Deepest OU team since...

[pnkranger]

I'm not sunshine pumping. We have some flaws to overcome if we want to finish the season with a single digit seed in the NCAA tournament.

We've got 9 guys contributing at a high level. Guard-wise, we've got 5 multi-skilled guys who play both ends of the floor.

What was the last OU team you could remember that went deeper than this bunch and maintained the same high level of play?

 

[NickZepp]

Probably the Buddy Final 4 team. That team is forgotten because they got killed in the Final 4 but they also destroyed that same team early in the season.

 

[OULad]

I dont remember that team being particularly deep. The Sampson Final Four team had some solid bench contributions though.

 

[NickZepp]

They weren't deep after maybe 6 or 7 guys. Buford was decent off the bench. The team the year before may have been actually slightly deeper although it wasn't quite as good. .

The early Capel teams were pretty deep with contributing players. Godbold, Crocker, Griffin Bros, Austin Johnson, Cade Davis, Longar Longar the first couple years,

 

[mict085]

Harkless and Gibson have been great additions. Cant say enough good things about those 2 guys. This team is really coming together. Deep and talented. Many opportunities remain for big wins starting this week against texas. Bring it on.

 

[oudna]

They weren't deep after maybe 6 or 7 guys. Buford was decent off the bench. The team the year before may have been actually slightly deeper although it wasn't quite as good. .

The early Capel teams were pretty deep with contributing players. Godbold, Crocker, Griffin Bros, Austin Johnson, Cade Davis, Longar Longar the first couple years,

I think OP is talking about a deep bench

Not guys like Blake Griffin

 

[WaymanFan]

The benchmark for the deepest OU team is the 1990 one. We'll likely never top that one, but let's hope when this season is over, we can say the 2021 team was one of the 5 best all-time.

For those not born or too young to remember the 1990 team, I would guess that was one of the few times in NCAA history which the team who finished the regular season #1 in the country did not have a single player even drafted in the NBA. In a nutshell, Terrance Mullins, the 6th man on OU's best-ever team in 1988, was the 11th best player on the 1990 team.

 

[scrybe]

I posted last week that this was the deepest OU team in at least a decade. Glad to see so many of my fellow Sooner fans hitching a ride on that bandwagon.

 

[AdaSooner]

Probably the Buddy Final 4 team. That team is forgotten because they got killed in the Final 4 but they also destroyed that same team early in the season.

My first thoughts went immediately to the FF team. That team was really good due to four special players (Hield, Cousins, Spangler and Woodard). It was not nearly as deep as some might think.

While it’s true none of the players on the current team compare to those four, I think the 5-9 players may be better. Buford, Muni, James and Odomes were freshmen who played like it sometimes. Lattin was a sophomore. He was thought to have potential. But, IMO he was close to the same player as a senior as he was back then. C J Cole, a junior, was our most consistent back up big on that team. I can’t even remember what Walker and Manyang brought to the team, except I do recall the criticism Walker received on the game threads.

 

[NickZepp]

I think OP is talking about a deep bench



Not guys like Blake Griffin

The early Capel had decent depth. Particularly the Blake years. You had Griffin bros, AJ, Crock, Longar, Godbold that first year. Willie Warren, Juan Pattillo that 2nd year Cade Davis was a bench player also and contributed those years. That's about 7-8 deep.

This team lacks the star power those teams had though.

 

[sanguinetti]

Patillo was off the team mid-season as i recall in the Blake Elite 8 year. great, enticing contributor for the first part tho.

that team was mighty with him. as it turns out, not sure anyone could beat UNC that year (even tho Blake was clearly the better player between him and Hansborough....Blake beats him on the baseline to open that game, freakish display as i recall).

but, that UNC team was really good.

 

[deejay1]

Patillo was off the team mid-season as i recall in the Blake Elite 8 year. great, enticing contributor for the first part.

It was the other way around for Patillo - he didn't play his first game until mid-January. He played 24 minutes in the season finale against UNC.

 

[BoulderSooner]

It was the other way around for Patillo - he didn't play his first game until mid-January. He played 24 minutes in the season finale against UNC.

yep he was planning on a RS but he saw how good OU was he missed playing and the coaching staff thought he could help ..

