#11 OU vs texas 6pm CST on ESPN

[TheMont]

There's many things to be concerned about, but the aspect I can't stop thinking about is how this team has a tendency to sleepwalk and play very poorly through large stretches of games. Tonight, we played GREAT for the last 10 minutes of the 2nd half and good for 7-8 minutes after that. Otherwise, very mediocre. And I can say something similar for every conference game. When was the last time this team put together at least 35 minutes of above average play in a game? Arkansas? Maybe Iowa State?

Tonight was the 4th consecutive game with a TERRIBLE start, particularly offensively. I put that on Moser. How are his guys not ready to play at the jump?

Texas has some talent, sure, but they are not nearly as good as we made them look tonight (rebounding is a prime example, as others have mentioned). My partner is a diehard Louisville fan, so I've watched a lot of Louisville and they are pretty clearly the worst team in the power 5 by a large margin, and it took a miraculous, well-defended buzzer beater by Abmas to beat them.

Side note: Abmas would be the perfect NIL + transfer portal success story to me if he went anywhere else but texass. He's a guy who committed to a small school, shined on the biggest stage, and earned himself an opportunity at a big school. But ugh, horns down for life.

Big, big bummer tonight. Second most disappointing loss in the Moser era, after the home loss to osu last season following the Bama win. There's a million more opportunities for big wins left in this conference, but like someone else mentioned, Moser is fighting against his track record. Time to get to back on track NOW before the team folds.

 

[opsooner]

The set offense was bad the entire game. Every set was an attempted high screen by one of the bigs and yet no screens were ever really set. Once that failed we floundered around. and rarely got good shots. Our only real success on offense was when we got transition points.

Defense had a real bad time with switching tonight. Anytime we were not immediate on a switch they made us pay. Happened at least 6 times, maybe more.

And then, of course, there was rebounding where we got it handed to us. They made many more effort plays.

We never looked comfortable and I never had a good feeling about the way we were playing. Jalen Moore was the only guy really playing close to his capability.

Very painful to make a long drive to Norman to watch this. Late posting because I felt the need to do drink a lot of beers afterwards.

 

[WichitaSooner]

Moser after the game said he first and foremost wanted to apologize to the fans. Said it was all on him.

Missed opportunity. Unacceptable to be out hustled by texas at home. As someone else mentioned, many of our fickle fans won’t be back on Saturday. See if they can pick themselves up off the mat.

What I don’t like about his postgame quote is where he said “I’ve worked my ass off to get people in the seats.” He really likes to point out how hard he is working to get fans interested, and the way he does it comes across as demeaning to the program. We all agree that our fan base is not the best, but Lon also did a ton of stuff to engage with the students and the community at large. Every time I hear Porter talk about the situation he walked into, he makes it sound as if he took over at a place where no one had ever managed to succeed before because there are so many obstacles. He has talked so often about how hard he is working to build a program and a culture, etc. In any given press conference, he probably talks about himself and/or says “I” more than Lon did in a decade. Even in apologizing tonight, he made sure to mention how hard he is working. It all comes across like a used car salesman. “What do I need to do to put your butt in the LNC seats?”

It’s well past the time for talk. The cliches, DCO, culture wall, talk about beer lines, all that stuff is gimmicky. Again, I give him huge credit for how he upgraded the talent this year, but I see very little indication that his in-game coaching has changed to reflect the upgrade.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

What I don’t like about his postgame quote is where he said “I’ve worked my ass off to get people in the seats.” He really likes to point out how hard he is working to get fans interested, and the way he does it comes across as demeaning to the program. We all agree that our fan base is not the best, but Lon also did a ton of stuff to engage with the students and the community at large. Every time I hear Porter talk about the situation he walked into, he makes it sound as if he took over at a place where no one had ever managed to succeed before because there are so many obstacles. He has talked so often about how hard he is working to build a program and a culture, etc. In any given press conference, he probably talks about himself and/or says “I” more than Lon did in a decade. Even in apologizing tonight, he made sure to mention how hard he is working. It all comes across like a used car salesman. “What do I need to do to put your butt in the LNC seats?”

