#7 OU @ KSU 8pm CST on ESPN2

[AdaSooner]

Real question with this team, is "what in the hell has happened to Manek this year?".

If I had the answer to that question, Lon would hire me as a consultant.

Brady is an enigma, to be sure. How does a 6’ 9” senior who is perfectly capable of a double double finish the game with 1 rebound in 16 minutes, while scoring 2 points on 1-7 shooting from the field (0-5 from three)?

If I knew why Brady performs like a first team all-conference player in one game and disappears in others, Lon would give me season tickets behind the bench so I could whisper in his ear.

The answers: Wish I knew!

 

[steverocks35]

If I had the answer to that question, Lon would hire me as a consultant.

Brady is an enigma, to be sure. How does a 6’ 9” senior who is perfectly capable of a double double finish the game with 1 rebound in 16 minutes, while scoring 2 points on 1-7 shooting from the field (0-5 from three)?

If I knew why Brady performs like a first team all-conference player in one game and disappears in others, Lon would give me season tickets behind the bench so I could whisper in his ear.

The answers: Wish I knew!

I just wonder if he's having lingering health issues from his bout with Covid-19.

 

[AdaSooner]

I just wonder if he's having lingering health issues from his bout with Covid-19.

I hope not. To be honest, this is nothing new for Brady. He has been inconsistent to some extent for a good portion of his career. He can be really good when he decides to turn it on. Then, there’s that other side we see from time to time. Last night’s game is an example of what I mean.

 

[cowboysooner]

Until someone comes on board with the real reason, I am going to go with -- has to do with a girl. This normally is the answer on any question relating to a man/boy's deterioration with regarding to anything. Sorry girls but you know I am right. If it is something else, the females on the board have my deep apology. So for now, I am going with that as the likely answer.

I blame mental and physical fatigue on the missed free throws and mental lapses in judgment on how to run a fast break by Hill and Alondes etc.

Historically, Lon has played with only 5-6 guys in conference, which I have always believed to be a mistake. This year I have been glad to see him continue with his deep rotation throughout the year. I thought he did a nice job of mixing and matching lineups last night to see if he could find one that would work. Just couldn't find the right chemistry.

I like lon but have had some complaints about this and that through his tenue. But, count me in the group that thinks he is doing a bang up job this year, and for lots of reasons.

We will snap back from last night.

 

[Soonerinkc]

If you re-watch the game...lol. Pay attention to the "switching" we did. It was very chaotic, heck half the time both guys ended up guarding the same guy.

Also watch our ball handling as well...several times Harmon, Harkless, Mo, Williams even Reaves were all pretty careless with just the normal dribble.

Several poor decisions driving the ball. Williams not passing to Harkless, Harkless trying to go 1/3 damn near lost the ball...fell down and kicked it out..I do think we actually got a bucket on that one. Hill taking it and getting the charge. Bad calls or not...

I'd say they were just mentally out of it for some reason.

Give ksu credit for getting up in our faces and not letting OU get comfortable.

Ksu ran their offense against our big hedging way up top pretty good.

 

[AdaSooner]

If you re-watch the game...lol. Pay attention to the "switching" we did. It was very chaotic, heck half the time both guys ended up guarding the same guy.

Also watch our ball handling as well...several times Harmon, Harkless, Mo, Williams even Reaves were all pretty careless with just the normal dribble.

Several poor decisions driving the ball. Williams not passing to Harkless, Harkless trying to go 1/3 damn near lost the ball...fell down and kicked it out..I do think we actually got a bucket on that one. Hill taking it and getting the charge. Bad calls or not...

I'd say they were just mentally out of it for some reason.

Give ksu credit for getting up in our faces and not letting OU get comfortable.

Ksu ran their offense against our big hedging way up top pretty good.

They ran their offense against our hedging at the top because our bigs don’t know what they’re doing. I thought it was vastly improved until last night. Brady was too slow. Kur still looked lost sometimes. You described the chaos perfectly.

 

[opsooner]

They ran their offense against our hedging at the top because our bigs don’t know what they’re doing. I thought it was vastly improved until last night. Brady was too slow. Kur still looked lost sometimes. You described the chaos perfectly.

True. And then we were using Harkless to help on inside until Manek could get back. But Harkless was guarding McGurl, their best 3 shooter, which allowed him to get some open looks because Harkless had to help inside for so long.


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[opsooner]

If you re-watch the game...lol. Pay attention to the "switching" we did. It was very chaotic, heck half the time both guys ended up guarding the same guy.

Agree. You could tell KSU had spent some time on that, with some of the screens and cuts they were using. It was definitely designed to confuse our switching.

But D was hardly the real problem.

Congrats on watching that again. Takes a true basketball guy to do it. I love basketball but immediately deleted that game from my DVR.


