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.
Tonight’s 82-53 victory over Sacramento State was the cap of a roller-coaster week for our Sooner hoopsters. It was but seven days ago we found ourselves in Anaheim, California, polishing off another solid win in a performance against Santa Clara that brightened even the darkest of pessimistic hearts. Then Sunday came and Rick Majerus’s band of belligerent Billikens ended our hopes of bringing a tournament championship back to Norman. THEN came Thursday, and the most disappointing news of this young season in that Calvin Newell, instant offense off the bench, was transferring back home somewhere near Philadelphia to be closer to his family.
That’s quite a bit to pack into a season, let alone a week, so as I settled into my seat inside the LNC I was interested to see what kind of changes would be made in attitude, minutes and lineups. Offensively, that’s as close to flawless as we can play. It was a stagnant game of heave and hope in the final against Saint Louis, but tonight we moved the ball tremendously: passing up several decent shots in pursuit of good shots. Whereas we managed an Ethiopian five assists against SLU we were the gluttons of giving this evening, assisting on 22 of our 31 made field goals.
Defensively, I thought we did a fine job when we turned up the pressure. The mid-court line was a minefield for Sacramento State. Active hands and aggressive traps gave Sac State fits, and I’d be willing to bet the lion’s share of the turnovers were forced beyond the perimeter. It was when we settled into our half-court defense that some of our standard problems began to reappear. Too often guys ran open on the perimeter. Too often a hi-low two man game led to a lay-up. We can expect decent ballhandlers to navigate our traps, and we can certainly expect the elite guards within the conference to go through us like the first night’s enchilada on a sorority girl’s maiden voyage to Cancun.
I think we have several burgeoning weapons on offense, but not enough to outscore good teams when our defense starts to get shredded. With a couple of decent teams heading our way in the coming week (ORU and Arkansas) we’re going to need to make some strides on that side of the ball. The Sacramento States of the world shouldn’t hang around 50% from the field for the night, and they most certainly shouldn’t finish the game shooting 55% from distance.
But I shouldn’t be complaining about victories like this. We were never threatened and nobody got hurt. Win-win, I suppose. But if there were nothing to work on guys would just leave the arena and stay up ‘til dawn smoking dope and playing Call of Duty. Let’s close out on those shooters, boys. The Suttons are coming!
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st: 21 [Lyin' in a den in Bombay,]
2nd: 24 [with a slack jaw and not much to say.]
3rd: 22 [I said to the man, "are you trying to tempt me?"]
4th: 15 ["Because I come from the land of plenty!"]
LEADING SCORERS:
Cameron Clark: 18
Steven Pledger: 15
Andrew Fitzgerald: 13
LEADING REBOUNDERS:
Carl Blair: 5 <------ Wait a minute......WHAT?!
Romero Osby: 4
Andrew Fitzgerald: 4
Sam Grooms: 4
PLUSES:
1. Steven Pledger: Take a gander at this stat line: 15 points, five assists, three steals and no turnovers. 4-5 from the field, 3-3 from distance and 4-4 from the line, all in 21 minutes of work. If college basketball had the NFL’s passer rating that stat line would wander upward towards 158.3. A fantastic game of basketball; hey, let’s do it again Thursday.
2. Cameron Clark: This guy’s athleticism is remarkable. Another stellar dunk, this time the windmill, and a very quick jump into double figures. Displayed the long-range touch that we’d been hoping we’d see as he hit three of his five shots from behind the arc. Don’t forget his team leading three blocks, too.
3. The Starters: Grooms, Pledger, Clark, Osby and Fitzgerald. Tonight was a tour-de-force against a tremendously overmatched opponent. If this were boxing they’d be the beltholder and Sac State would be the journeyman tomato can. Our starting five combined to shoot 24-35 from the field (69%) and 8-10 from deep. They forced 12 steals, dished out 16 assists and turned the ball over a mere three times. That’s as solid as solid gets.
4. Carl Blair: 17 minutes, five rebounds, three assists and only one turnover. BETTER!
MINUSES:
1. Calvin Newell: So long, Sparky.
2. Casey Arent: I had high hopes for him to be the quintessential garbage man. Never looks for his shot because the thought of taking a shot never enters his head, just some sort of Pavlovian dog programmed to do nothing but rebound. He showed signs in earlier home games, but tonight he appeared to just clutter things up. He led the team in turnovers with three even though he only played 12 minutes. No good!
3. Depth: We took a big hit with Calvin leaving. Going to be very interesting to see if we can avoid getting stagnant when the starters need a rest. Who’s going to step up and make opposing defenses notice? Right now, yeesh.
4. Perimeter D: Two games in a row with not much improvement. Closeout, closeout, closeout. Or at least attempt to get a hand in the face.
Some real meat and potatoes appear on the horizon of our schedule. We passed our first litmus test with flying colors in Anaheim, but we can give a lot of that goodwill right back if we don’t play well at home this week. Even our worst teams (cough, Felton, cough) were able to hold down the Fort back home in non-con play. We’ve had some decently loud crowds early on this season, and I’m eager to find out if we’ll have an up-tick in attendance for the Fighting Hands of South Tulsa or the Red Pigs from Fayetteville. Our boys could certainly use it. If the weight of the world has got you down or if you cannot bear one more minute of the wife’s nagging then drive your gas guzzler down to the LNC. Bring a friend or, better yet, bring ten.
Thank you for your time.
