Sooner04
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- May 15, 2009
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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.
Sigh.
There's something about the crushing weight of reality that stings harder when it comes so close to moments of unbridled optimism. Saint Louis was the cold front that follows an Indian Summer weekend. The way they moved the ball, the way they bodied up down low, the way the attacked from both high and low; it was as if the Billikens came into the game with the sole purpose of denying us the chance to do any of the things we do well.
The bad thing is they succeeded. They succeeded like crazy. They moved the ball the width of the court, surveying us until they had us out of position and then they attacked with ruthless efficiency. To my untrained eyes it looked like they only went to the basket when they had a 2-on-1 opportunity caused by either a failure to rotate or an over-pursuit of the ball. When that failed, they'd just whip it around the perimeter a few more times and take advantage of our catastrophic inability to close out shooters.
It was a complete and unmitigated disaster once foul trouble set in. Fitzgerald was marooned in the post as if he were the last man on a deserted island. Communication without Grooms? Non-existent. Offensively, the next easy look we get will be our first of the evening. Ball protection? No player on the squad had more assists than turnovers. We absolutely, totally, unequivocally STUNK.
But there is video evidence of this game, and the coaches have a copy of it. It's my hope that they go over it with a fine toothed comb. The three or four things we like to do were taken away tonight, so here's to developing some alternatives so that the next time we face a team with a hot-shooting motion offense we don't look like a church league team. Until then, here's to Saint Louis. THAT was a butt kicking. Brian Conklin....who is that?! [spit]
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st: 12 [The only thing different,]
2nd: 18 [the only thing new.]
3rd: 19 [I've got these little things,]
4th: 14 [she's got you.]
SCORING LEADERS:
Romero Osby: 14
Cameron Clark: 14
Steven Pledger: 11
REBOUNDING LEADERS:
Romero Osby: 6
Cameron Clark: 6
PLUSES:
1. Romero Osby: Played hard the entire time he was on the floor. I wasn't real crazy about the number of 18-footers he took, but he seemed to be the only guy still pursuing the rebounds with vigor toward the end.
2. Cameron Clark: This kid has become much more assertive in year two. He was the only player on the team tonight to make more shots than he missed.
MINUSES:
1. Interior Defense: I'm not John Chaney. I have little to no grasp on what makes good team defense, but what I saw tonight was, in my estimation, lousy. You could count the number of bad looks they took on one hand. They had their way with us. And when they reversed it, nobody from inside even sniffed closing out on a shooter. Brutal. Just brutal.
2. Carl Blair: A walking, talking, turnover machine.
3. Calvin Newell: The Spark was easily snuffed tonight. Looked monumentally befuddled.
4. Ball movement: I suppose I could name every guard (Grooms wasn't worth much tonight either) but it seemed like every shot, whether it was from five feet or 24 feet, was contested. Saint Louis was good defensively, but they weren't '85 Georgetown or anybody from Temple's impenetrable match-up zoners. Point being, we didn't make them work real hard for it. Five assists? In 40 minutes? Ugh McUgherson.
There will be more nights like this. I doubt any team shoots the lights out on us like Saint Louis did, but there will certainly be more tough nights to learn lessons. But with a pretty open schedule in the coming weeks I hope to see as much improvement then as we've seen up until now since opening against Idaho State. 72 hours ago I was just settling down to watch us play Wazzu and hoping we'd keep it close. Things change, and so do results. Here's to a defensive show on Friday against Sacramento State.
In closing, what the hell is a Billiken?
Thank you for your time.
Sigh.
There's something about the crushing weight of reality that stings harder when it comes so close to moments of unbridled optimism. Saint Louis was the cold front that follows an Indian Summer weekend. The way they moved the ball, the way they bodied up down low, the way the attacked from both high and low; it was as if the Billikens came into the game with the sole purpose of denying us the chance to do any of the things we do well.
The bad thing is they succeeded. They succeeded like crazy. They moved the ball the width of the court, surveying us until they had us out of position and then they attacked with ruthless efficiency. To my untrained eyes it looked like they only went to the basket when they had a 2-on-1 opportunity caused by either a failure to rotate or an over-pursuit of the ball. When that failed, they'd just whip it around the perimeter a few more times and take advantage of our catastrophic inability to close out shooters.
It was a complete and unmitigated disaster once foul trouble set in. Fitzgerald was marooned in the post as if he were the last man on a deserted island. Communication without Grooms? Non-existent. Offensively, the next easy look we get will be our first of the evening. Ball protection? No player on the squad had more assists than turnovers. We absolutely, totally, unequivocally STUNK.
But there is video evidence of this game, and the coaches have a copy of it. It's my hope that they go over it with a fine toothed comb. The three or four things we like to do were taken away tonight, so here's to developing some alternatives so that the next time we face a team with a hot-shooting motion offense we don't look like a church league team. Until then, here's to Saint Louis. THAT was a butt kicking. Brian Conklin....who is that?! [spit]
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st: 12 [The only thing different,]
2nd: 18 [the only thing new.]
3rd: 19 [I've got these little things,]
4th: 14 [she's got you.]
SCORING LEADERS:
Romero Osby: 14
Cameron Clark: 14
Steven Pledger: 11
REBOUNDING LEADERS:
Romero Osby: 6
Cameron Clark: 6
PLUSES:
1. Romero Osby: Played hard the entire time he was on the floor. I wasn't real crazy about the number of 18-footers he took, but he seemed to be the only guy still pursuing the rebounds with vigor toward the end.
2. Cameron Clark: This kid has become much more assertive in year two. He was the only player on the team tonight to make more shots than he missed.
MINUSES:
1. Interior Defense: I'm not John Chaney. I have little to no grasp on what makes good team defense, but what I saw tonight was, in my estimation, lousy. You could count the number of bad looks they took on one hand. They had their way with us. And when they reversed it, nobody from inside even sniffed closing out on a shooter. Brutal. Just brutal.
2. Carl Blair: A walking, talking, turnover machine.
3. Calvin Newell: The Spark was easily snuffed tonight. Looked monumentally befuddled.
4. Ball movement: I suppose I could name every guard (Grooms wasn't worth much tonight either) but it seemed like every shot, whether it was from five feet or 24 feet, was contested. Saint Louis was good defensively, but they weren't '85 Georgetown or anybody from Temple's impenetrable match-up zoners. Point being, we didn't make them work real hard for it. Five assists? In 40 minutes? Ugh McUgherson.
There will be more nights like this. I doubt any team shoots the lights out on us like Saint Louis did, but there will certainly be more tough nights to learn lessons. But with a pretty open schedule in the coming weeks I hope to see as much improvement then as we've seen up until now since opening against Idaho State. 72 hours ago I was just settling down to watch us play Wazzu and hoping we'd keep it close. Things change, and so do results. Here's to a defensive show on Friday against Sacramento State.
In closing, what the hell is a Billiken?
Thank you for your time.
