I apologize to Trae Young

[WTSooner]

preseason ou was picked 8th OU is in 8th

And most fans around here thought that was crazy. Be interesting to revisit that thread.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

I remember thinking that it was going to be a long year.
But like someone else said, the OOC got me believing again.
I don't think I'll make that mistake again

 

[CMSOONER]

The main similarity I see is that the Win loss record and the start and eventual turn in the season. however last years team had big time chemistry issues that surfaced and they basically quit on the season. This years team that we know of so far has no had no chemistry issues and has not quit. They still play hard, they just don't play smart. It's so strange that the outcomes have been almost exactly the same.

This staff needs a fire that left with Henson. While I don't feel that recruiting high school kids has been a major problem, it does have to get better. You can't loose guys like McCullar and Khavon Moore to Tech and then settle for Project JUCO players. The JUCO players this staff have brought it have been below average, it's time to stop.

Sam Gooms - 2011
Casey Arent - 2011
DJ Bennett - 2012
Keyshaun Hamilton - 2013
Dinjiyl Walker -2014
Manyang - 2015
Darrion Strong - 2016
Lazenby - 2017
Kuath - 2018
Garang - 2019
Merritt - 2019
Alondes Williams - 2019

I would much rather sign decent freshman and rebuild than keep signing project JUCO kids with the goal of them being a regular part of the rotation. Much less multiple in the same year.

And evaluating Grad Transfers has got to get better.

 

[thebigabd]

The main similarity I see is that the Win loss record and the start and eventual turn in the season. however last years team had big time chemistry issues that surfaced and they basically quit on the season. This years team that we know of so far has no had no chemistry issues and has not quit. They still play hard, they just don't play smart. It's so strange that the outcomes have been almost exactly the same.

This staff needs a fire that left with Henson. While I don't feel that recruiting high school kids has been a major problem, it does have to get better. You can't loose guys like McCullar and Khavon Moore to Tech and then settle for Project JUCO players. The JUCO players this staff have brought it have been below average, it's time to stop.

Sam Gooms - 2011
Casey Arent - 2011
DJ Bennett - 2012
Keyshaun Hamilton - 2013
Dinjiyl Walker -2014
Manyang - 2015
Darrion Strong - 2016
Lazenby - 2017
Kuath - 2018
Garang - 2019
Merritt - 2019
Alondes Williams - 2019

I would much rather sign decent freshman and rebuild than keep signing project JUCO kids with the goal of them being a regular part of the rotation. Much less multiple in the same year.

And evaluating Grad Transfers has got to get better.

They just aren't evaluating and signing the right guys... It is bad evaluation. Look at the juco guys Mike Anderson has brought in last 5 years:

2014 Class
Jabril Durham (6'1'' 185) - Seminole JC in Okahoma --- Started all 32 games and averaged 6.2 points, 6.4 assists, and 3.2 rebounds per game. Was #12 in nationally in assists. 2nd most assists in school history in a season.

2016 Class
Daryl Macon (6'3'' 185) - Holmes CC --- 2 year starter for Arkansas. Averaged 17 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists per game. 1st team All-SEC.

Jaylen Barford (6'3'' 202) - Motlow CC - 2 year starter for Arkansas. 1st team all SEC. Averaged 18 points and 4 rebounds per game.

Arlando Cook (6'8'' 215) - Connors JC - Bench player. Averaged 2 points and 2 rebounds per game. Not a significant contributor.

2018 Class
Mason Jones - Connors JC in Oklahoma - Averaging 14/4/4 so far this year for Arkansas. Has 3 years to play. Likely to develop into an another all-conference player for them.

Only one guy among them a bench scrub? And OU can't get a single good one? Multiple all-conference players. I think Macon played some games for the friggin Dallas Mavericks.

At some point you have to stop playing the juco league and start blaming Lon Krugers staff for poor regional recruiting and poor talent evaluation.

 

[BoulderSooner]

I'm not negative about all things OU. I'm plenty happy with the state of our football program. But our bball program is TERRIBLE.

And I was around before the collapse. But I saw this coming. Maybe not to this extent, you but can bet your backside I saw it coming. Folks had blinders on and didn't want to see it, so I stayed quiet.

far from a "terrible" program

 

[CMSOONER]

I agree ABD. The list of schools that offered the juco's on our roster or signed for 2019-20.