Tonight’s 82-53 victory over Sacramento State was the cap of a roller-coaster week for our Sooner hoopsters. It was but seven days ago we found ourselves in Anaheim, California, polishing off another solid win in a performance against Santa Clara that brightened even the darkest of pessimistic hearts. Then Sunday came and Rick Majerus’s band of belligerent Billikens ended our hopes of bringing a tournament championship back to Norman. THEN came Thursday, and the most disappointing news of this young season in that Calvin Newell, instant offense off the bench, was transferring back home somewhere near Philadelphia to be closer to his family.
That’s quite a bit to pack into a season, let alone a week, so as I settled into my seat inside the LNC I was interested to see what kind of changes would be made in attitude, minutes and lineups. Offensively, that’s as close to flawless as we can play. It was a stagnant game of heave and hope in the final against Saint Louis, but tonight we moved the ball tremendously: passing up several decent shots in pursuit of good shots. Whereas we managed an Ethiopian five assists against SLU we were the gluttons of giving this evening, assisting on 22 of our 31 made field goals.
Defensively, I thought we did a fine job when we turned up the pressure. The mid-court line was a minefield for Sacramento State. Active hands and aggressive traps gave Sac State fits, and I’d be willing to bet the lion’s share of the turnovers were forced beyond the perimeter. It was when we settled into our half-court defense that some of our standard problems began to reappear. Too often guys ran open on the perimeter. Too often a hi-low two man game led to a lay-up. We can expect decent ballhandlers to navigate our traps, and we can certainly expect the elite guards within the conference to go through us like the first night’s enchilada on a sorority girl’s maiden voyage to Cancun.
I think we have several burgeoning weapons on offense, but not enough to outscore good teams when our defense starts to get shredded. With a couple of decent teams heading our way in the coming week (ORU and Arkansas) we’re going to need to make some strides on that side of the ball. The Sacramento States of the world shouldn’t hang around 50% from the field for the night, and they most certainly shouldn’t finish the game shooting 55% from distance.
But I shouldn’t be complaining about victories like this. We were never threatened and nobody got hurt. Win-win, I suppose. But if there were nothing to work on guys would just leave the arena and stay up ‘til dawn smoking dope and playing Call of Duty. Let’s close out on those shooters, boys. The Suttons are coming!
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st: 21 [Lyin' in a den in Bombay,]
2nd: 24 [with a slack jaw and not much to say.]
3rd: 22 [I said to the man, "are you trying to tempt me?"]
4th: 15 ["Because I come from the land of plenty!"]
LEADING SCORERS:
Cameron Clark: 18
Steven Pledger: 15
Andrew Fitzgerald: 13
LEADING REBOUNDERS:
Carl Blair: 5 <------ Wait a minute......WHAT?!
Romero Osby: 4
Andrew Fitzgerald: 4
Sam Grooms: 4
PLUSES:
1. Steven Pledger: Take a gander at this stat line: 15 points, five assists, three steals and no turnovers. 4-5 from the field, 3-3 from distance and 4-4 from the line, all in 21 minutes of work. If college basketball had the NFL’s passer rating that stat line would wander upward towards 158.3. A fantastic game of basketball; hey, let’s do it again Thursday.
2. Cameron Clark: This guy’s athleticism is remarkable. Another stellar dunk, this time the windmill, and a very quick jump into double figures. Displayed the long-range touch that we’d been hoping we’d see as he hit three of his five shots from behind the arc. Don’t forget his team leading three blocks, too.
3. The Starters: Grooms, Pledger, Clark, Osby and Fitzgerald. Tonight was a tour-de-force against a tremendously overmatched opponent. If this were boxing they’d be the beltholder and Sac State would be the journeyman tomato can. Our starting five combined to shoot 24-35 from the field (69%) and 8-10 from deep. They forced 12 steals, dished out 16 assists and turned the ball over a mere three times. That’s as solid as solid gets.
4. Carl Blair: 17 minutes, five rebounds, three assists and only one turnover. BETTER!
MINUSES:
1. Calvin Newell: So long, Sparky.
2. Casey Arent: I had high hopes for him to be the quintessential garbage man. Never looks for his shot because the thought of taking a shot never enters his head, just some sort of Pavlovian dog programmed to do nothing but rebound. He showed signs in earlier home games, but tonight he appeared to just clutter things up. He led the team in turnovers with three even though he only played 12 minutes. No good!
3. Depth: We took a big hit with Calvin leaving. Going to be very interesting to see if we can avoid getting stagnant when the starters need a rest. Who’s going to step up and make opposing defenses notice? Right now, yeesh.
4. Perimeter D: Two games in a row with not much improvement. Closeout, closeout, closeout. Or at least attempt to get a hand in the face.
Some real meat and potatoes appear on the horizon of our schedule. We passed our first litmus test with flying colors in Anaheim, but we can give a lot of that goodwill right back if we don’t play well at home this week. Even our worst teams (cough, Felton, cough) were able to hold down the Fort back home in non-con play. We’ve had some decently loud crowds early on this season, and I’m eager to find out if we’ll have an up-tick in attendance for the Fighting Hands of South Tulsa or the Red Pigs from Fayetteville. Our boys could certainly use it. If the weight of the world has got you down or if you cannot bear one more minute of the wife’s nagging then drive your gas guzzler down to the LNC. Bring a friend or, better yet, bring ten.
Thank you for your time.