It’s well past the time for talk. The cliches, DCO, culture wall, talk about beer lines, all that stuff is gimmicky. Again, I give him huge credit for how he upgraded the talent this year, but I see very little indication that his in-game coaching has changed to reflect the upgrade.

I disagree. I see him as very genuine.

And Lon tried a lot of things to engage students. Nothing really worked

 

[skyvue]

I am with @WichitaSooner. We need cooper to be playing far more than he has. I am not sure whose minutes he eats into but when it Is clearly not someone’s night (Godwin and uzan tonight, darthard against ku and tcu) why not give cooper a shot?

Northweather's contributed more than Cooper--why is no one calling (repeatedly) for him to see more minutes? Expecting a true freshman who's barely seen the floor (and has contributed virtually nothing when he has) to make a difference against Big 12 opponents seems far-fetched to me. Would Cooper have played point for Uzan tonight? Would he have played center for Godwin? I am quite confident Darthard plays better defense than Cooper and he only took two shots against KU and had two rebounds and no turnovers, so he wasn't the problem against KU. You'd think he'd thrown up 15 shots from deep to hear the complaints from some here.

Darthard seems to be the guy to complain about this season--there's one every year.

 

[TINY]

Northweather's contributed more than Cooper--why is no one calling (repeatedly) for him to see more minutes? Expecting a true freshman who's barely seen the floor (and has contributed virtually nothing when he has) to make a difference against Big 12 opponents seems far-fetched to me. Would Cooper have played point for Uzan tonight? Would he have played center for Godwin? I am quite confident Darthard plays better defense than Cooper and he only took two shots against KU and had two rebounds and no turnovers, so he wasn't the problem against KU. You'd think he'd thrown up 15 shots from deep to hear the complaints from some here.

Darthard seems to be the guy to complain about this season--there's one every year.

I would have liked to see northweather tonight, too. Maybe he hits a couple 3s to get us going. Godwin just didn’t have it tonight. It happens.

McCollum could have primarily run point if ou wanted to give cooper a shot on the wing imo. I would rather the ball been in his hands for most of the night given Uzan’s struggles. For a decent portion of the non con, he was taking it to the rack at will and scoring. Seems like we are trying to force the issue with Uzan. McCollum has been turning it over more so that is probably the main reason why uzan has been handling it more.

Fair point on darthard at ku. His +/- being significantly worse than anyone else’s during conference play is the prime reason I mentioned him. He dug that hole during the Ku and tcu games if I remember correctly. I thought he played well tonight and he was probably the reason we beat isu. I believe in darthard. Just wish Cooper and Northweather were getting more run when certain players are having one of those nights.

 

[Boom Soon]

I would have liked to see northweather tonight, too. Maybe he hits a couple 3s to get us going. Godwin just didn’t have it tonight. It happens.

Yeah, I noticed he didn't play. I thought he played well enough the last three games to warrant some minutes last night. I agree, maybe he could have opened up the offense some with his shooting.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

I don't think Northweather would have been able to stay with his guy. It seemed like Texas was pretty athletic

 

[WichitaSooner]

Northweather's contributed more than Cooper--why is no one calling (repeatedly) for him to see more minutes? Expecting a true freshman who's barely seen the floor (and has contributed virtually nothing when he has) to make a difference against Big 12 opponents seems far-fetched to me. Would Cooper have played point for Uzan tonight? Would he have played center for Godwin? I am quite confident Darthard plays better defense than Cooper and he only took two shots against KU and had two rebounds and no turnovers, so he wasn't the problem against KU. You'd think he'd thrown up 15 shots from deep to hear the complaints from some here.

Darthard seems to be the guy to complain about this season--there's one every year.

Because Cooper is a top 100 recruit who is infinitely more talented than Northweather. Luke made a couple shots at Kansas but otherwise hasn’t shown much indication he is athletic enough to ever be more than a career backup. Cooper would be one of the most athletic guys on the floor, and has the potential to be a cornerstone of the program. As far as his production, how can he contribute when he hasn’t been given a chance to play a meaningful second all season? When he gets in, he is playing with walkons in mopup duty in 30-pt games.

As for Dart, he is far from the problem. But that doesn’t mean he, or anyone else, should automatically play no matter how poorly they are playing. We have plenty of chances to get Cooper in when one of our five guards is struggling or in foul trouble.

