Sooner04
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DISCLAIMER: These thoughts are not from a professional. They are from an unabashed Sooner BBall fanatic whose glasses are tinted heavily crimson. I’m not a coach, I’m not an analyst, I’m just a fan who used to write and misses the task. My knowledge of the X’s and O’s of the sport is tenuous at best. My predictions often prove folly. I once fell hard for Ray Willis. But I do love my Sooners hoopsters, often much too much. Feel free to critique but, please, be gentle.
The college basketball season is, by design, a long grind. One night’s concern can easily be next week’s trumpeted virtue. So it’s best not to get too low after lethargy or too high amongst the tall cotton. That said, we stunk against Idaho State…but we looked darn good tonight against Fang’s mighty Coppin State squad. Some oddities really stood out: a 23-0 run early in the first half, 28 offensive rebounds (depending on which box score you peruse) and a dunk so stunning it would’ve brought Julius Erving a brief moment of pause.
It was a fun night in the Lloyd Noble Center. If you like offensive basketball, we did not disappoint. If you like defensive basketball, you needn’t return home to kick the dog. Our Sooners played a well-rounded game, and it looked like they’d walked miles down the road to success since they last took the floor.
What I’d like to do is proclaim great things for this team based on tonight’s performance, but I’ve been down that road before. I proclaimed the VCU loss a fluke in advance of our trip to Alaska (gulp). I proclaimed we’d see how good we were last year shortly before we took the floor against Virginia (cough cough). What I will say is something, I feel, is fairly safe; we’re looking like a well-rounded basketball team. Best I can tell we get decent production from each position on the floor. We’ve got points that can penetrate and we’ve got guards that can shoot. We’ve got wings that can slash and garbage men who can clean the glass. There’s a lot of “good” out there, and I’m here to say that that “good” is going to keep us in a lot of ballgames.
For those of you with short memories, we haven’t been in a lot of ballgames that matter in quite some time.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st – 23 [I’m hiding in Honduras,]
2nd – 19 [I’m a desperate man.]
3rd – 31 [Send lawyers, guns and money,]
4th – 19 [the **** has hit the fan.]
SCORING LEADERS:
Steven Pledger: 20
Calvin Newell: 14 (Going to start calling this guy “Spark”.)
Romero Osby: 11
Andrew Fitzgerald: 10
REBOUNDING LEADERS:
Romero Osby: 10 (Two straight Dub-Dubs to start his career!)
Casey Arent: 9
C. J. Washington: 8
Andrew Fitzgerald: 8 (THUD, <--- 04 faints.)
PLUSES:
1. Garbage Men: We’re an undersized lot, and we’re not going to wow anybody when we be-bop out of the tunnel for warm-ups, so we have no choice but to rebound like rabid dobermans. In 31 minutes of action, Casey Arent and C. J. Washington combined for 17 rebounds (six of them offensive). Perhaps it was a fluke, Andrew Fitzgerald did have eight for crying out loud, but I thought their effort down there in the trenches was fantastic. 61-27 as a team? That’s phenomenal.
2. Romero Osby: Two games as a Sooner, two double-doubles. Blake Griffin didn’t do that. Taj Gray didn’t do that. Anybody have any idea the last player to accomplish such a feat? I’m curious, and my press guide collection was unable to answer that question. Help me if you can, Mike Houck!
3. Steven Pledger: He’s batting .500 in terms of games played (2 of 4) but he makes us a lot better. 20 points, three assists, and not a turnover on the sheet, but at this rate he’ll probably miss the Washington State game with an ingrown toenail.
4. Calvin Newell: The Spark! Sure seems like his points come in bunches. I like him sweeping in off the bench to provide instant offense.
5. Cameron’s Windmill: That was as nasty a dunk as you’ll ever see. Words cannot do it justice, but I bet Dominique Wilkins would’ve found it nifty. Dr. J would’ve most certainly raised an eyebrow.
MINUSES:
1. Carl Blair: It was as if he’d caught a case of Tyler Neal disease still lingering around from the Idaho State game. Whatever he touched tonight turned to gruel.
2. Cameron Clark: By my tally, Cam is 3-18 from the field this season, with two of those three field goals being dunks. If Cal is The Spark then Cam, for the moment, is Sir-Clangs-a-Lot.
3. Free-Throw Shooting: We shot them fine (10-13), but Coppin State got to the line twice as often as we did. I’d like to see us attack the basket a little more, but I won’t be griping any time we pass 80 points. 92 is wonderful, but we’ll need more freebies as the year goes on.
This jaunt out to Disneyland for the 76 Classic should tell us a lot about where we are as a program. To be blunt, we’ve been hideous for years in these tournaments. Losses to Washington, Virginia and, gulp, Chaminade (oh the humanity!) are still fresh in my mind. I’d really like to see us get some momentum on our side, and a win over Washington State would be absolutely gigantic. I cannot wait to see how we stack up against them. It’s a chance for us to really turn a corner as a group, to really show our fans that dawn is approaching and that the end of the long, cold night is at hand. I’m really anxious, because I have NO CLUE what to expect. We might lay an egg, or we might dictate tempo and win a huge game for the program.
We’re only two games in, but in Lon I trust.
