Eastern Washington men's basketball star Tanner Groves transferring to Oklahoma

NORMAN, Okla. — Eastern Washington's Tanner Groves had a dominant performance against Kansas in the NCAA Tournament.

Now Groves will get a chance to face the Jayhawks again, this time with Oklahoma after committing to transfer to the Sooners, he confirmed with a Twitter post Sunday night. ESPN's Jeff Borzello first reported the news.

New Sooners coach Porter Moser has made adding interior size a priority as he remakes the roster, and Groves gives the Sooners a 6-foot-9 interior presence.

Groves scored a career-high 35 points in Eastern Washington's 93-84 first-round loss to Kansas, hitting 5 of 11 3-point tries. He also added five rebounds and three blocks.

He earned Big Sky Conference Most Valuable Player honors as a redshirt junior this past season after averaging 17.2 points and 8.0 rebounds and shooting 35.4% from beyond the arc. Before the game against the Jayhawks, Groves was averaging just 2.3 3-point attempts per game.

With the Sooners losing Austin Reaves (NBA Draft), Brady Manek (North Carolina), Kur Kuath (professional opportunities), Victor Iwuakor (UNLV) and Trey Phipps (Oral Roberts) already and with De'Vion Harmon and Alondes Williams both in the transfer portal and exploring the draft, Moser will need to add more pieces through transfers.

OU signed three in the 2021 class, all guards — Kingfisher's Bijan Cortes, CJ Noland of Waxahachie, Texas, and Alston Mason of Overland Park, Kansas.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Tanner Groves transfers to Oklahoma from Eastern Washington