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[MrAnderson]

Look, theres a reason the advanced metrics aren't as high on this team as the pollsters are. We gutted out some nice wins in the last few weeks but it's clear this team has peaked. We have overachieved thus far.

Good news is we're likely going to get a nice seed in the ncaas (barring a collapse to finish out), and given the right matchups and a little luck we can still make a run in march. Temper your expectations and enjoy the ride. The 2nd weekend is a nice achievement. Beyond that is all gravy.

 

[Eielson]

There are very few teams we are capable of blowing out. Similarly, there are very few teams capable of blowing us out. There just isn't such a thing as an easy game for this team. I will not feel comfortable in any round of the NCAA tourney.

 

[Soonerinkc]

Agree. You could tell KSU had spent some time on that, with some of the screens and cuts they were using. It was definitely designed to confuse our switching.

But D was hardly the real problem.

Congrats on watching that again. Takes a true basketball guy to do it. I love basketball but immediately deleted that game from my DVR.


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:ez-roll:
oh I didn't...I was just focused on that ....not a big deal but I've coached so sometimes I look more than just the ball, not that other don't. I was just focused on the switching cause it seemed to really cause some issues.

 

[WichitaSooner]

It took several weeks of sustained good play and results for some people to really buy in, but one crappy night for people to start thinking worst case scenario. We aren’t talented, have to scratch and claw, have no margin for error, can’t make a run unless Manek gets going, can’t guard the high ball screen, etc.

We have the third best scoring margin in the league. We have won 8 of 10 against an insane schedule. We endured two stretches without key players, including our best player, during the past seven weeks. What I’d love to know is, if we had held onto that six point lead with under four minutes to go and finished off an ugly win, would everyone have been posting all these things? My gut says no. We played a terrible game ... missed free throws, too many turnovers in the first half, couldn’t convert in transition to save our lives, and no one other than Reaves could score. Because of that, KSU was able to stay in the game all the way through, and we paid the price when one guy got white hot in the last three minutes.

Of course no game in the tournament will be a given. Of course we aren’t a lock to make it to the second weekend, or even the second round. But who is, other than maybe five or six teams? Sometimes it seems like people are under the impression that there are all kinds of teams out there who are darn near flawless while we are just flailing away and getting lucky. Watch just about every team in the Top 25 play and you’ll see the same issues that plague us occasionally. College players are inconsistent. They blow big leads and miss key free throws and make bad decisions.

I’m livid that we lost and even more upset because of how we lost. It kept me up last night. But unless it turns into a trend, I think it might be a bit soon to panic.

And as I write this, Virginia just lost at home to an unranked team. That’s three straight losses, two to unranked opponents. They surely have no chance to do anything in March, right??

 

[Soonerinkc]

It took several weeks of sustained good play and results for some people to really buy in, but one crappy night for people to start thinking worst case scenario. We aren’t talented, have to scratch and claw, have no margin for error, can’t make a run unless Manek gets going, can’t guard the high ball screen, etc.

We have the third best scoring margin in the league. We have won 8 of 10 against an insane schedule. We endured two stretches without key players, including our best player, during the past seven weeks. What I’d love to know is, if we had held onto that six point lead with under four minutes to go and finished off an ugly win, would everyone have been posting all these things? My gut says no. We played a terrible game ... missed free throws, too many turnovers in the first half, couldn’t convert in transition to save our lives, and no one other than Reaves could score. Because of that, KSU was able to stay in the game all the way through, and we paid the price when one guy got white hot in the last three minutes.

Of course no game in the tournament will be a given. Of course we aren’t a lock to make it to the second weekend, or even the second round. But who is, other than maybe five or six teams? Sometimes it seems like people are under the impression that there are all kinds of teams out there who are darn near flawless while we are just flailing away and getting lucky. Watch just about every team in the Top 25 play and you’ll see the same issues that plague us occasionally. College players are inconsistent. They blow big leads and miss key free throws and make bad decisions.

I’m livid that we lost and even more upset because of how we lost. It kept me up last night. But unless it turns into a trend, I think it might be a bit soon to panic.

And as I write this, Virginia just lost at home to an unranked team. That’s three straight losses, two to unranked opponents. They surely have no chance to do anything in March, right??

before last night folks were saying we are a FF team...we are this, we are that...from the beginning I didn't buy into the "hype". We had a great run. Yes, it can happen again.

We'll see. As you said nothing is given...hell even bu about lost to the "lowly" clones last night.

It's a strange yr for sure. I'll still stand by my opinion we don't get the the 3rd round...which means we are in the top 16...which is pretty good considering what was said pre-season.

