to revamp the roster, I know I didn’t have enough time to catch many, if any Ohio State games. And so I wanted to give folks who are more concentrated on just Tennessee basketball some insight into Okpara’s skills, weaknesses and an idea of what he can bring to the table for the Vols next year on the court.
Obviously, we can look at his counting stats and his per-40 stats to get an idea of his impact, but I wanted to dig a little deeper, so I reached out to Land-Grant Holy Land, the home of everything Ohio State Buckeye sports. And Connor Lemons, one of the people who cover hoops there was kind enough to answer my questions about Okpara’s game.
1.) Let’s start with a broad brush here — give us some strengths and weaknesses of Okpara’s overall game.
In general, I think Felix is the perfect post player for a team that has an explosive backcourt and isn’t necessarily relying on their center for a ton of points on a per-game basis. He finished the season strong and played really well in the NIT, but I’m not sure he will ever turn into much more than a 10 points per game-type player on that end.
However, he’s a game changer on the defensive end. I think Felix could wind up being an SEC Defensive Player of the Year kind of defender, because I thought he was going to be a candidate for Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year his junior year, had he stayed. He’s got a 7-foot-4 wingspan and finds ways to block shots that aren’t even in his zip code. The game that sticks out for me is when Ohio State played at Michigan State this past season, I remember watching Tyson Walker and AJ Hoggard altering the arc of their shots on the fly at the last second when Okpara would slide over to help, and it really gave them trouble.
He’s not super mobile on the defensive end, and had trouble with athletic bigs who can step out and hit jumpers. I thought he made strides at the end of the season, but sometimes Ohio State had no choice but to sit him when opposing teams went small. Still, he’s one of the best interior defenders in the country in my opinion, so you kind of take whatever offensive output he’s able to give when he’s impacting things so much at the other end.
2.) Was there any known discord between Okpara and Ohio State? Were there locker room issues or anything like that? Barnes is pretty careful about whom he adds to the team in terms of character, but you never really know until somebody gets somewhere… Was his departure a surprise, and how did Buckeye fans react to it?
To my knowledge there were no issues with Felix in the locker room, disagreements between him and the coaching staff, or anything like that. In fact, when the team was asked at media day last year who the funniest player on the team was, Felix was one of the most common responses. He’s kind of a quiet guy, but his teammates love him.
As I’m sure you guys are aware, Felix put out a graphic in early April about how he was “100% committed” to running it back with Ohio State, so him leaving was kind of a stunner to everyone, including the team and coaches. Jake Diebler brought in Kentucky center Aaron Bradshaw after Felix announced he was staying, and truth be told I think both guys would’ve still seen the floor quite a bit. Ultimately, Felix decided to make a move to another program where there would be a more guaranteed spot for him to get minutes.
Ohio State fans (obviously) didn’t react well to it since he had already announced to the world that he was coming back, but I think Felix has earned the opportunity to start (or at least get starter’s minutes) somewhere after battling in the trenches for the last two seasons for bad Ohio State teams. If he felt threatened by Bradshaw, I can’t say I blame him. I think Okpara leaving for Tennessee would’ve been received a bit worse if another Buckeye hadn’t left to play for Michigan the very next day.
3.) Just going by his counting stats, at this stage, it seems like he’s capable of being a force defensively and then he looks like he can be, at the least, a lob threat on offense — how do you see his game translating into what Tennessee does, especially considering the Vols’ revamped roster and Rick Barnes encouraging a quicker pace on offense?
Without having a ton of knowledge of who Tennessee has brought in this off-season in the transfer portal (sorry, it’s tough enough to keep it all straight for the conference I cover, let alone all the other conferences), I think Felix fits perfectly with how Barnes tries to build his defenses on a year-by-year basis. The Volunteers have been top-five in defensive efficiency each of the past four seasons, which is really, really impressive. From an outside perspective, I think Tennessee gets a reputation for being a nasty, muck-it-up team that will hold you to under 60 points really try to establish that they’re the nastier, more physical team. I think Felix willl fit right in with that. He’s a top-tier shot blocker that makes teams completely change their plan of attack. He will send shots packing into the fifth or sixth row of seats, get fans on their feet and completely change the momentum in the arena with one play. I think Tennessee fans will accept him pretty quickly as part of the family.
Offensively, you’re spot on with the “lob threat” assessment. He’s willing to hustle down the floor and make himself available for transition dunks — he did that a lot with Ohio State. I thought he was a decent cutter in half-court offense as well, but his back to the basket post-up game just isn’t quite there yet. I would say a more up tempo offense suits him better, but even if not, the defense will play anywhere.
4.) What kind of growth can you see happening in Okpara’s game? Do you think he has or will develop a repertoire of post moves? Has he shown flashes of being a better free-throw shooter or developing an in-or-around the paint jumper?
Felix ended the season scoring in double-digits in all three NIT games, which is the first time in his career that he’s scored 10+ in three consecutive games. He had 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks in the Georgia game, and that was one of the first games I noticed he was demanding the ball below the basket and attacking defenders without hesitation. He didn’t hit every shot (he finished 6-for-10), but I thought it was encouraging that he was being the aggressor below the basket. I’m not sure that will ever be a strength of his, since he’s going into his junior season now and he’s still a work in progress in that area.
I was kind of surprised to see that his free throw percentage actually went down this past season, because his free throw form looks pretty sound and he had stretches this season where he would go to the line and hit several in a row. I guess there’s no way to back this up, but the shot looks good to me and he looks confident taking them, so I think he will up that 59% FT rate this year.
5.) Okpara averaged 3.9 fouls in 23.6 minutes per-game last season. What would you say his biggest problem is with staying out of foul trouble? (Connor is correct here — Okpara averaged 2.9 fouls per-game, not 3.9… my bad)
I think he averaged 2.9 per game actually — at least that’s what ESPN says. For as many shots as he blocks, contests, and alters, I think 2.9 per game is pretty acceptable. I think extrapolated out to a per-40 minute basis, he’s blocking roughly 4 shots per game. I personally will take that kind of post defender every single day even if he’s picking up roughly three fouls per game. The one area I would look out for is if Barnes tries to keep him on the floor against a smaller lineup where he has to chase someone around a bit, I have seen him get beat off the dribble from time to time and then just reach out and foul the driver to prevent a basket.
6.) Defensively… does he offer options, scheme wise? Can he switch, hedge, play in drop coverage? In your opinion, what’s the best fit for his skill set?
Kind of like I said above, Ohio State played far more man-to-man than zone last season, and both Holtmann and Diebler did their best to get Okpara out of games when opposing teams had more mobile post players who were comfortable operating on the perimeter. He needs to improve his ability to switch and guard smaller defenders, even if it’s only something that happens occasionally. Having him drop down on the screen and invite the open man to shoot rather than drive to the basket works sometimes, but any screen action that involves Okpara on defense and a shooter on offense is probably asking for trouble.