GAME 35- THE CROWN - OKLAHOMA (19-15) vs COLORADO (17-15) 7:00pm CST on FS1

[Hecubus]

There was plenty of shame if you were there, sitting in the Villanova section with tickets they didn’t use. Lol.

 

[WichitaSooner]

There was no shame in that loss. Villanova caught fire. Just like when we kicked their ass in Hawaii by 20+ in the beginning of that same season

It sucked and was absolutely shocking but it had no carryover effect. It has nothing to do with anything that happened in future seasons. The next year was a disaster because Woodard wasn’t healthy and the key returning guys never improved.

 

[WaymanFan]

It sucked and was absolutely shocking but it had no carryover effect. It has nothing to do with anything that happened in future seasons. The next year was a disaster because Woodard wasn’t healthy and the key returning guys never improved.

Setting the NCAA tournament record for the worst blowout loss in Final Four history was about as brutal as it gets, but certainly had no carryover effect. Lon got a pass for 2017, but did his worst coaching job at OU in 2018. He could not find a way to get anything close to max production out of the Trae Young season. When a team has zero chemistry, that falls on the head coach. Period. One thing about Lon was his amazing consistency at literally every stop. He left every coaching job better than he found it (the sign of a very good coach)...but he also left every school at least two years from their Lon Kruger peak. The best example was Florida. He did an amazing job leading them to a surprise Final Four appearance (they had no tradition prior), but had a losing record in his last year there a couple years later. The main reason I respect the heck out of him, though, was because he won with class and integrity instead of scandals and nonsense.

 

[TINY]

There was plenty of shame if you were there, sitting in the Villanova section with tickets they didn’t use. Lol.

Same! I purchased 2 tickets from their ticket office and they sent me 4! At least I made some money selling the lot after OU got embarrassed.

 

[sanguinetti]

It sucked and was absolutely shocking but it had no carryover effect. It has nothing to do with anything that happened in future seasons. The next year was a disaster because Woodard wasn’t healthy and the key returning guys never improved.

Funny thing about that year, my dad and I went to a preseason practice and Christian James was the best player on the floor by a lot. Lot confidence, just unstoppable. Smooth AF. Then season comes, not so much.

On the ooc thing, particularly disappointing to me. I live in Colorado and Ricardo Patton era buffs had a couple bubble teams that bcuz he was padding win totals with garbage ooc games fans don't go see.....their SOS was terrible in old rpi days.

Meanwhile Kelvin and whomever made our OOC were genies at working the rpi/SOS.

So it's disappointing to me to have become the CU AD many years later

 

[WichitaSooner]

Funny thing about that year, my dad and I went to a preseason practice and Christian James was the best player on the floor by a lot. Lot confidence, just unstoppable. Smooth AF. Then season comes, not so much.

On the ooc thing, particularly disappointing to me. I live in Colorado and Ricardo Patton era buffs had a couple bubble teams that bcuz he was padding win totals with garbage ooc games fans don't go see.....their SOS was terrible in old rpi days.

Meanwhile Kelvin and whomever made our OOC were genies at working the rpi/SOS.

So it's disappointing to me to have become the CU AD many years later

James was so disappointing to me. He showed so much promise as a freshman on the FF team. Every time he was on the floor, he did something to help the team win. I thought he was going to have a great career but he didn’t come close to living up to his potential. Hard to know if that’s work ethic or just not being suited to a starring role. And then as a junior, he was one of the guys who was said to be jealous of TY.

 

[cowboysooner]

Christian James issue was he couldn't control his weight. Skilled guy and had moments and then would disappear at times. I was hoping that our final four run with Buddy would propel Lon's recruiting to a higher level, but that clearly didn't happen. Too many inherent deficiencies in the OU basketball program moderates the success of any and all coaches at OU.

The unfortunate thing about our administration's delay in funding the basketball program under Porter (and I don't blame them for it and think it was the right thing to do) is it was a real opportunity to win a national championship. With the right commitment, we could have purchased a team that no coach at OU under normal circumstances could have ever recruited and developed. Now that everyone is committed at a high level, the blue bloods are a tough ceiling to crack

 

[steverocks35]

Christian James issue was he couldn't control his weight. Skilled guy and had moments and then would disappear at times. I was hoping that our final four run with Buddy would propel Lon's recruiting to a higher level, but that clearly didn't happen. Too many inherent deficiencies in the OU basketball program moderates the success of any and all coaches at OU.

The unfortunate thing about our administration's delay in funding the basketball program under Porter (and I don't blame them for it and think it was the right thing to do) is it was a real opportunity to win a national championship. With the right commitment, we could have purchased a team that no coach at OU under normal circumstances could have ever recruited and developed. Now that everyone is committed at a high level, the blue bloods are a tough ceiling to crack

Yeah well this was a top ten portal class and he didn’t do jack with it. The problem this year was terrible COACHING, not talent. The problem next year will be terrible COACHING whether we have talent or not.

 

[Eielson]

Setting the NCAA tournament record for the worst blowout loss in Final Four history was about as brutal as it gets, but certainly had no carryover effect. Lon got a pass for 2017, but did his worst coaching job at OU in 2018. He could not find a way to get anything close to max production out of the Trae Young season. When a team has zero chemistry, that falls on the head coach. Period. One thing about Lon was his amazing consistency at literally every stop. He left every coaching job better than he found it (the sign of a very good coach)...but he also left every school at least two years from their Lon Kruger peak. The best example was Florida. He did an amazing job leading them to a surprise Final Four appearance (they had no tradition prior), but had a losing record in his last year there a couple years later. The main reason I respect the heck out of him, though, was because he won with class and integrity instead of scandals and nonsense.

