Going forward against tougher competition

[BigTime]

Whats your top improvement that this team needs to make in order to finish at least .500 in conference play? It can be something that an individual needs to better or something that a position or the entire team needs to improve on?

Let's hear 'em.

 

[WTSooner]

More consistency. Especially scoring the basketball. Pledger has played well most every game. But the guys behind him have been too up and down. Osby. Cam. Fitz. We can't afford too many games with those guys not producing points to help out. They've all shown they can do it, just need to do it more often.

 

[garyeb2]

Two things I believe. Firstly, just get lucky. This group is probably just one turned ankle away from a 6/12 finish.

If Grooms,Osby,Fits, or Pledger miss any significant time, we are in alot of trouble. The drop-off to Barry,CJ, and Blair is just too severe to win in the big 12.

The 2nd thing is Arent. The game just hasn't slowed down for him. He has missed enough putbacks to have averaged 8/10 points a game. But, he didn't make them. And that is a problem. Plus, he still misses a defensive rotation occasionly. Both things could still be resolvable this season. Fitzs will probably always pick up fouls and some big 12 post will be just too big for him. The team needs 15 quality minutes a game from Arent. Without those minutes it will be tough to bust .500.

 

[Sooner_In_MI]

Drew needs to become more consistent as a rebounder. He's been having a great offensive season, and he's shown flashes defensively. But, if he has one of his 2 rebound games against teams like Kansas, Baylor, or K-State, then I think we'll have a very tough time beating those teams.

 

[Sooner_In_MI]

Also, I agree that we will need to get lucky RE: injuries. If Grooms, Pledger, Cam, Death Roe, Drew, Carl, T-Neal, or CJ go down for more than 1 or 2 games, we're in a lot of trouble. That being said if we avoid injuries I do think we go 9-9 or so. If Drew improves as a rebounder then we could potentially steal a win or two against the upper echelon of the league.

 

[j2d2]

I hadnt thought about injuries, now I'm scared to death. We must stay healthy. #2 I'd say was continue to rebound and rebound better. We're not good enough offensively to give the other team extra possessions.

 

[jerry]

I hadnt thought about injuries, now I'm scared to death. We must stay healthy. #2 I'd say was continue to rebound and rebound better. We're not good enough offensively to give the other team extra possessions.

Stay healthy and more consistent offensive production from Osby and Clark.

 

[WTSooner]

No injuries is important, but it doesn't really answer the original question of what the team, or an individual or portion of the team needs to do better.

 

[Edmond_Sooner]

I honestly think Kruger has this team playing very close to its potential, therefore not a lot they can do a lot better than they would be capable of...

I want to see how they bounce back after a couple of losses in a row in conference...this start has helped them to buy into Kruger, but conf is a different beast and this group has been a part of a lot of disappointments, want to see now how they deal with that adversity...I fully expect them to battle each game and even though we will see a few blowouts I bet they will be at a minimum from what we have seen the past few years...

 

[kbsooner]

Cam consistently scoring 14 a game like he is capable of, become the 2nd option to Pledger. Blair cutting out the bonehead turnovers, he really is a quality PG if he limits those...

 

[EufaulaSooner]

I think easily the biggest weakness on this team is defending post players with size, and that is what they will need to improve on. Fitz guarding Perry Jones scares me.

 

[sdcloud9]

Defensive rebounding and turnovers.

The team is going to have to gang rebound and Grooms and Blair are going to have to take care of the basketball.

They have done this so far but against inferior competition.

 

[SoonerinNC]

This team is playing nice offense and getting open shots. So far hitting enough of them to win. St Louis was able to force us out of our game. It appears that we have improved since then but it will be interesting to see if we can still run our offense and get the open shots against the better teams in the Big 12.

So far we have rebounded well but we haven't played a lot of teams with superior rebounders like we can expect from Kansas and Kansas State. This is crucial against the upper tier teams but I think we can hold our own against the middle of the pack and the Texas Techs and OSUs.

We are playing a very good help defense and closing down passing lanes with an occasional back door oops. Doing a good job of hedging and recovering. Need to stay in front of the quick guards better.

The team has played well but I think other than St Louis the teams we have played are more or less middle of the pack in their conferences and we haven't played many from the better conferences. I think we will do no worse against the middle of the pack in our conference. We just need to hold firm against the middle and lower level teams and steal a couple from the top tiers. That will get us in the dance.

The Cincinnati game will reveal a lot.

 

[Bk2X]

Handle screens better. I hate seeing our bigs chase a pg all the way out to the half court line.

 

[brumFTW]

I feel that, as l

 

[SoonerSpock]

Defensive rebounding and turnovers.

The team is going to have to gang rebound and Grooms and Blair are going to have to take care of the basketball.

They have done this so far but against inferior competition.

I agree with defensive rebounding being the area we need to improve the most. While the Sooners are leading the league in rebounding margin and offensive rebounding we are also 7th in the league in defensive rebounding. We were last in the conference until our massive rebound advantage against South Carolina State.

In conference offensive rebounding will become much more difficult and the difference must be made up on the defensive boards where rebounding fundamentals come more into play.

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