Bowling Green, James Madison, Kennesaw State, Stetson, Troy, Iona, Canisius, Utah State, Utah, BYU, Utah Valley, Texas Rio-Grande Valley, Robert Morris, Penn State, Charlotte, ORU, UT Martin.

Pathetic! Have an intern research who other major programs are targeting and go after them. The current strategy isn't working.

 

[Soonerinkc]

I still feel like this years team is about where most of us thought they'd be. Just that the OOC got everyone excited and the expectations blew up, and now conference play is balancing it out. This team doesn't have anybody that can break down the defense consistently and go make a play for himself and his teammates every game.

guilty....

 

[OrlandoSooner]

For me, this year's team misses a scorer that can create his own shot when needed. Last year, this was masked some b/c Trae spread the floor so much we had many "easy" baskets - more early in the year than in conference play. I remember thinking that Trae could have averaged 2-3 more assists if guy would just hit the bunnies that he helped create. Either way, Trae could shoot a 35 foot basket (and he did often) that was probably statistically based, a better shot than we can create under pressure this year.


This year, we struggle when a team extends their pressure. James hasn't been able to create his own shot consistently. Doolittle and Odomes struggled at the rim against length as was evident against Baylor.

Face it, Baylor was a tough match up for us. Their length killed us in the first game.
The second game we played as well at team rebounding as we could for the first 35ish minutes. Their length still bothered us in the lane and on drives.

Maybe not the right thread for this, but I loved Odomes' effort last night. I know that he traveled on the critical drive late in the game when he slipped, but that was an effort play. Just a few minutes before that he was all over the court diving after loose balls, sprinting back on defense, chasing the ball and bringing the level of energy and aggression that this team is missing. I've been around sports enough to understand that sometimes you just don't have it - shots aren't falling, you are physically outmatched, whatever. But effort and attitude are what you can control. I saw that on Monday from Odomes.

 

[thebigabd]

I agree ABD. The list of schools that offered the juco's on our roster or signed for 2019-20.

Bowling Green, James Madison, Kennesaw State, Stetson, Troy, Iona, Canisius, Utah State, Utah, BYU, Utah Valley, Texas Rio-Grande Valley, Robert Morris, Penn State, Charlotte, ORU, UT Martin.

Pathetic! Have an intern research who other major programs are targeting and go after them. The current strategy isn't working.

Geez.... more proof in the pudding there. Nice research.

 

[AdaSooner]

I remember thinking that it was going to be a long year.
But like someone else said, the OOC got me believing again.
I don't think I'll make that mistake again

Sure you will, just as I did and will again. We’re OU fans. Believing every year is going to be better is what we do. We were right three years ago when OU went to the final four. I think we can do it again—maybe next year or two years from now.

By the way, it doesn’t bother me to be wrong. I just swallow my pride, admit it and move on. Some people on this board can’t do that. You’re not one of them. Good for you!

 

[skyvue]

I'm not negative about all things OU. I'm plenty happy with the state of our football program. But our bball program is TERRIBLE.

And I was around before the collapse

Nearly two and a half months months without a single post. And we notched a lot of wins during that stretch.

 

[AdaSooner]

I'm not negative about all things OU. I'm plenty happy with the state of our football program. But our bball program is TERRIBLE.

And I was around before the collapse. But I saw this coming. Maybe not to this extent, you but can bet your backside I saw it coming. Folks had blinders on and didn't want to see it, so I stayed quiet.

I agree with a lot of the things you have said, but the word terrible in caps is not even close to an accurate description of OU’s basketball program.

Skyvue was right when he pointed out that you conveniently disappeared from your post in November after our loss to Wisconsin to your grand appearance when the team started to lose again.

I have been critical of our coaching staff lately myself. But I have also admitted I was wrong when I believed an improved defense would be sustainable and it wasn’t. A little humility from you during the non-con portion of our schedule would have made the chest thumping we’re seeing now easier to swallow.

 

[WichitaSooner]

Nearly two and a half months months without a single post. And we notched a lot of wins during that stretch.

Bingo.

 

[WTSooner]

I agree with a lot of the things you have said, but the word terrible in caps is not even close to an accurate description of OU’s basketball program.

Skyvue was right when he pointed out that you conveniently disappeared from your post in November after our loss to Wisconsin to your grand appearance when the team started to lose again.

I have been critical of our coaching staff lately myself. But I have also admitted I was wrong when I believed an improved defense would be sustainable and it wasn’t. A little humility from you during the non-con portion of our schedule would have made the chest thumping we’re seeing now easier to swallow.

