Hook Keeps Pledge To Sooners

LADY MOUNTIES GUARD MAKES GOOD ON COMMITMENT TO OKLAHOMA

By Paul Nielsen

Posted: November 12, 2009 at 5:34 a.m.

Anthony Reyes
Rogers High senior guard Morgan Hook, left, laughs with her teammates during a multimedia presentation of her basketball career at the school Wednesday at Rogers High. Hook signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Oklahoma.

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ROGERS — Morgan Hook committed to Oklahoma before she ever played a high school basketball game, but the Rogers High senior was wondering back in December of 2007 if Sooners coach Sherri Coale was having second thoughts.

Oklahoma assistant coach Chad Thrailkill traveled from Norman to Ardmore, Okla. to watch Hook and the Lady Mounties play 7A-West Conference foe Fort Smith Northside in the finals of the Ardmore Holiday Festival.

Things went badly for Rogers and Hook.

Northside jumped out to a 21-2 lead and never looked back in claiming a 55-34 victory. Hook scored in the single digits, which is the only time that has happened in her two years in a Lady Mounties uniform.

Neither party wavered, however, and Hook made good on her two-year old commitment when she signed with Oklahoma before Wednesday’s annual Lady Mounties Blue-White scrimmage.

“I was a little worried after that (Northside) game,” Hook said. “This makes it official.”

Moments after that loss in Ardmore, Lady Mounties coach Preston Early got a call from Thrailkill.

“(Thrailkill) told me to tell Mo (Morgan) to shake it off,” Early said. “They said we love her and I think that put her mind at ease. She knew she didn’t have to go out and score 40 to justify going to Oklahoma. Oklahoma knows what they have in Morgan.”

Two weeks after that loss, Hook scored 18 points as Rogers ended Northside’s 73-game home winning streak with a 42-39 victory in overtime.

“That’s the kind of kid she is,” Early said. “She has the ability and the resolve to get stronger and better every time she is challenged.”

Hook averaged 17 points as a sophomore and 18 points a game last year while being named the Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year. Hook was also The Morning News Girls Player of the Year in 2009. She will play point guard for the Lady Sooners.

“I never really felt any pressure (after committing to Oklahoma as a sophomore),” Hook said.

“That’s true,” Early said. “I don’t think she realized how big it was. She had committed to a top 20 program when she was 15-years-old. The only time I ever saw her put any weight of wanting to perform on her shoulders was in Ardmore.”

Coale said Hook is one of the best high school guards in the country and will be a nice fit at nationally ranked Oklahoma. Hook is expected to compete for playing time as a freshman.

“(Hook) makes it look easy,” Coale said. “She is an excellent passer, a pure shooter and a serious student of the game. She just finds a way to get it done. She plays for a fantastic high school coach and is as well prepared as she possibly can be to make the transition to Division I basketball.”

Despite having the recruiting process over, Hook said she feels more pressure heading into her final high school season. Hook helped lead Rogers to the Class 7A semifinals last season and the 5-foot-11 guard said she wants to help the Lady Mounties take the next step.

“We want to win a conference and state championship,” Hook said.

Hook was also heavily recruited by Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Arkansas, but the two Big 12 schools backed off after her commitment to the Lady Sooners. Hook, however, said the Razorbacks, and several other schools, continued the recruiting process over the past two years.

“(Arkansas) tried to (keep recruiting me),” Hook said. “I knew since I was a sophomore where I wanted to go.”

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