Good, Bad and Ugly

[oketex]

Guys there is a lot of good that came out of this game tonight, played a close game against a team that really wanted it more.

The bad - defense needs a lot of work, when we play good defense we score and control the game, let the defense fall so does the scoring.

Ugly - it was a ugly win but it was a win and OU is now 10-1 which we all agree is better than we thought at the beginning of the season.

 

[opsooner]

Good: Cam and we continue to shoot it well
Bad: Defense and our guards have to stop allowing easy dribble penetration while in man D
Ugly: I don't have anything here yet. I'll take the win with our short and thin team and just hope the bad doesn't get really ugly.

 

[BoulderSooner]

good cam and buddy's out side shooting ..

bad buddy at the rim .. (he has been good all year) and Kruger staying in the 1-3-1 too long .. (they killed the 1-3-1)

ugly nothing really .. reger is a legit high major player and will average 20+ this year .. ugly might be the UTA coaches .. they have lots of talent and are 3-7

 

[JBaker]

good cam and buddy's out side shooting ..

bad buddy at the rim .. (he has been good all year) and Kruger staying in the 1-3-1 too long .. (they killed the 1-3-1)

ugly nothing really .. reger is a legit high major player and will average 20+ this year .. ugly might be the UTA coaches .. they have lots of talent and are 3-7

They're not that talented. Just like Tulsa isn't. We just made them look better than they are.

 

[CoachTalk]

10-1 and people are so negative. We cant play flawless all the time.

 

[ArdmoreSooner]

Good: Offense all around
Bad: Defense
Ugly: None

This team is 5 or 6 minutes away defensively from being very good. The new rules just make it harder to keep people out of the lane. That said I also thought Kruger just played a lot of guys last night off the bench significant minutes. Usually they got a roll then.

 

[garyeb2]

10-1 and people are so negative. We cant play flawless all the time.

We are just a handful of possessions a game away from being a very impressive 10-1 instead of just 10-1.

 

[bocabull]

I always take these games around finals & the holidays with a grain of salt. It's easy for the guys to be distracted.

 

[CoachTalk]

We are just a handful of possessions a game away from being a very impressive 10-1 instead of just 10-1.

Agree. People want to be perfect all the time and not ever have breakdowns.

 

[ArdmoreSooner]

I always take these games around finals & the holidays with a grain of salt. It's easy for the guys to be distracted.

I coached girls or boys HS basketball for 15 yrs and games during or right before any break are always awful for sure. Hard to motivate and crowds usually not as good.

 

[opsooner]

10-1 and people are so negative. We cant play flawless all the time.

There are also people who read the same comments I read and infer negativity that I do not. Fans always want the team to improve - it does not mean they hate the team!

 

[pnkranger]

There are also people who read the same comments I read and infer negativity that I do not. Fans always want the team to improve - it does not mean they hate the team!

EXACTLY! This is what drives me nuts...being negative and trying to discuss the ebb and flow of the season are two totally different things. Those of us saying the defense is bad have not attacked any individual players nor the coaches. We are not railing the offensive output as the enemy of defense. We're not saying these games haven't been fun to watch.

We've simply stated that, to reach our potential (which is HIGH based on our offensive output) this year, we MUST improve dramatically on defense. Nothing more...

It seems that everyone who is frustrated by that statement agrees, because they immediately talk about tempo, depth, etc. as reasons for our poor defensive output.

 

[stormspencer]

EXACTLY! This is what drives me nuts...being negative and trying to discuss the ebb and flow of the season are two totally different things. Those of us saying the defense is bad have not attacked any individual players nor the coaches. We are not railing the offensive output as the enemy of defense. We're not saying these games haven't been fun to watch.

We've simply stated that, to reach our potential (which is HIGH based on our offensive output) this year, we MUST improve dramatically on defense. Nothing more...

It seems that everyone who is frustrated by that statement agrees, because they immediately talk about tempo, depth, etc. as reasons for our poor defensive output.

Well said PNK. I believe it is very short sighted to think "we are 10-1 and everything is great". Some of us are looking down the road and at the big picture. We realize that serious flaws are showing against poor teams...and if these flaws aren't addressed...well....disappointment lies ahead. It doesn't mean we aren't enjoying the wins, it means we are aware of impending losses ahead if we don't get our sh!t together on defense....sorry to be so blunt.

