A Stillwater Epiphany

[WichitaSooner]

we get it. you have a hardon for tang.
We would all love that trust me...but it is a rare exception for a new coach to do what he is doing

As for ISU, we need to tap the breaks and see how they finish the year. They could very well fall flat on their face

Uh, they went winless in the league two years ago, hired a new coach, and made the Sweet 16 in his first season with a new roster. I’d say he has proven quite a bit already.

 

[sdcloud9]

Five years ago, everyone would be saying that Moser needs time but after what ISU has done in two years and KSU in one year, patience with fans is going to be hard to find.

I think Moser is doing a good job with the players he has but at some point it falls on him to get better and more talented players to compete.

Plus, the intangibles (fan base, arena, etc.) are not helping. I like Moser and am pulling for him but it's hard to be optimistic.

The program has a lot of work to do.

 

[hoopsaustin]

Every time i've watched him it looks like he's trying to dribble a football.

Oweh looked like that last night. Both woofs IMO

 

[opsooner]

I don’t care about talent level right now. If we are so bad how can we be leading or so close at halftime in every game? Last night was just a worse version of what has happened at some point in the second half of every conference game. We panicked and we lost our identity. We started to try to do things we are not capable of doing and we got away from doing what our talent level dictates what we should be doing.

Sherfield is a good player but who really thinks he is a great athlete who we can isolate against Big 12 competition? Why did Tanner start pretending he could drive the ball? Why did guards get in the grill of guys who are not great shooters and allow them to abuse us with a 2 man game? Why did we start making terrible passes with no real pressure? Why do we often start holding the ball and not really running anything until there is less than 10 on the clock?

Okie light hit a few shots early in the second half and we started to panic. But we regained some composure and cut it to 5 with plenty of time left. Then we panicked again.

I just think we panic and forget who we are and what often gives us halftime leads. Perhaps we scoreboard watch instead of just playing every possession. I don’t know what it is but either Moser needs to fix it or he needs to hire a team shrink.


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[Eielson]

You’re using last year’s 5-7 finish, which resulted in missing the tournament, as reason to be encouraged that this team can finish strong? How low has the bar fallen?

This reminds me so much of our football fans. They spent the entire summer hyping up Venables and getting offended when national writers predicted they would lose four or five games. Then when the team couldn’t even finish .500, the revisionist history was that Riley left the program in such bad shape that it was ridiculous to expect the team to be any good.

Moser won the last 3 conference games last year and was one unlucky possession way from winning two conference tourney games against quality opponents. How many times did Lon win two conference tourney games? Our fanbase has forgotten what it is to compete in conference tournaments.

But yes, the bar has fallen quite far since Sampson left. Being top 25 was almost automatic at that point, but Lon didn't do it a single time in his last half-decade.

 

[WaymanFan]

Moser won the last 3 conference games last year and was one unlucky possession way from winning two conference tourney games against quality opponents. How many times did Lon win two conference tourney games? Our fanbase has forgotten what it is to compete in conference tournaments.

But yes, the bar has fallen quite far since Sampson left. Being top 25 was almost automatic at that point, but Lon didn't do it a single time in his last half-decade.

Yup...we're on Year 7 of mediocrity...and YES, going into the month of March on either side of the bubble represents mediocrity. While it's better to squeeze in as a low seed than go to the NIT, neither are anything to brag about. Billy Tubbs inherited less talent than perhaps every coach in OU history. He went to the NCAA Tournament eight consecutive years in which we were never anywhere close to the bubble - seeded 1 or 2 five of the eight years. That's the OU basketball I remember.

 

[Stikboy]

Yup...we're on Year 7 of mediocrity...and YES, going into the month of March on either side of the bubble represents mediocrity. While it's better to squeeze in as a low seed than go to the NIT, neither are anything to brag about. Billy Tubbs inherited less talent than perhaps every coach in OU history. He went to the NCAA Tournament eight consecutive years in which we were never anywhere close to the bubble - seeded 1 or 2 five of the eight years. That's the OU basketball I remember.

I cannot summon enough clapping emoticons.

 

[skyvue]

I wonder--and I don't pretend to know--if Billy could come back now (at the age he was when started at OU) if he would repeat his success at OU. As most agree, the conference is much tougher, juco is not the talent source that it once was and everyone's competing for portal talent, which I don't think was the case with juco in the 80s, when, if my memory serves (it may not), fewer programs hit the jucos hard.

I'm by no means saying he'd be a bust, but I wonder if he'd reach the same heights he did then.

 

[WaymanFan]

I wonder--and I don't pretend to know--if Billy could come back now (at the age he was when started at OU) if he would repeat his success at OU. As most agree, the conference is much tougher, juco is not the talent source that it once was and everyone's competing for portal talent, which I don't think was the case with juco in the 80s, when, if my memory serves (it may not), fewer programs hit the jucos hard.

I'm by no means saying he'd be a bust, but I wonder if he'd reach the same heights he did then.

Interesting observation for sure. Billy knew back then OU was not going to get many Burger Boys unless they were in his backyard (like Wayman). However, he found a niche with JUCO players. I'd like to think he would have found another way to create an advantage. Perhaps he would have done better in the portal? He would have somehow found a way to make OU a winner. That said, would he have gone 7 years with only two home losses? Not a chance.

 

[Eielson]

I wonder--and I don't pretend to know--if Billy could come back now (at the age he was when started at OU) if he would repeat his success at OU. As most agree, the conference is much tougher, juco is not the talent source that it once was and everyone's competing for portal talent, which I don't think was the case with juco in the 80s, when, if my memory serves (it may not), fewer programs hit the jucos hard.

I'm by no means saying he'd be a bust, but I wonder if he'd reach the same heights he did then.

He would have to adapt to succeed at the same level, but that's true of every coach in every sport that's 30-40 years removed. You can never say for sure, but I'm not betting against Billy.

You can talk about changes like JUCO, conference, etc, but by far the biggest change is the quality of the job. The team Billy took over from Bliss was not a quality program with rich history. Even after Billy's run, some of Sampson's mentors were critical of him leaving WSU for OU. I don't think anybody would have questioned that move after the 25 year golden era of OU basketball we had between Tubbs and Sampson.

We've fallen off quite a bit over the last 17 seasons, with only 4 teams ranked top 25 at the end of the season (Capel had an unranked 6 seed, which you could argue was top 25), but we still have a streak of 4 consecutive coaches with Elite 8 appearances. If not for a brutal UNC matchup, it would probably be Final 4s. We've made the plunge back to P5 mediocrity, but the discussion about how successful you can realistically be at this football school has dramatically changed since 1980.