Early observations

[AdaSooner]

The three freshman guards and Pledger are hitting open shots. Clark and Grooms are not. Cam had a good practice on Tuesday but not today. He seems to be struggling to get into the flow of things.

They spent a fair amount of time on rebounds today and a lot of time working on getting the ball inside. Fitz made some nice shots off the offense.

Arendt had some kind of leg injury. Don't know how serious but he didn't play after that.

Neal seems to be coming on. Hopefully that will hold up when we face the tougher competition. If he can contribute we have a solid 10 deep. Neal spent quite a bit of time with the Reds today.

Good news about Neal. He played well in the second half of the UCO game, especially on the boards. With Bennett and Cole redshirting and Spangler not available, he'll need to provide quality minutes when we get into the heart of our season.

 

[bgrch1350]

Where is WT and his posse when you actually need them. Guys I have been a constant knock on Pledger. I think he dogged it for 3 yrs. I thought he was dogging it in losing efforts when others on the team were busting their butts. I didn't care how good he can shoot, I didn't like it.

Pledger isn't doing anything wrong this season. I really believe that Kruger put the pressure on him to come back a different player this season. It looks like to me he is doing everything he can to be the best he can be. I think that I have only missed two practices so far and that is what I'm seeing.

During a break to shoot free throws I was close enough to hear a couple of asst. coaches mutt talking Pledger to Kruger over some shortcoming that they had perceived. Kruger defended him by saying how pleased he was with Pledger's practice efforts so far.

Starting 3 freshmen this early in the season may a bridge too far. I like the idea, but, all 3 of them will have a better chance of getting off to a good start if they are playing along side some more experienced guys.

Personnally...what Heild and the other freshmen are doing and what the older groups are not doing in these scrimmages/exhibitions means absolutely squat. They are playing horrible teams and are being guarded by horrible players. Whether Hield scores the most or Pledger scores the least in these games means nothing. Pledger, Osby, M'Baye, and Fitzgerald have proven that they can compete against the big boys in the big 12. Pledger and Osby are good enough to make HM preseason All Big 12 team. They earned that, not by playing good against UCO or Washburn but by doing that last season in big 12 play.

 

[garyeb2]

Personnally...what Heild and the other freshmen are doing and what the older groups are not doing in these scrimmages/exhibitions means absolutely squat. They are playing horrible teams and are being guarded by horrible players. Whether Hield scores the most or Pledger scores the least in these games means nothing. Pledger, Osby, M'Baye, and Fitzgerald have proven that they can compete against the big boys in the big 12. Pledger and Osby are good enough to make HM preseason All Big 12 team. They earned that, not by playing good against UCO or Washburn but by doing that last season in big 12 play.

I'm surprised you picked that post to get yourself riled up. I was trying to be nice.

On this one, you are out over your ski's again. Any player that contributed to losing 3 times as many conference games that they won over the last year or any year over the last 3 years has earned, proven, or deserves nothing relative to this years team.

I think Pledger has earned the right for one of the starting guard jobs to be his to lose. He has earned that based on what he has done from the end of last season to now to prepare himself to play. Nothing that he did last year or the year before that or the year before that could have saved him from the same fate as Grooms.

Pledger does some things better than Heild. But, even as a freshman, Heild already does some things better than Pledger. I guess it will take awhile, but, I 'm sure you will eventually figure out that all of these freshman guards are better than the number of stars that your experts gave them.

 

[bgrch1350]

I'm surprised you picked that post to get yourself riled up. I was trying to be nice.

On this one, you are out over your ski's again. Any player that contributed to losing 3 times as many conference games that they won over the last year or any year over the last 3 years has earned, proven, or deserves nothing relative to this years team.

I think Pledger has earned the right for one of the starting guard jobs to be his to lose. He has earned that based on what he has done from the end of last season to now to prepare himself to play. Nothing that he did last year or the year before that or the year before that could have saved him from the same fate as Grooms.

Pledger does some things better than Heild. But, even as a freshman, Heild already does some things better than Pledger. I guess it will take awhile, but, I 'm sure you will eventually figure out that all of these freshman guards are better than the number of stars that your experts gave them.

I'm not riled up.

And I still don't see why people think that these freshmen guards are all world. Hield has been impressive. But again, they've played no one. I do think they will be good in the future but right now your just building yourself up for a huge letdown this season.

 

[garyeb2]

I'm not riled up.

And I still don't see why people think that these freshmen guards are all world. Hield has been impressive. But again, they've played no one. I do think they will be good in the future but right now your just building yourself up for a huge letdown this season.

I'm not like you. I don't just make things up and then go get on the message board to argue.

Just this very day I had a chance to have a nice chat with a retired college coach who I pester all the time for insite. On the small college level he won as many games as Kruger.

These were his observations of what he has seen in practices,scrimmages, and exibition games. "Those 3 freshman guards are special." "M'Baye has alot of things to improve on, but, I really like him" "He won't do anything but get better."

My follow up question was, what kind of shape would we be in if we were playing all 3 of them in conference. He said "it would be a problem against Kansas, West Virginia, and mayby Texas. The rest of them will put comprable players or worse on the court"

You are welcome to your opinion. I'll stick with mine.

 

[soonermule]

I think, it was D K Royall that said " If a dog is going to bite he's going to bite when he's a pup."