 

[Eielson]

We have won 8 of 10 against an insane schedule. We endured two stretches without key players, including our best player, during the past seven weeks. What I’d love to know is, if we had held onto that six point lead with under four minutes to go and finished off an ugly win, would everyone have been posting all these things?

Yes. We have a good team, and would have had a very good chance to finish 2nd in a loaded conference had we not blown that KSU game. But if you look at this team and think its strength is anything other than guts, then it's hard to imagine we're watching the same team.

 

[sheepdogs1]

Yes. We have a good team, and would have had a very good chance to finish 2nd in a loaded conference had we not blown that KSU game. But if you look at this team and think its strength is anything other than guts, then it's hard to imagine we're watching the same team.

Offensive consistency is not par for the course with this team. A player will get hot in one game and all but disappear the next game out. Harmon had the hot hand in the 1st half with 12 points and scored a free throw in the 2nd half to finish with 13. Reaves seems to be the only consistent scorer out of the bunch.

And on a side note Arkansas kicked Alabama to the curb tonight.

 

[WichitaSooner]

Yes. We have a good team, and would have had a very good chance to finish 2nd in a loaded conference had we not blown that KSU game. But if you look at this team and think its strength is anything other than guts, then it's hard to imagine we're watching the same team.

That doesn’t answer the question, though. It’s easy for people to be saying this because we lost last night. But no one, or very few people, said it before last night.

And again, I’m not disputing claims that our players (other than Reaves) are inconsistent offensively. What I’m saying is that is true just about across the board even on highly ranked teams. And I also recall people gushing about Harkless a couple weeks ago and some even suggesting he was our best player. But now, all of a sudden, we are a talentless squad who just gets by on grit and guts. The truth is in the middle. We clearly aren’t one of the ten most talented teams in the country, but we have quite a few good college players on this roster, and we haven’t been winning with smoke and mirrors.

 

[opsooner]

That doesn’t answer the question, though. It’s easy for people to be saying this because we lost last night. But no one, or very few people, said it before last night.

And again, I’m not disputing claims that our players (other than Reaves) are inconsistent offensively. What I’m saying is that is true just about across the board even on highly ranked teams. And I also recall people gushing about Harkless a couple weeks ago and some even suggesting he was our best player. But now, all of a sudden, we are a talentless squad who just gets by on grit and guts. The truth is in the middle. We clearly aren’t one of the ten most talented teams in the country, but we have quite a few good college players on this roster, and we haven’t been winning with smoke and mirrors.

I agree the truth is in the middle but the middle is big. For example, I highly doubt anyone with any sort of basketball IQ thinks we are a “talentless squad”. I suspect that is the reason for frustration of this game and frustration about lapses in other games. If people thought we were talentless they would be much less frustrated.

But you and others are right that these games can happen to teams that are not offensive juggernauts. It is difficult to be that when you have no inside-out game unless you can recruit talent like KS or KY usually has. I think the team loses some of their composure when games get really physical and it shows up in their shooting and decision-making (and in Reaves’ T). We will play much better in most upcoming games but we will all be wondering when we have to watch Tuesday’s debacle again


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[Eielson]

That doesn’t answer the question, though. It’s easy for people to be saying this because we lost last night. But no one, or very few people, said it before last night.

And again, I’m not disputing claims that our players (other than Reaves) are inconsistent offensively. What I’m saying is that is true just about across the board even on highly ranked teams. And I also recall people gushing about Harkless a couple weeks ago and some even suggesting he was our best player. But now, all of a sudden, we are a talentless squad who just gets by on grit and guts. The truth is in the middle. We clearly aren’t one of the ten most talented teams in the country, but we have quite a few good college players on this roster, and we haven’t been winning with smoke and mirrors.

That's the case with every fanbase -- always more negative after a big loss and more positive after a big win. I don't think that saying this team is over performing for their talent level is an insult. Kelvin Sampson made a career of this, and many on here (including me) remember those days quite fondly. This is undoubtedly the most Sampson-like team since...well, Sampson.

I personally LOVE that this team's success is based on grit.

 

[Sooner04]

I personally LOVE that this team's success is based on grit.

I do too. Far tougher than the pillow soft teams we've trotted out the last few years. But I am just disgusted that we allowed our play to be dictated by such a vastly inferior opponent. We've been double-digit road favorites in back-to-back games and had to work real hard to avoid going 0-2.

That's a troubling trend.

 

[sheepdogs1]

I do too. Far tougher than the pillow soft teams we've trotted out the last few years. But I am just disgusted that we allowed our play to be dictated by such a vastly inferior opponent. We've been double-digit road favorites in back-to-back games and had to work real hard to avoid going 0-2.

That's a troubling trend.

For teams that don't have the proper personnel, playing slow ball is usually the strategy of choice and it worked for KSU. And we'll likely see the same in the NCAA.