David Taylor Trying to Get Generational Recruit Bo Bassett to Oklahoma State

David Taylor isn’t just trying to lure to Stillwater the best recruit of his short stint at Oklahoma State, but maybe the most promising prospect in the long history of Cowboy wrestling.

Bo Bassett, the top recruit in the 2026 class, was in Oklahoma to host a camp this past weekend and met with Taylor and associate head coach Jimmy Kennedy on Saturday night while he was in the state. Bassett is considered a generational prospect out of Bishop McCort Catholic Academy in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where he is 74-0 entering his junior year. At only 17, Bassett is a member of the United States U20 Team at 65 kilograms. He will compete in the U20 World Championships on Sept. 2-8 in Spain.

As a top prospect, Bassett also took an unconventional approach to the recruitment process, starting with a top schools list of 80, compared to three to 10 like most recruits. Narrowing it down each week, he’s now slimmed the group down to 30, still including the Cowboys.

Another amazing recruiting week in the books. August is going to be one of my busiest months of my life! SO GRATEFUL

Psalm 28:7

Bo Bassett #MachineGunMindset #DreamBIG #Spain2024 pic.twitter.com/klCOb8klWb

— Bo Bassett WC (@BoBassett06) August 8, 2024

“The process has been incredible,” Bassett told PFB. “I’m blessed. I’m really grateful that it’s been like this and I have the opportunity. It’s been a long time of getting excited for it and what it would be like, and now that it’s here, it’s exceeded my expectations. So, I love going through it every week and I think that ultimately I’ll make the best decision for me, wherever God may lead me, and I’m excited to just keep rolling on in the process and after the World Championships get pretty serious with it.”

Part of that process has been a Walgreens receipt amount of programs calling the first night they could and college coaches wanting to meet Bassett on every trip he takes. This past weekend, former OSU associate head coach Coleman Scott, who is now part of Ohio State’s staff, met Bassett. Later that evening, Bassett and his family met with Taylor and Kennedy, whom he has a prior relationship with both. There’s video of Taylor using Bassett to show a technique at a camp when Bassett was only 10.

“To see them now in orange, it’s crazy,” Bassett said. “They’re kinda like their own team and it’s awesome. Coach Taylor and Coach Kennedy, they’re both great communicators and we were just talking wrestling, and they’re awesome people, too. I think that’s something to note.”

Taylor has already accomplished everything Bassett hopes to as a two-time NCAA champion, two-time Dan Hodge Trophy winner and an Olympic gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021. Now a first-year head coach, that makes Taylor’s best pitch to Bassett his actions, not the words he speaks.

“I think DT, his resume speaks for itself,” Bassett said. “What he’s done for himself is unbelievable. …

“I think Dave’s one of those guys — he’s young, he can relate to the guys. And I feel like he wants what’s best for these guys and he’s one of those people who goes all in on whatever he does. So I feel like his pitch is that he knows exactly what these guys are going through, and he’s gonna be able to help you with that and he’s achieved everything that anyone would want to achieve in the sport. So I feel like that would be his pitch.”

Again, Taylor’s accomplishments had Bassett’s attention before they ever even talked as a coach trying to win a recruit. Coaches were able to call Bassett at midnight June 15, and his phone started ringing as soon as the clock ticked. Taylor, though, strategically waited, being the 27th coach to call the top prospect. While getting documented by FloWrestling, Bassett wrote down in order each school that called him, but when Taylor finally rang, Bassett wrote on his giant note pad, underlined, “DT finally!!!”

Bo Bassett is a generational recruit and could finally be contacted this weekend. His dad posted his phone calls and take a look at #okstate. 👀 pic.twitter.com/xWfcBKJe6B

— Dekota Gregory (@dekotagregory) June 16, 2024

“I wrote finally because there were so many schools before, but, ultimately, it was still the first day,” Bassett said. “What he wanted to do was, he kind of wanted the buzz to kind of calm down. It was toward the end of the first day. He said he wanted to make it meaningful. And I can remember he said that. And I think that’s a good strategy. We were excited to see if he would call first. But, ultimately, I think that was a pretty good approach. And obviously I was really excited when they called and we were able to put them on the list there, for sure.

“But I think that Dave is gonna do amazing things. I’m excited to see how it plays out.”

Bassett said recruitment will really heat up for him when he returns from the World Championships in Spain and that list of possible schools will start to dwindle. Coaches are also now allowed in-home visits with Bassett starting Aug. 1, but Bassett will not start any kind of visits until early September after the World Championships. Bassett told PFB he plans to visit OSU during the opening weekend of the David Taylor era, when he’ll be able to attend two duals.

He has visited Stillwater once before while he was in the state to compete at Tulsa Nationals. He toured the campus and the National Wrestling Hall of Hall of Fame across the street. John Smith was still OSU’s head coach then.

“If you think about wrestling, I feel like, ultimately, you think about a couple of schools that have dominated for a long time. And Oklahoma State’s right up there, for sure,” Bassett said. “I would say, right now, I’m thinking of probably four or five like dynasties, and Oklahoma State is definitely there. They’ve dominated for a while. They’re always a top team, and I think that Dave can try to keep that tradition going and he can see what he can do with it.”