Big 12 championship Game

[soonermom1000]

I'm sure the wear and tear of their traveling might make a difference. They are still college students and have classes to attend, but they have to travel a lot to the games.

 

[SoonerinNC]

WV's only 4th quarter problem is that they not only played keep away from Baylor but mostly from their best player.

Baylor may have the best shot against UConn with their size. Notre Dame and Stanford also look tough.

 

[Hoopdreams79]

I thought the same thing couldn't figure why martin was getting 1/5-6 shots but the 2/3 zone surprised them both teams are hardcore man to man principles once they got a couple drives you knew they could win but Baylor kept it interesting. Too little too late. Lots of minutes for Martin and others in 3 days - it was all just adrenaline in 4th.

 

[sybarite]

So do we all agree it's because Mike got top 10 players he won? BecuAse his best player wasn't even a top 100 vs up to 7 players on Mulkey team were top 1-20

It was grit athleticism shooters mental toughness rebounding decision making what all teams need it's not a magic formula. But all this talk of rankings kills me number one cox could not play in this game!

Grit more than ratings.

 

[sybarite]

I thought the same thing couldn't figure why martin was getting 1/5-6 shots but the 2/3 zone surprised them both teams are hardcore man to man principles once they got a couple drives you knew they could win but Baylor kept it interesting. Too little too late. Lots of minutes for Martin and others in 3 days - it was all just adrenaline in 4th.

As long as WV was the aggressor, they extended the lead. When they began to play defense on offense, Baylor became the aggressor. It was almost enough for one quarter to overcome three. Finally, Baylor made some mistakes. WV certainly was not re-assuming the role as aggressor.

 

[SoonerSpock]

So do we all agree it's because Mike got top 10 players he won? BecuAse his best player wasn't even a top 100 vs up to 7 players on Mulkey team were top 1-20

It was grit athleticism shooters mental toughness rebounding decision making what all teams need it's not a magic formula. But all this talk of rankings kills me number one cox could not play in this game!

Great to see Baylor take it on the nose last night No question that WVU was the better team but Baylor could play each other 10 times and Baylor would win close to eight times. That is the reason that Baylor went 17-1 in the conference regular season and WVU was 8-10. Talent and coaching. But talent first.

Recruiting the very best players does not insure victory every night out but it does allow you to win two or three more games against good opponents when not playing your "A" game. While talent and grit is always preferred talent will win out over just grit the majority of the time. You can always cite the exception where grit won out but likewise for every grit win you can find 10, 15 or more talent wins. It is what it is whether we like it or not.

It is the same reason that Kansas has lost only 1 of the last 15 regular season MBB conference championships but has lost 7 and maybe 8 tournament championships. The more games you play the more likely the cream is to rise to the top. In a one game championship grit has a chance. Not so much is an 18 game season.

WBB has gone the same way for the last seven years with Baylor winning 6 of 7 championships in both the regular season and in the tournament championships. The more games you play the more opportunity you have for the Jimmy, Joe, Jane and Judy's to step to the forefront.

OU just does not have number players on their roster that are the caliber of Martin, Jones and Brown from Baylor or Holmes and McCarty from Texas. And with Baylor they still have Davis, Mompremier and Prince in addition to Brown and Jones. The more top talent on a roster the more opportunity for a player to step up and win a game.

But even in the losses it is generally a top talent that is the key to the upset like unanimous All Big 12 All Conference player Tynice Martin with 32 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assist and 2 turnovers last night against Baylor. We do not have a player the caliber of WVU's Martin who made the mountaineers the exception last night because of her talent and her playing to even another level during the Big 12 tournament. It is simple talent generally wins out and OU is and has for the last seven years been short on talent. Their record 2011-2017 speaks for itself.

 

[Hoopdreams79]

Without question I believe talent wins grit is the icing on the cake. Again who was Tynice Martin as an incoming college player? No question the kid has talent but it would seem most people only believe that comes in a top 1-10 player. I think rankings are good but I think their are players out there also outside the numbers that can make a great impact. Maybe those are needle in haystack type kids but Mike Carey did it - who wants to go to West Virginia? Really a top recruit prob not but that doesn't mean there can't be success. If all OU
Fans want is what Mulkey has well that's about 5 teams in the country and OU just will never be one of them so why not embrace who you are instead of wanting to be someone else. I mean we could be like holly and have 95 all Americans but under achieve. Or try and be like Oregon state or a Washington and have good runs. I believe that is who OU has been in past just been awhile since a good enough run. I get that.

 

[SoonerSpock]

Without question I believe talent wins grit is the icing on the cake. Again who was Tynice Martin as an incoming college player? No question the kid has talent but it would seem most people only believe that comes in a top 1-10 player. I think rankings are good but I think their are players out there also outside the numbers that can make a great impact. Maybe those are needle in haystack type kids but Mike Carey did it - who wants to go to West Virginia? Really a top recruit prob not but that doesn't mean there can't be success. If all OU
Fans want is what Mulkey has well that's about 5 teams in the country and OU just will never be one of them so why not embrace who you are instead of wanting to be someone else. I mean we could be like holly and have 95 all Americans but under achieve. Or try and be like Oregon state or a Washington and have good runs. I believe that is who OU has been in past just been awhile since a good enough run. I get that.

You are probably correct that OU cannot consistently be a top 5 program with Stanford, Duke, South Carolina, Maryland, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Baylor and UConn. But I see us being more than capable of being at the next level behind the schools listed. To get to and maintain that level it is going to require signing consistently better talent. No if's and's or butt's about it.

To get to that level consistently we are going to have to have 4-6 players that are more talented than virtually any player on our roster. Maddie, Peyton, Vivi, Gabbi, Chelsea are good players to have in the rotation but they are not leaders that can take us to the 2nd tier we should seek. Hopefully Llanusa will be the start of that and will be followed by 3-5 similar players over the next 3-4 years

No question we have improved our recruiting of late with Mulkey and Dungee but Penzo, Idimgbe and apparently Rich are not the answer. When you recruit top talent you aregoing to have bust just not as frequently as you do recruiting lower ranked player. It is better to have 25-40% of your players be bust than have 60-75% be bust.

The 3* athletes will always produce as many all conference and all American players as the 4*/5* players produce. But you have 3-4 times the number of 3* players playing the game. Unfortunately with the 15 player scholarship limitations you need to focus on signing top 100 players and get your share of top 50, top 20 and top 10 players otherwise your big seasons will come every 7-12 years instead of every 3-7 years. It is just a numbers game.

P.S. Many 4* and 5* players have grit too.

 

[oketex]

It was so nice to see the Wicked Witch of Waco lose a championship game, she had no answer for WV.