In closing, keep the families and friends of Kurt Budke, Miranda Serna and Olin and Paula Branstetter in your thoughts tonight and for the foreseeable future. Life is fragile, and it’s most certainly fleeting. If you get a chance, let those who mean the most to you know just how you feel. What’s here today can be gone for good tomorrow. They will all be missed.
Thank you for your time.
The college basketball season is, by design, a long grind. One night’s concern can easily be next week’s trumpeted virtue. So it’s best not to get too low after lethargy or too high amongst the tall cotton. That said, we stunk against Idaho State…but we looked darn good tonight against Fang’s mighty Coppin State squad. Some oddities really stood out: a 23-0 run early in the first half, 28 offensive rebounds (depending on which box score you peruse) and a dunk so stunning it would’ve brought Julius Erving a brief moment of pause.
It was a fun night in the Lloyd Noble Center. If you like offensive basketball, we did not disappoint. If you like defensive basketball, you needn’t return home to kick the dog. Our Sooners played a well-rounded game, and it looked like they’d walked miles down the road to success since they last took the floor.
What I’d like to do is proclaim great things for this team based on tonight’s performance, but I’ve been down that road before. I proclaimed the VCU loss a fluke in advance of our trip to Alaska (gulp). I proclaimed we’d see how good we were last year shortly before we took the floor against Virginia (cough cough). What I will say is something, I feel, is fairly safe; we’re looking like a well-rounded basketball team. Best I can tell we get decent production from each position on the floor. We’ve got points that can penetrate and we’ve got guards that can shoot. We’ve got wings that can slash and garbage men who can clean the glass. There’s a lot of “good” out there, and I’m here to say that that “good” is going to keep us in a lot of ballgames.
For those of you with short memories, we haven’t been in a lot of ballgames that matter in quite some time.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st – 23 [I’m hiding in Honduras,]
2nd – 19 [I’m a desperate man.]
3rd – 31 [Send lawyers, guns and money,]
4th – 19 [the **** has hit the fan.]
SCORING LEADERS:
Steven Pledger: 20
Calvin Newell: 14 (Going to start calling this guy “Spark”.)
Romero Osby: 11
Andrew Fitzgerald: 10
REBOUNDING LEADERS:
Romero Osby: 10 (Two straight Dub-Dubs to start his career!)
Casey Arent: 9
C. J. Washington: 8
Andrew Fitzgerald: 8 (THUD, <--- 04 faints.)
PLUSES:
1. Garbage Men: We’re an undersized lot, and we’re not going to wow anybody when we be-bop out of the tunnel for warm-ups, so we have no choice but to rebound like rabid dobermans. In 31 minutes of action, Casey Arent and C. J. Washington combined for 17 rebounds (six of them offensive). Perhaps it was a fluke, Andrew Fitzgerald did have eight for crying out loud, but I thought their effort down there in the trenches was fantastic. 61-27 as a team? That’s phenomenal.
2. Romero Osby: Two games as a Sooner, two double-doubles. Blake Griffin didn’t do that. Taj Gray didn’t do that. Anybody have any idea the last player to accomplish such a feat? I’m curious, and my press guide collection was unable to answer that question. Help me if you can, Mike Houck!
3. Steven Pledger: He’s batting .500 in terms of games played (2 of 4) but he makes us a lot better. 20 points, three assists, and not a turnover on the sheet, but at this rate he’ll probably miss the Washington State game with an ingrown toenail.
4. Calvin Newell: The Spark! Sure seems like his points come in bunches. I like him sweeping in off the bench to provide instant offense.
5. Cameron’s Windmill: That was as nasty a dunk as you’ll ever see. Words cannot do it justice, but I bet Dominique Wilkins would’ve found it nifty. Dr. J would’ve most certainly raised an eyebrow.
MINUSES:
1. Carl Blair: It was as if he’d caught a case of Tyler Neal disease still lingering around from the Idaho State game. Whatever he touched tonight turned to gruel.
2. Cameron Clark: By my tally, Cam is 3-18 from the field this season, with two of those three field goals being dunks. If Cal is The Spark then Cam, for the moment, is Sir-Clangs-a-Lot.
3. Free-Throw Shooting: We shot them fine (10-13), but Coppin State got to the line twice as often as we did. I’d like to see us attack the basket a little more, but I won’t be griping any time we pass 80 points. 92 is wonderful, but we’ll need more freebies as the year goes on.
This jaunt out to Disneyland for the 76 Classic should tell us a lot about where we are as a program. To be blunt, we’ve been hideous for years in these tournaments. Losses to Washington, Virginia and, gulp, Chaminade (oh the humanity!) are still fresh in my mind. I’d really like to see us get some momentum on our side, and a win over Washington State would be absolutely gigantic. I cannot wait to see how we stack up against them. It’s a chance for us to really turn a corner as a group, to really show our fans that dawn is approaching and that the end of the long, cold night is at hand. I’m really anxious, because I have NO CLUE what to expect. We might lay an egg, or we might dictate tempo and win a huge game for the program.
We’re only two games in, but in Lon I trust.
In closing, keep the families and friends of Kurt Budke, Miranda Serna and Olin and Paula Branstetter in your thoughts tonight and for the foreseeable future. Life is fragile, and it’s most certainly fleeting. If you get a chance, let those who mean the most to you know just how you feel. What’s here today can be gone for good tomorrow. They will all be missed.
Thank you for your time.
. Great, great post!!
