A Look at #1 Seed Virginia (30-3)

SoonerSports: Sooners Face Top-Seeded Virginia on Sunday
http://www.soonersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31000&ATCLID=211796846

QUICK NOTES

• With its win on Friday, OU improved to 7-5 in NCAA Tournament games under Lon Kruger. Oklahoma has won seven of its last 10 tournament games in the Kruger era, including five of the last seven. OU's last two losses came in 2018 (overtime loss to Rhode Island) and 2016 in the Final Four's national semifinal game.

• Oklahoma aims to win its way to the South Regional’s Sweet 16 in Louisville, Ky., and capture its third Sweet 16 appearance in the last five years. The Sooners have reached the Sweet 16 10 times since the tournament field expanded to 64-plus teams. Oklahoma was among the final 16 teams in four tournaments before the field expansion, including three tournaments where the field began as only eight teams. OU has reached the Sweet 16 three times in a five-year run during two previous stretches. The Sooners danced into the Sweet 16 three times between 1999 and 2003 and four times between 1985 and 1989.

• The Sooners have won five of their last six First and Second Round games and are 5-3 during opening weekend games under Kruger.

• The Sooners are now 42-31 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.

• Oklahoma's 95 points were the most any team put up in the First Round of this year's tournament. Buffalo (91) was the only other team to score over 90. The Sooners led the 68-team field in field goal percentage as well with its .576 clip.

• OU has had two players reach 20 points in each of their last three victories. Six different Sooners have reached the 20-point mark in those contests, with no lone player doing it multiple times. Jamal Bieniemy (22) and Aaron Calixte (22) led the Sooners past West Virginia on March 2, Kristian Doolittle (24) and Brady Manek (21) lifted OU past Kansas on March 5 while Christian James (20) and Rashard Odomes (20) were the team leaders against Ole Miss on Friday.

• With four made 3-pointers in Friday's win, Christian James passed both Mookie Blaylock and Ryan Minor on OU's career 3-point field goal list. He now sits ninth in program history with 173 treys.

• James produced his team-leading seventh 20-point showing in Friday's win over Ole Miss. The performance also elevated him into the top 30 on OU's all-time career scoring list. The guard ranks 30th with 1,196 career points.

• Junior forward Kristian Doolittle continued his scoring hot streak on Friday with his 19-point, 15-rebound performance. The Big 12's Most Improved Player, Doolittle has produced at least 14 points in the last eight straight games, averaging 17.6 points, 9.5 rebounds and shooting 51.6 percent during that stretch.

• Sophomore forward Brady Manek has scored in double figures in 12 of his last 15 games and has reached at least 18 points in three of Ou's last four contests. With Oklahoma's win on Friday, the Sooners improved to 27-11 when Manek scores in double figures and 16-4 when he scores at least 15 points during his two seasons in the Crimson and Cream.

• OU's only scholarship freshman, guard Jamal Bieniemy dished out five assists in his NCAA Tournament debut on Friday. He now boasts a season assist/turnover ratio of 2.60, which ranks second in the Big 12 and third among major-conference freshmen. With his five dimes and two steals against Ole Miss, he now ranks fourth in program history in steals by a freshman (47) and eighth in assists by a freshman (117). If Bieniemy can swipe three more steals, he would be just the fourth Sooner to produce 100 assists and 50 steals in a freshman season.

• As seen on Friday, sometimes the key to victory can be as simple as making shots. Oklahoma is 20-1 when it holds a better shooting percentage than its opponents and 0-11 when the Sooners have a worse shooting percentage (0-1 when the percentages are equal).
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Not only are they extremely good but it's a pretty bad matchup for us, IMO. To me, the 3 teams we've played that they're most like are KSU, Tech, & Wisconsin & we fared very badly in all of those games. Only the game vs Tech in Norman & the 1st half of the Wisconsin game were close.

They're so good defensively and so efficient offensively. I think we're best when we're pushing the tempo and they're going to slow the game down tremendously. We've got to make shots and rebound like crazy on both ends. Maybe we can get stops & beat them downcourt for some easy buckets. OTOH, someone's (probably) going to beat them. May as well be OU.
 
stormspencer said:
UVA is basically K-State on steroids. But as I've watched them over the past several years, they are beatable. Typically, you either need to "out-talent" them or have very quick guards who can shoot and make plays by penetrating.

If I had to say one weakness of theirs that is fairly apparent is that they aren't really fast or quick (not overly athletic). They beat you by positioning and passing. They are disciplined and typically don't beat themselves with careless mistakes or bad decisions. They play at a very slow pace which means that they aren't likely going to score 80 and blow you out. However, the flip side is that once they get a lead, it is more difficult to come from behind against a team of their caliber.

So, we need to hit shots, rebound and not turn the ball over.....sounds easy enough right?
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They hedge really hard on ball screens and we may be able to take advantage of some mismatches w Doolittle & Manek. They also help very well so if we can get mismatches for Doolittle and kick out to shooters when they help and then hit shots, we can win. And we've also got to defend like crazy. They've got at least 2 NBA guys and another 45+% 3 pt shooter.
 
I'm already happy...moral victory to keep it close..
Miracle to win....
 
Thanks for posting that Traveler!

I think a lot of people forget that Lon has done pretty damn well in the tournament.
 
oudna said:
Just heard you reference them several times
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Twice. I just think they're one of the best frontcourt duos of all-time. Even an undefeated Kentucky team with KAT and WCS had no answer for them.
 
I think Kansas is the only team we beat that is ranked in the top 25. We have a solid team but probably in the 25-40 tier. We played a number of ranked teams close but usually fell short. TCU may have been ranked when we beat them the first time.

