I shouldn't take too much from the Bama loss?

[Sooner Season]

I keep hearing you shouldn't take too much from the Bama game, a good team on the road with a big front line is too much to expect to compete with. Well, we definitely didn't compete, much less win. Now I'm starting to hear don't expect to beat A & M at home because they are a better rebounding team than Bama. And I'm reminded back in the spring/summer when this team was being constructed I kept thinking "but what about big men?" and was told the game has changed and big men aren't as important as they used to be. And our guards will give teams fits with their shooting and defense. As much as everyone is talking about being outrebounded by 25, as concerning to me was our inability to keep players in front of us, both guards and big men. Their point guard dominated us with his penetration and how many dunks did we give up off of the dribble? And our offense turned into the Moser staple of here you take the ball and try to score. It felt very familiar that when we meet a real P4 team we have guys no show. You can call it ptsd from previous years, or maybe it's realization we are in for more of the same this year. I'm tired of the "don't expect to compete with the better teams in the league, just hope you can somehow find enough wins against the rest". That's the sad state of this program.

It is kind of comforting to step outside the local media and see maybe I'm not as out of touch after all.

 

[WichitaSooner]

The funny thing about the folks saying not to overreact to one game is that we only had one truly impressive noncon win. Take away Michigan, and this season is exactly where we were last year. So I guess it’s ok to overreact to one win, but, according to some, we shouldn’t think much about one loss.

I agree with everything you say. And it’s also funny that leading into the game, the people who were predicting that we would give Bama a good game were suggesting they were an easier matchup than Michigan because Bama doesn’t play through their bigs a lot. Well, how did that work out? First look at SEC level bigs … athletic and long, and I think they ended up with 400 dunks.

If we can’t guard better, it’s going to be another long season. I always come down to one question with Moser teams, and it’s this: what, specifically, do we truly excel at? What do we hang out hat on? This year, we are poor defensively and atrocious on the glass. We are a good, but definitely not great, 3-pt shooting team. Yes, we shoot FTs incredibly well, but that will likely be offset in conference play because we don’t have many guys who will be capable of getting to the line a lot.

The next two or three games will determine if we have any hope of competing in this league. If we go winless this week, we might bury ourselves before college football season even wraps up. If the team doesn’t come out Wednesday and rebound like their lives depend on it, it will be a massive red flag. Embarrassment itself should cause them to battle their butts off on the boards.

 

[BoulderSooner]

The funny thing about the folks saying not to overreact to one game is that we only had one truly impressive noncon win. Take away Michigan, and this season is exactly where we were last year. So I guess it’s ok to overreact to one win, but, according to some, we shouldn’t think much about one loss.

I agree with everything you say. And it’s also funny that leading into the game, the people who were predicting that we would give Bama a good game were suggesting they were an easier matchup than Michigan because Bama doesn’t play through their bigs a lot. Well, how did that work out? First look at SEC level bigs … athletic and long, and I think they ended up with 400 dunks.

If we can’t guard better, it’s going to be another long season. I always come down to one question with Moser teams, and it’s this: what, specifically, do we truly excel at? What do we hang out hat on? This year, we are poor defensively and atrocious on the glass. We are a good, but definitely not great, 3-pt shooting team. Yes, we shoot FTs incredibly well, but that will likely be offset in conference play because we don’t have many guys who will be capable of getting to the line a lot.

The next two or three games will determine if we have any hope of competing in this league. If we go winless this week, we might bury ourselves before college football season even wraps up. If the team doesn’t come out Wednesday and rebound like their lives depend on it, it will be a massive red flag. Embarrassment itself should cause them to battle their butts off on the boards.

arizona is #17 in Kenpom Michigan is #13 in kenpom .. louisville is #40 in kenpom ..

please show me those level on non con wins last season ?

 

[WichitaSooner]

arizona is #17 in Kenpom Michigan is #13 in kenpom .. louisville is #40 in kenpom ..

please show me those level on non con wins last season ?

Well you have hyped up the Providence win for 13 months since we beat them when they were full strength. Also remember lots of love for the Iowa and USC wins before those teams cratered. Let’s wait and see how Louisville ends up. They have already played the only ranked team in their league, and lost at home. If they lose a couple games, they will be out of Q-1 quickly and that win will lose much of its luster.

 

[OkieTC]

Getting bent out of shape over 1 loss(the first loss) seems kinda silly. It was a sucky loss. We got blown out. I expect us to compete better, but I'm gonna wait a few games before I get too riled.

 

[Boom Soon]

You’re never as good as your best game and never as bad as your worst. Are there red flags? Yes, but the only way to know they’re not correctable is to give it a couple more games. If they go 0-3 to start then yeah the season is probably not going to go well. But we’re not there yet.