 

[steverocks35]

Northweather's contributed more than Cooper--why is no one calling (repeatedly) for him to see more minutes? Expecting a true freshman who's barely seen the floor (and has contributed virtually nothing when he has) to make a difference against Big 12 opponents seems far-fetched to me. Would Cooper have played point for Uzan tonight? Would he have played center for Godwin? I am quite confident Darthard plays better defense than Cooper and he only took two shots against KU and had two rebounds and no turnovers, so he wasn't the problem against KU. You'd think he'd thrown up 15 shots from deep to hear the complaints from some here.

Darthard seems to be the guy to complain about this season--there's one every year.

Hey now, I’m on record complaining about Uzan

 

[ousooners1baby]

Glad I missed it I guess. Senior daughter was busy hitting the game winner with 5 seconds left and our boys beat the #5 ranked team in 2A. That allowed me to look atthe score down 6 and telling a friend we will make our late run. So the final score was a surprise. What is not a surprise is their slow starts and very unispired play at times. Every facet of basketball is learning to do it. And this band of one year brothers are having to learn everything. Including how to win when you are supposed to. I am not sure very many thought Texas would beat OU tonight but they did. Now, lets see what happens from here. I am sure some of you have counted them out at some point already. I'm rooting for them to figure it out and still make the sweet 16.

 

[BoulderSooner]

If you don't make shots it is very hard to win .... sometimes it is that simple ..

 

[WichitaSooner]

If you don't make shots it is very hard to win .... sometimes it is that simple ..

That’s true. But it’s not what happened last night. They kicked our butts on the boards and won the majority of 50/50 balls. Shooting better would have given us a better chance, but running some semblance of a halfcourt offense and not getting out worked would have helped more. I can’t count how many possessions involved Hugley standing at the top of the key, back to the basket, handing the ball to Uzan, nothing coming of it, then Los dribbling into a double team. And our defense was very sloppy and left their good shooters wide open several times.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

That’s true. But it’s not what happened last night. They kicked our butts on the boards and won the majority of 50/50 balls. Shooting better would have given us a better chance, but running some semblance of a halfcourt offense and not getting out worked would have helped more. I can’t count how many possessions involved Hugley standing at the top of the key, back to the basket, handing the ball to Uzan, nothing coming of it, then Los dribbling into a double team. And our defense was very sloppy and left their good shooters wide open several times.

There is a correlation between being outrebounded and shooting poorly. If you look at the other stats, we were pretty even. We didn't turn the ball over, we created a lot of turnovers. A lot of the missed shots was because of bad offense. Some of them were just missed shots.

 

[skyvue]

Because Cooper is a top 100 recruit who is infinitely more talented than Northweather.

Now we get down to the crux of it: You want him to play because of his ranking as a recruit, but without having seen a minute of him in practice. He hasn't done anything in games yet, but you write that off because he hasn't played very much. Fair enough, but he has practiced plenty and the guy paid to make these decisions has so far felt, based on the hours and hours of practice action he's seen, that Cooper's not ready yet. It's not uncommon for sought-after recruits to struggle out of the gate at the D1 level. Should coaching decisions be made based on the number of recruiting stars a player has been assigned by guys who write for the web?

As for Northweather, I wasn't really suggesting he should get more minutes. But he's been appraised by the coaches as being more game-ready than Cooper so it's interesting that those calling for Cooper are seeming just fine with Northweather--who was also a top 100 player and the Gatorade Player of the Year in a state of 6 million--remaining on the bench.

 

[WichitaSooner]

There is a correlation between being outrebounded and shooting poorly. If you look at the other stats, we were pretty even. We didn't turn the ball over, we created a lot of turnovers. A lot of the missed shots was because of bad offense. Some of them were just missed shots.

They got more offensive boards than we did even though they missed far fewer shots. Their offensive rebounding rate was far higher than ours. And like I said, they seemed faster/hungrier on loose balls. I am pleased with the turnovers, we were better there, no doubt.