 

[sanguinetti]

thanks to deejay and boulder......wow. somehow i thought it was the other way 'round.

i stand corrected. too much beer and grad school for me back then, maybe. heh.

 

[BoulderSooner]

thanks to deejay and boulder......wow. somehow i thought it was the other way 'round.

i stand corrected. too much beer and grad school for me back then, maybe. heh.

lol

 

[sheepdogs1]

thanks to deejay and boulder......wow. somehow i thought it was the other way 'round.

i stand corrected. too much beer and grad school for me back then, maybe. heh.

One could never have enough grad school.

 

[Sooner04]

The benchmark for the deepest OU team is the 1990 one. We'll likely never top that one, but let's hope when this season is over, we can say the 2021 team was one of the 5 best all-time.

For those not born or too young to remember the 1990 team, I would guess that was one of the few times in NCAA history which the team who finished the regular season #1 in the country did not have a single player even drafted in the NBA. In a nutshell, Terrance Mullins, the 6th man on OU's best-ever team in 1988, was the 11th best player on the 1990 team.

1990. Wave upon wave upon wave. Screw you, Rick Fox. I watched the Loyola game they played in LA on ESPN Classic a few years ago. When the game returned from the under-8 timeout in the second half the score was knotted at 107.

107!

William "Cheese" Davis
Terry Evans
Mike Harris
Herman "Skeeter" Henry
Kermit "Sherlock" Holmes
Jackie Jones
Tony "Hawk" Martin
Smokey McCovery
Terrence "T-Love" Mullins
Damon "Slim" Patterson

Legitimately 10-deep. And the two best players on the team didn't even play: one injured (Jeff Webster) and one transferring in (Brent Price).

Sometimes, when I can't sleep, I stare at the ceiling and wonder how different things might've been had Brent Price just come here straight from Enid.

 

[sheepdogs1]

1990. Wave upon wave upon wave. Screw you, Rick Fox. I watched the Loyola game they played in LA on ESPN Classic a few years ago. When the game returned from the under-8 timeout in the second half the score was knotted at 107.

107!

William "Cheese" Davis
Terry Evans
Mike Harris
Herman "Skeeter" Henry
Kermit "Sherlock" Holmes
Jackie Jones
Tony "Hawk" Martin
Smokey McCovery
Terrence "T-Love" Mullins
Damon "Slim" Patterson

Legitimately 10-deep. And the two best players on the team didn't even play: one injured (Jeff Webster) and one transferring in (Brent Price).

Sometimes, when I can't sleep, I stare at the ceiling and wonder how different things might've been had Brent Price just come here straight from Enid.

Where have all the nicknames gone to?

 

[sanguinetti]

It was the other way around for Patillo - he didn't play his first game until mid-January. He played 24 minutes in the season finale against UNC.

Where have all the nicknames gone to?

i know. such an interesting world, the past. maybe.

kermit "sherlock" holmes....just awesome.

edit: and God Bless Billy Tubbs.

 

[WaymanFan]

1990. Wave upon wave upon wave. Screw you, Rick Fox. I watched the Loyola game they played in LA on ESPN Classic a few years ago. When the game returned from the under-8 timeout in the second half the score was knotted at 107.

107!

William "Cheese" Davis
Terry Evans
Mike Harris
Herman "Skeeter" Henry
Kermit "Sherlock" Holmes
Jackie Jones
Tony "Hawk" Martin
Smokey McCovery
Terrence "T-Love" Mullins
Damon "Slim" Patterson

Legitimately 10-deep. And the two best players on the team didn't even play: one injured (Jeff Webster) and one transferring in (Brent Price).

Sometimes, when I can't sleep, I stare at the ceiling and wonder how different things might've been had Brent Price just come here straight from Enid.

Great post! The reason I said Terrance Mullins was sometimes the 11th man was because for about 10 games or so, we had Roland Ware playing (forgot if injuries or grades limited his availability). When he was on the court, Mullins did not always get off the bench...astonishing since he was the 6th man on our best team ever.

Billy Tubbs, whenever Brent Price's name was mentioned, said: "I wish I had him all four years". I have those same thoughts about how things would have been different if we had him right out of high school.