Embarassing 11 minute finish

[SoonerSpock]

Lon sees this game for just what it is - schooling. I wanted to see what I wanted to see out of curiosity. Lon knows what he is doing so I will be happy with what I get. if an OT loss to UNI is what keeps us out of the ncaa's then so be it. even then it's still a game and the sun will still rise. pure silliness.

One of the exasperating things for fans that is common practice by Lon, especially early in the season, it to let the team work its way out of the doldrums on their own. He wants to just allow them to continue to play without his making adjustments. This approach seems to make for a team that can react and win tight ball games late in the season by making adjustments on their own. But it hurts when it happens.

From my perspective it always cost us a win or two early in the year with benefits forthcoming as the season progresses. Bud damn as a fan it is difficult to watch when you know just a tweak here or there would secure a win. But that is Lon and I doubt he going to change.

 

[OUHoops]

At the end of the day the problem is we're depending on Lattin to be a scorer. He's not.

He loses the ball too easily when going up for a shot, his mid-range game isn't reliable and really the only post move he has that's dependable is the alley-oop.

It's really a crying shame Lattin didn't learn the sky-hook because it might actually be a shot he could make on a reliable basis.

He's a great energy guy. I wish we could bring him off the bench.

Woodard had a bad start and it wasn't his best game but he's the most clutch guy we have.

I was going to start a thread about this, but just didn't have the energy to last night.

I agree 100 percent. He's not a go-to guy inside yet. He's just not strong enough to back someone down for a tough bucket.

 

[sperry]

Lon is experimenting with stuff early on, like he always does. He is trying to figure out how we are going to get offense, given that we just graduated like 70% of the team's offense.


I do agree that Lattin needs to stay limited to basically dunks. He's a high energy guy who can protect the rim, but he just has no offensive skills whatsoever.

 

[oketex]

Let me ask a question, OU was up 18 points running the offense on a quick pass, going inside and rebounding, then they went, I 'm using my terms, to a slow down time killing offense. When things started to fall apart they couldn't get going again.

Do you think that the coaches told them to kill the clock and slow down and by doing so effected the outcome because of the slow down play?

 

[cjhsooner]

There haven't been any "Fire Kruger" posts, have there?

 

[coolm]

Lon is experimenting with stuff early on, like he always does. He is trying to figure out how we are going to get offense, given that we just graduated like 70% of the team's offense.

exactly

 

[okhoops918]

It's one thing to experiment on things as a coach but to me it looks like we don't have the players to really compete at a high level.

Lattin, Woodard, and James are nice players but they are role players on a good team.

James probably has highest upside to become a go-to player.
The other guys on this team are borderline Big 12 players at this point and have shown so.

Freeman is good but undersized. Mcneace just isnt a quality big. Odomes is a great athlete but he can't shoot.

Going to be a tough year, still a tourny team I think but that's just because of vet PG play and enough 'guys' for Lon to use. Hopefully they develop into more what they are today

 

[skyvue]

It's one thing to experiment on things as a coach but to me it looks like we don't have the players to really compete at a high level.

They competed very well indeed for three-quarters of the game. In fact, they dominated. I'm as frustrated as anyone by the late meltdown, but there's no reason to assume that the team we saw in the final 11 minutes (and the OT) is what we'll see going forward. I'm sure there'll be other rough patches, but yesterday's "rough patch" doesn't negate the very solid play that preceded it.

Again, if our senior starter had had even an average game, we win.

 

[okhoops918]

They competed very well indeed for three-quarters of the game. In fact, they dominated. I'm as frustrated as anyone by the late meltdown, but there's no reason to assume that the team we saw in the final 11 minutes (and the OT) is what we'll see going forward. I'm sure there'll be other rough patches, but yesterday's "rough patch" doesn't negate the very solid play that preceded it.

Again, if our senior starter had had even an average game, we win.

honestly, I think UNI is closer to the team we saw in 2nd half and OT rather than OU not being the team we saw all game. Let's not pretend OU played well in first half either. They fought hard and rebounded well but UNI was missing uncontested shots and we only scored 30 in the half.