 

[garyeb2]

Well said PNK. I believe it is very short sighted to think "we are 10-1 and everything is great". Some of us are looking down the road and at the big picture. We realize that serious flaws are showing against poor teams...and if these flaws aren't addressed...well....disappointment lies ahead. It doesn't mean we aren't enjoying the wins, it means we are aware of impending losses ahead if we don't get our sh!t together on defense....sorry to be so blunt.

Let me try this one more time. This team has some limitations. Some of those limitations impact the defense. Some of those limitations that impact the defense can not be fixed.

For an example. We are thin at the post. Spangler is good. But, he is undersized. We can not under any circumstance put Spangler in positions that causes him to foul out. If he fouls out we lose. To help Spangler we are running, more than ever before, what Kruger calls double and release. They work on in practice every day. They are getting pretty good at it. It goes something like this. Depending which side of the lane Spangler and his man are on and where we are in the defensive rotation, a different player drops in instantly to double team Spangler's man. The objective is to force the opponent to pass out rather than go into a post move and expose Spangler to the possibility of committing a foul. As soon as the ball is passed, the help defender releases to the closest unguarded opponent. It is working like a charm. Spangler hasn't fouled out and we haven't had a post player go off on us. We are accomplishing exactly what we are needing to do to give us the best chance to win.

But, nothing is free. There is a downside. If the post player finds the unguarded man he will have a good look. If he finds a 3 pt. shooter, the release man may not get closed out on him. Some of the things you guys are calling bad defense is bad defense by design. Last season with Osby and M'Baye and Fitz to come in from the bench, we didn't need to do much of that. Next season with Lattin and a hopefully much improved Bennett we won't be forced to make those kind of choices. Defense will be better then because we will have been able to eliminate a 60/40 choice from our scheme.

Sometimes, the way we switch and help on defense, Woodard will be caught as the help man down around the basket. Woodard is no help around the basket against much taller players. If the opposing team is smart enough or lucky enough to create that situation a couple of times a game, it is going to look like we are playing bad defense. I'm not willing to sit Woodard down just because he gets us jammed up on defense sometimes.

We have plenty of room to improve on defense. Calling them a bad defensive team is wildly inaccurate and totally unfair.

 

[CoachTalk]

Gary is spot on!

 

[Stikboy]

Let me try this one more time. This team has some limitations. Some of those limitations impact the defense. Some of those limitations that impact the defense can not be fixed.

For an example. We are thin at the post. Spangler is good. But, he is undersized. We can not under any circumstance put Spangler in positions that causes him to foul out. If he fouls out we lose. To help Spangler we are running, more than ever before, what Kruger calls double and release. They work on in practice every day. They are getting pretty good at it. It goes something like this. Depending which side of the lane Spangler and his man are on and where we are in the defensive rotation, a different player drops in instantly to double team Spangler's man. The objective is to force the opponent to pass out rather than go into a post move and expose Spangler to the possibility of committing a foul. As soon as the ball is passed, the help defender releases to the closest unguarded opponent. It is working like a charm. Spangler hasn't fouled out and we haven't had a post player go off on us. We are accomplishing exactly what we are needing to do to give us the best chance to win.

But, nothing is free. There is a downside. If the post player finds the unguarded man he will have a good look. If he finds a 3 pt. shooter, the release man may not get closed out on him. Some of the things you guys are calling bad defense is bad defense by design. Last season with Osby and M'Baye and Fitz to come in from the bench, we didn't need to do much of that. Next season with Lattin and a hopefully much improved Bennett we won't be forced to make those kind of choices. Defense will be better then because we will have been able to eliminate a 60/40 choice from our scheme.

Sometimes, the way we switch and help on defense, Woodard will be caught as the help man down around the basket. Woodard is no help around the basket against much taller players. If the opposing team is smart enough or lucky enough to create that situation a couple of times a game, it is going to look like we are playing bad defense. I'm not willing to sit Woodard down just because he gets us jammed up on defense sometimes.

We have plenty of room to improve on defense. Calling them a bad defensive team is wildly inaccurate and totally unfair.

Nice. Thx Gary

 

[NickZepp]

Gary is probably right. Although I like what I've seen from Bennett in his few minutes. But we basically have nobody else at the post. That hurts us on defense. We really miss M'Baye. Just having him would have solved a lot of these issues. But next year we basically return the same roster with a few bigs coming in. We'll see how big an impact they will make but we have to love Lon's recruiting so far. We've had impact guys each year as newcomers.