I believe that was right around the time Hill and Henson left. The assistant coaching hires were lazy after, including his son, and player development was never the same.

 

[daqman]

It sucked and was absolutely shocking but it had no carryover effect. It has nothing to do with anything that happened in future seasons. The next year was a disaster because Woodard wasn’t healthy and the key returning guys never improved.

lon couldn't sustain success if his life depended on it. the historical facts don't lie.
kstate elite 8/florida final 4/ou final 4.
2 years later...it's like it never happened at all 3 places.

 

[Sooner04]

It sucked and was absolutely shocking but it had no carryover effect.

I disagree. I think it had a massive carry-over that still lingers. Our 88 and 02 FF squads were followed immediately by really good teams that sustained the momentum. Lon's program imploded. 20 losses is still a shocking thing to type and hard to believe that it happened here. I don't think Lon gets near enough credit for what he pulled out of the Capel vacuum, but he deserves major angst for the dumpster fire that followed the Final Four. Our program has been one giant oil slick for a decade, and the trail leads all the way back to NRG Stadium.

And the less said about the awful assistant hires the better.

 

[WaymanFan]

I disagree. I think it had a massive carry-over that still lingers. Our 88 and 02 FF squads were followed immediately by really good teams that sustained the momentum. Lon's program imploded. 20 losses is still a shocking thing to type and hard to believe that it happened here. I don't think Lon gets near enough credit for what he pulled out of the Capel vacuum, but he deserves major angst for the dumpster fire that followed the Final Four. Our program has been one giant oil slick for a decade, and the trail leads all the way back to NRG Stadium.

And the less said about the awful assistant hires the better.

You make good points, as you usually do...but what if OU lost that game to Villanova by a bucket or two instead of 40+. Do you really think anything would be different right now?

 

[WichitaSooner]

I disagree. I think it had a massive carry-over that still lingers. Our 88 and 02 FF squads were followed immediately by really good teams that sustained the momentum. Lon's program imploded. 20 losses is still a shocking thing to type and hard to believe that it happened here. I don't think Lon gets near enough credit for what he pulled out of the Capel vacuum, but he deserves major angst for the dumpster fire that followed the Final Four. Our program has been one giant oil slick for a decade, and the trail leads all the way back to NRG Stadium.

And the less said about the awful assistant hires the better.

But how, specifically, does the margin of defeat tie into the next season? Recruiting was already done by that point. It's not like we had kids committed who bailed after that game. There also is a huge difference in what we had coming back after 88 and 02. 88 had two of the best players in America returning in King and Blaylock. 02 returned four starters. The 16 team returned Woodard, who was really good, and Lattin, who was always the weak link among the starters. That's where James not living up to his potential hurt. But I feel like it's revisionist history to point to that game and act like it killed us down the road. I mean, we signed TY the following year. If anyone would have been scared off and decided to instead go play for a blue blood, it would have TY.

I think sometimes people just assume it should be easy to carry over a FF run into the next few seasons. If you look at teams that have made the FF over the past 20 years or so, I think you will see that outside the blue bloods, very few programs turn a FF appearance into an extended run.

Like I said in a previous post, I fully agree that Lon's last five years should have been better. I know he said many times that he felt that way. We had teams that had the talent to win more than they did, and we had players like James who didn't develop as well as they should have. I just fail to see a direct line from April 2, 2016, to those outcomes.

 

[TINY]

But how, specifically, does the margin of defeat tie into the next season? Recruiting was already done by that point. It's not like we had kids committed who bailed after that game. There also is a huge difference in what we had coming back after 88 and 02. 88 had two of the best players in America returning in King and Blaylock. 02 returned four starters. The 16 team returned Woodard, who was really good, and Lattin, who was always the weak link among the starters. That's where James not living up to his potential hurt. But I feel like it's revisionist history to point to that game and act like it killed us down the road. I mean, we signed TY the following year. If anyone would have been scared off and decided to instead go play for a blue blood, it would have TY.

I think sometimes people just assume it should be easy to carry over a FF run into the next few seasons. If you look at teams that have made the FF over the past 20 years or so, I think you will see that outside the blue bloods, very few programs turn a FF appearance into an extended run.

Like I said in a previous post, I fully agree that Lon's last five years should have been better. I know he said many times that he felt that way. We had teams that had the talent to win more than they did, and we had players like James who didn't develop as well as they should have. I just fail to see a direct line from April 2, 2016, to those outcomes.

Moser went back to the sweet 16 with a win over a 1 seed after their final four at Loyola Chicago.

 

[WichitaSooner]

Moser went back to the sweet 16 with a win over a 1 seed after their final four at Loyola Chicago.

And? Did I misread my post? Because I don't see anywhere where I said no team in history has ever had multiple good seasons. I said it isn't common to turn a FF run into a prolonger run of success. Also, he missed the tourney in each of the two years following the FF. So even with the one class that saved his career. he missed the tourney as often as he made it.

 

[TINY]

And? Did I misread my post? Because I don't see anywhere where I said no team in history has ever had multiple good seasons. I said it isn't common to turn a FF run into a prolonger run of success. Also, he missed the tourney in each of the two years following the FF. So even with the one class that saved his career. he missed the tourney as often as he made it.

The 2nd year after FF they had a good chance to make it back to the tourney, but that was the Covid-shortened year.