One thing going for us is that we have a number of seniors who are facing their last game of their career. There is no next year for them. Possibly that is why James and Odomes played as well against Mississippi as they did. Muni also player better. I have never understood why that guy doesn't flash into the post more and catch and shoot the ball in one motion. Has to always dribble too much to get his shot. But he has a very good touch and would score a lot more if he had developed more variety in his game.
 
SoonerinNC said:
I think Kansas is the only team we beat that is ranked in the top 25. We have a solid team but probably in the 25-40 tier. We played a number of ranked teams close but usually fell short. TCU may have been ranked when we beat them the first time.

One thing going for us is that we have a number of seniors who are facing their last game of their career. There is no next year for them. Possibly that is why James and Odomes played as well against Mississippi as they did. Muni also player better. I have never understood why that guy doesn't flash into the post more and catch and shoot the ball in one motion. Has to always dribble too much to get his shot. But he has a very good touch and would score a lot more if he had developed more variety in his game.
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They probably aren’t the first name you’d look for in the rankings, but Wofford finished 20th/19th, depending on your poll preference.
 
Salt City Sooner said:
They probably aren’t the first name you’d look for in the rankings, but Wofford finished 20th/19th, depending on your poll preference.
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Yeah they are top 20-25 by any measure. Really good team. Definitely not a win that should be overlooked. They weren't ranked at the time of the game but mainly because they don't have the big name pedigree.
 
oudna said:
Seems like a stretch

Dekker was a great athlete but a 12/5 guy
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Those numbers are deflated. That offense was arguably the best ever, but they played at one of the slowest paces in the country. They only scored 72.5 PPG, which was good for 53rd in the country, but their adjusted offensive rating was the highest of all-time (121.1). Dekker scored 30.2 per 100 possessions, and his offensive rating was 128.6. Frank's offensive rating was 134.5. For comparison, Trae Young and Buddy Hield (SR year) had offensive ratings of 107.1 and 118.7. They did score 38.4 and 39.0 per 100 possessions, which is a bit inflated due to their usage rates, but their offensive rating takes a hit for the same reason.

Just take a look at their Elite 8 and Final 4 games against Arizona and Kentucky. That Kentucky team was 2nd all-time in defensive rating at the time, and had two 7 footers that went top 5 in the draft a couple months after that game. Had Kentucky not had to face that Wisconsin team, they likely would've gone down as the greatest team of all-time. They were 38-0 at the time.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2015-03-28-arizona.html

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2015-04-04-kentucky.html
 
Eielson said:
Those numbers are deflated. That offense was arguably the best ever, but they played at one of the slowest paces in the country. They only scored 72.5 PPG, which was good for 53rd in the country, but their adjusted offensive rating was the highest of all-time (121.1). Dekker scored 30.2 per 100 possessions, and his offensive rating was 128.6. Frank's offensive rating was 134.5. For comparison, Trae Young and Buddy Hield (SR year) had offensive ratings of 107.1 and 118.7. They did score 38.4 and 39.0 per 100 possessions, which is a bit inflated due to their usage rates, but their offensive rating takes a hit for the same reason.

Just take a look at their Elite 8 and Final 4 games against Arizona and Kentucky. That Kentucky team was 2nd all-time in defensive rating at the time, and had two 7 footers that went top 5 in the draft a couple months after that game. Had Kentucky not had to face that Wisconsin team, they likely would've gone down as the greatest team of all-time. They were 38-0 at the time.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2015-03-28-arizona.html

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2015-04-04-kentucky.html
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I don’t know what your attachment is to them, but greatest ever? Not even close. That’s laughable. You could just say they were great. The hyperbole isn’t warranted.
 
mict085 said:
I don’t know what your attachment is to them, but greatest ever? Not even close. That’s laughable. You could just say they were great. The hyperbole isn’t warranted.
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Name 5 better frontcourt duos over the last 20 years.
 
TINY said:
Thanks for posting that Traveler!

I think a lot of people forget that Lon has done pretty damn well in the tournament.
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I think at this point he's 7/5 at OU....yes, better than .500 but take out the FF run, that's 4 wins, 1 loss...so 3/5.

Again...not trying to bash him, just not putting him on a pedestal either.
 
I must admit I don't understand Virginia... They look like they don't even have a traditional front court.
 
Soonerinkc said:
I think at this point he's 7/5 at OU....yes, better than .500 but take out the FF run, that's 4 wins, 1 loss...so 3/5.

Again...not trying to bash him, just not putting him on a pedestal either.
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KS was 11-11 at OU...even at .500 but take out the FF run...so 7-10.
 
KS underperformed in the NCAA tournament while at OU. Nobody questions that. Outside of cell phone use, that was his biggest (only?) flaw.

Lon has been dreadful in NCAA tournaments, though. It just can't be argued otherwise. In 2007, he led UNLV to an upset win against Wisconsin (7 seed vs 2 seed). That's the only real upset he's ever had in the tourney. His 9 vs 8 win this year against Ole Miss is a 3-way tie for biggest upset, and we were actually slight favorites to win that game. His win against Oregon (2 seed vs 1 seed) was one of the other 2 upsets, and I wanna say we were favored in that game as well. Tack on his 2-8 record in Big XII tournaments, and this is clearly more than just bad luck. I will say that he's performed well in our pre-conference tournaments, though.
 
Eielson said:
KS underperformed in the NCAA tournament while at OU. Nobody questions that. Outside of cell phone use, that was his biggest (only?) flaw.
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uh yeah they do. that is completely a matter of perspective. others might say he overperformed in conference play.
 
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