 

[BCSooners]

It's one thing to experiment on things as a coach but to me it looks like we don't have the players to really compete at a high level.

Lattin, Woodard, and James are nice players but they are role players on a good team.

James probably has highest upside to become a go-to player.
The other guys on this team are borderline Big 12 players at this point and have shown so.

Freeman is good but undersized. Mcneace just isnt a quality big. Odomes is a great athlete but he can't shoot.

Going to be a tough year, still a tourny team I think but that's just because of vet PG play and enough 'guys' for Lon to use. Hopefully they develop into more what they are today

Couldn't disagree more. Lattin was all defense & Woodard was honorable mention. I guess the big12 coaches don't think their borderline players. I been encouraged by how well mcneace has played this year & Odomes played awesome last night. Doolittle is going to be a stud and so is mcgusty.

 

[BCSooners]

I remember when we blew a huge lead against Creighton and the same things were being said. Seemed to have a good year that year.

 

[inoref]

Not the end of the world, no one here expected OU to go undefeated. OU needs imo is someone that can handle the ball better. JW is not very good at that...never has been.

 

[MisterF]

Offense slowed down because they started hitting everything. Lot easier to run off misses.

 

[sheepdogs1]

Couldn't disagree more. Lattin was all defense & Woodard was honorable mention. I guess the big12 coaches don't think their borderline players. I been encouraged by how well mcneace has played this year & Odomes played awesome last night. Doolittle is going to be a stud and so is mcgusty.

Lattin needs to provide more than defense (blocking shots). He played 26 minutes last night and I believe he played all of the overtime, and if so, that means he contributed 21 minutes during regulation. He played 22 minutes in the 1st game thus he is on the court for close to half the game. There needs to be more participation and there needs to be more production.

 

[sdcloud9]

UNI going small was a killer.

Lattin was in a tough spot defensively, maybe they could have put Odomes on Karlson, idk. UNI is going to make some 3's, it's what they do.

The game was lost with turnovers and not scoring a field goal in over 11 minutes against a defense that offensively OU should have been taken advantage.

Still with all that, OU lost in overtime, plus Lattin, Woodard, and James had sub par games. They have to step up and didn't.

It'll be interesting to see how they bounce back.

 

[OKUman]

Strangest thing yesterday was from about the 12 minute mark with Al the dribbling out past the three point line until about 10 seconds left on the clock and then throwing up a late shot. As that coachs or player decision? Every time we slow down and run clock we get really bad on defense and offense.

 

[opsooner]

It was a disappointing finish but it doesn't concern me. Young team and running LK's offense early in the season is difficult. You have to have guys who can create on their own and that is not easy for new guys early in the season. Either someone will develop or he will have to start creating more plays for guys. Either way we are going to get better

Also a learning process for our D and coaches. You have to get in the grill of a hot shooter and Lattin couldn't do that because he is not used to doing it.


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[BCSooners]

Lattin needs to provide more than defense (blocking shots). He played 26 minutes last night and I believe he played all of the overtime, and if so, that means he contributed 21 minutes during regulation. He played 22 minutes in the 1st game thus he is on the court for close to half the game. There needs to be more participation and there needs to be more production.

He was in foul trouble in the 1st half against UNI so there's that. Also OU beat NW st by 40 so why would he play more than 25 minutes?

 

[BCSooners]

Lattin needs to provide more than defense (blocking shots). He played 26 minutes last night and I believe he played all of the overtime, and if so, that means he contributed 21 minutes during regulation. He played 22 minutes in the 1st game thus he is on the court for close to half the game. There needs to be more participation and there needs to be more production.

Lattin is also averaging 13 pts & 7 rbs so that's pretty productive.

 

[SoonerBred]

That is the WORST 11 minutes of basketball in the Kruger era. What a monumental choke job that was

No, I would say the worst blown lead loss was 2 years ago in Ames when we led by 18 in the 2nd half and then fell apart after the Cousins T. We had the line on the conference title and let the KU streak continue. Also, it seemed like half the time that Lattin put the ball on the floor he lost it. I agree that Freeman should have played more minutes in the 2nd half.