Abd, I realize that you are just trying to stir-up conversation, and that you like the shock factor, but c'mon, this post is lame in several ways. I agreed with you last night with a lot of your knee-jerk post, but the only guy that should be singing your praises after this thread's post is SoonerFanTU (the local villain of the board).
There are several severe deficiencies present in your line of thought imo:
- Ryan Wright played well last night. He was one of four players to have a positive contribution on DMok's +/- review. He ran the floor well. He screened well. His lateral quickness on defense was as good as I have seen it (add to the fact that he was having to go against a 6-4 power foward and it makes it even more impressive). He hit 2 of 3 shots, while not forcing anything, and knocked down his two FTs. He grabbed 4 boards and blocked a shot. MOST IMPORTANTLY, he power dunked through a defender to end the first half, and was there to received a nice alley-oop in the second half. He also had a nice assist to Pledger.
If you want to knee-jerk and say that Ryan Wright has no skill, or that he hasn't improved at all based on 2 games, then I am allowed to say that he has looked better based on last night, and based on what I have heard from my sources.
- While it pains me that yet again, people ranted and raved over Orlando's summer pick-up, and yet again, he doesn't even contribute, I am ok with that right now. Why? Because Drew Fitzgerald is better than I thought he would be. None of us were sure that Big Drew would really be able to fill that 3rd post spot this year. He can. Last night was not a good match-up for Drew due to the smaller, quicker personnel that the Warhawks played with.
- As for Ray Willis, what do you want from him? He played fine in the first two games. Steven Pledger is better right now. Its not like Ray is horrible, its that Steven Pledger is better. I think it is more a testament to the talent of this team that a guy like Ray doesn't even get to play. We are really deep at the guard position.
We can't give adequate minutes to Cade, Steven, and Ray. If we did, then none of them would be able to get in a rhythm. We all knew going into this year that there were not enough minutes to go around, so why does this surprise you? Did you want Ray to beat out Cade or something? I am giddy like a school girl that Steven Pledger is as good as he has shown.
- As for Orlando's development, you should have seen him when he first got on campus. Coach Cline wanted to take a chance on a project big man, and Orlando has actually come a long way. He still has to get better to play consistently on a top program like Oklahoma. He and Ray would play a lot for most of your schools, abd.
In summation, any perceived letdown that OU fans might feel with Orlando and GammaRay should be overshadowed by the fact that Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald are both playing at a lot higher level than what nearly all of us expected.
I am going to start a thread as two where OU will finish. I am still comfortable with 3rd. OSU and KSU haven't blown me away with their play either....its early, and we are plugging in 4 new pieces, and trying to get Ryan Wright comfortable with a starting role. We didn't look great in some of the early games last year either.