It's terrible in a lot of ways, compared to my expectations. If we miss the Dance this year, we essentially should have missed three straight years. That is terrible. We don't have a ton of talent on the roster, even by our standards. That is terrible. I'm not nearly as bullish on the incoming class next year as some are. That is terrible. We might be looking for a transfer to come in and save the day AGAIN. I find that terrible. It's terrible that our program is in the shape it is after what, 8 years of Lon?

I may have stopped posting, but I was on the board during that entire time. I saw the writing on the wall, but knew nobody around here wanted to hear my opinion, so rather than stir stuff up, I just didn't post. I also traveled for work basically the entire time from the week before Thanksgiving until mid to late December, so my free time was limited. But mostly, I just chose not to stir stuff up with my opinion of where this team was headed. I remember when I jumped off the Capel train before everybody else. I posted about it, and was called all kinds of horrible things. I was right. I was right this time too, I just chose not to endure the abuse. You can make of that what you want.

Why would have I have shown humility during the win streak? I expected this team to be in the Dance this year. I think the roster, while not great, reflects a team that should comfortably make the Dance. So back in the OOC portion of the schedule, they were playing about how they should. But I saw signs of it being a bit of smoke and mirrors, and some of those wins that we thought were good wins slowly started looking less and less impressive. Again, I had two options. State that I thought the team would fall apart once Big 12 play started, or show some fake happiness over what I thought was a record that did not reflect what our team actually was. So again, I chose to be quiet over bringing my negativity to the board. Sorry that upsets some of you. Not really though.

 

[WTSooner]

Nearly two and a half months months without a single post. And we notched a lot of wins during that stretch.

It doesn't take much research to see why I stopped either. My last post before my stretch of not posting was arguing with you over exactly what I said above, trash wins for lack of a better term. Wins that if you can take the blinders off, you could have seen the trouble that was coming. I started stating that, caught the flak I knew I would receive, so I decided to let you all believe what you wanted while in my mind I saw this collapse coming. I wasn't going to stick around and post and deal with posts like yours when I thought something different. A win isn't always a win. You'd have *****ed if I had stuck around and been negative, and you are *****ing that I wasn't around. Can't have it both ways.

 

[BoulderSooner]

we factually will not have miss "3 straight years"

 

[Max Power]

Didn't realize that points and assists were all that mattered. That is why I said OVERALL. You might look up the meaning of that word. It means "all aspects of being a basketball player."

Must be exhausting being the defender of all things OU. Good grief.

I personally am starting to think that overall, he did the best he could with the cast surrounding him. Maybe someone could have done more to lead, but that's asking a lot of a freshman coming in with all those upperclassmen IMO.

 

[WTSooner]

we factually will not have miss "3 straight years"

Did I say we factually did?

I said we "essentially should have." And that is my opinion.

 

[Max Power]

Did I say we factually did?

I said we "essentially should have." And that is my opinion.

We weren't even one of the last 4 in last year. We were a 10 seed and safely in. If you want to say its because of trae, it's because of the 18 wins, 8 in conference he helped contribute to. This year we are looking at what 16 wins 4 in conference assuming we can beat WVU at home.

 

[JBaker]

The main similarity I see is that the Win loss record and the start and eventual turn in the season. however last years team had big time chemistry issues that surfaced and they basically quit on the season. This years team that we know of so far has no had no chemistry issues and has not quit. They still play hard, they just don't play smart. It's so strange that the outcomes have been almost exactly the same.

This staff needs a fire that left with Henson. While I don't feel that recruiting high school kids has been a major problem, it does have to get better. You can't loose guys like McCullar and Khavon Moore to Tech and then settle for Project JUCO players. The JUCO players this staff have brought it have been below average, it's time to stop.

Sam Gooms - 2011
Casey Arent - 2011
DJ Bennett - 2012
Keyshaun Hamilton - 2013
Dinjiyl Walker -2014
Manyang - 2015
Darrion Strong - 2016
Lazenby - 2017
Kuath - 2018
Garang - 2019
Merritt - 2019
Alondes Williams - 2019

I would much rather sign decent freshman and rebuild than keep signing project JUCO kids with the goal of them being a regular part of the rotation. Much less multiple in the same year.

And evaluating Grad Transfers has got to get better.

The good news is that we were able to redshirt Lazenby this year so that we can waste a scholarship on him again next year.