 

[BoulderSooner]

That’s true. But it’s not what happened last night. They kicked our butts on the boards and won the majority of 50/50 balls. Shooting better would have given us a better chance, but running some semblance of a halfcourt offense and not getting out worked would have helped more. I can’t count how many possessions involved Hugley standing at the top of the key, back to the basket, handing the ball to Uzan, nothing coming of it, then Los dribbling into a double team. And our defense was very sloppy and left their good shooters wide open several times.

O boards were texas +3 (8 to 5) 32-19 on D boards was directly related to OU's 38 missed shots compared to texas 29 .. (missed FG plus missed last FT )

 

[WichitaSooner]

Now we get down to the crux of it: You want him to play because of his ranking as a recruit, but without having seen a minute of him in practice. He hasn't done anything in games yet, but you write that off because he hasn't played very much. Fair enough, but he has practiced plenty and the guy paid to make these decisions has so far felt, based on the hours and hours of practice action he's seen, that Cooper's not ready yet. It's not uncommon for sought-after recruits to struggle out of the gate at the D1 level. Should coaching decisions be made based on the number of recruiting stars a player has been assigned by guys who write for the web?

As for Northweather, I wasn't really suggesting he should get more minutes. But he's been appraised by the coaches as being more game-ready than Cooper so it's interesting that those calling for Cooper are seeming just fine with Northweather--who was also a top 100 player and the Gatorade Player of the Year in a state of 6 million--remaining on the bench.

So in your mind, then, last season, Oweh was completely unprepared to play meaningful minutes till midway through conference play. and then all of a sudden, almost overnight, he became good enough to not only play, but start and be one of our better players? It isn't possible that he was actually ready to help us sooner, but Moser simply missed the boat because of his reluctance to play freshmen? He wasn't a freshman, but it also reminds of Marvin Williams. Moser barely played him most of the season two years ago, then finally put him in and for a few games before getting hurt, he was a big spark.

I always think of Cousins as a freshman. He was awful. Seemed to turn it over every minute he played. Yet, on a tourney team that spent some time in the top 25, Lon kept playing him and let him grow through the mistakes. Why? Because he knew that Cousins and Buddy were very talented players who we needed to develop for the long term. He clearly could have used the "he isn't ready" rationale to keep him on the pine. No doubt, there were games when we would have been better off sticking with a less talented upperclassman simply to minimize mistakes. But is that the best way to improve as the season goes on? And as for your point about freshmen struggling, that's right, they do often take time to develop. But given a chance, most of them do develop. Look at our own conference. Almost every other coach is willing to live with some growing pains in the first couple months of the season because they know the payoff will come. I don't think it is a coincidence that while many teams improve throughout the season, we seem to hit our ceiling in December and then come back to earth.

And I have no idea what service had Luke as a top 100 player. The sites I found this morning barely had him in the top 50 at his position. More to the point, I saw him struggle to stay in front of guys in games against NET 300 teams two months ago. His ceiling is very low. There is a difference between a talented player struggling due to youthful mistakes and a guy struggling because they have physical limitations.

I will make a prediction: Cooper will start getting some minutes soon, maybe as soon as Saturday. And when he does. it wont be because he all of a sudden became a better practice player or a light turned on. It will be because Moser finally decides to give him a chance. He may play like crap, he may do well. Most likely, some of both. Either way, it is something that should have happened sooner. And you're right, I have no clue what kind of player he will become. But I know that Moser has shown, through three years, that he is reluctant to play talented, young guys who have the potential to be big pieces of the program. I think that is a mistake.

 

[WichitaSooner]

O boards were texas +3 (8 to 5) 32-19 on D boards was directly related to OU's 38 missed shots compared to texas 29 .. (missed FG plus missed last FT )

You proved my point. Texas rebounded 8 of their 26 misses (31 percent). We got 5 of our 34 (15 percent). That's a huge difference, and shouldn't happen against a bad rebounding team.

 

[TINY]

You proved my point. Texas rebounded 8 of their 26 misses (31 percent). We got 5 of our 34 (15 percent). That's a huge difference, and shouldn't happen against a bad rebounding team.

It is both for me. We shot it terribly which skewed the rebounding but there is no doubt we got outworked on the boards by a statistically poorer rebounding team to date. To me it was the most disappointing stat of the game, because we should have won this stat especially at home.