 

[Sooner Season]

Getting bent out of shape over 1 loss(the first loss) seems kinda silly. It was a sucky loss. We got blown out. I expect us to compete better, but I'm gonna wait a few games before I get too riled.

Bent out of shape.....no. Posting legitimate concerns and frustration........yes.

 

[Soonerguy06]

I'm not as upset about the Bama loss as I could be, but according to ESPN analytics we are projected to pretty much lose every SEC game moving forward, and if we actually do lose all of them as predicted, then I WILL be upset. Any team that has talented height will give us problems, that's just the reality. Moser doesn't seem to be able to land stud centers just yet, once he does maybe things will change. Perhaps the incoming freshman next season will be a stud. But then we will also be depleted of our guards, so it seems like an unwinnable battle.

Any update on when Jones or the juco guy will be ready? We need to like yesterday in order to be competitive moving forward, IMO.

 

[WichitaSooner]

I'm not as upset about the Bama loss as I could be, but according to ESPN analytics we are projected to pretty much lose every SEC game moving forward, and if we actually do lose all of them as predicted, then I WILL be upset. Any team that has talented height will give us problems, that's just the reality. Moser doesn't seem to be able to land stud centers just yet, once he does maybe things will change. Perhaps the incoming freshman next season will be a stud. But then we will also be depleted of our guards, so it seems like an unwinnable battle.

Any update on when Jones or the juco guy will be ready? We need to like yesterday in order to be competitive moving forward, IMO.

I’d say that we shouldn’t expect to see either one of them. Apparently they aren’t fully practicing, just doing drills but not participating in scrimmages or nonstop live action. We are midway through the season, neither has practiced in months, both are dealing with serious injuries … expecting either to jump into action in the best conference in America seems unrealistic. I’m very much of the opinion that the talk of them being closer is pretty much the same as the talk that Anderson and Burks were “close” to playing throughout football season.

 

[opsooner]

I still think we have the offense to compete in the SEC. I was always worried about rebounding based on the nonconf. The Bama game tells me I should also be worried about overall defense. Not saying we are going to be that bad every game -I think we will be much better most of the time. But I am worried about guards continually penetrating and beating our defense. Once that happens we are somewhere between small hope and doom. And, yes, I am still very concerned about rebounding. But I do still have overall hope. I think we can still win a lot of games if we clean things up.

 

[TEvans4Three]

SEC has 13 teams in the Top50 of KenPom is gnarly and this schedule is going to be brutal.

Pros:
-Tempo is top of the conference
-We are top half in eFG% and TO% on offense
-27th ranked offense in KenPom

Cons:
-Godwin is our starter (sorry, had to)
-OR% and FTR are bottom 3 in conference on offense
-14th ranked DEF Eff, TO%
-15th in FT% ... been in a downward slide lately
-Dead last in OR% on defense.

Speaking to OR%. We don't get a lot of 2nd chance points and allow teams to get a lot. We have to have efficient shooting nights and good FT nights to beat teams. My main concern coming into the year, the 5 position (Godwin starting and lack of depth), is becoming more and more apparent.

Hopefully we can outlast some teams and steal some wins, but it is going to be a tough year. Excited to see how well our guys bounce back from this.


KenPom SEC outlook:


On Offense:


On Defense:

 

[WichitaSooner]

SEC has 13 teams in the Top50 of KenPom is gnarly and this schedule is going to be brutal.

Pros:
-Tempo is top of the conference
-We are top half in eFG% and TO% on offense
-27th ranked offense in KenPom

Cons:
-Godwin is our starter (sorry, had to)
-OR% and FTR are bottom 3 in conference on offense
-14th ranked DEF Eff, TO%
-15th in FT% ... been in a downward slide lately
-Dead last in OR% on defense.

Speaking to OR%. We don't get a lot of 2nd chance points and allow teams to get a lot. We have to have efficient shooting nights and good FT nights to beat teams. My main concern coming into the year, the 5 position (Godwin starting and lack of depth), is becoming more and more apparent.

Hopefully we can outlast some teams and steal some wins, but it is going to be a tough year. Excited to see how well our guys bounce back from this.


KenPom SEC outlook:
View attachment 2151

On Offense:
View attachment 2152

On Defense:
View attachment 2153

These are just using the numbers from the one conference game, so I wouldn’t worry much about our free throw percentage. I don’t think we will end up over 80 percent, but I think we will be a good FT shooting team. But I definitely worry that our FT rate will be low because Fears is likely our only guard who will be able to truly stress SEC defenses. And I think our bad defensive numbers will continue.

Teams will get so many more second chance opportunities than we do because of the rebounding disparity. That makes it essential that we win the turnover battle so we don’t always end up with a lot fewer shots. Moser can’t revert to the passive defense we played last year in conference, or we will likely end up averaging about 10 fewer shots per game than our opponents.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

The funny thing about the folks saying not to overreact to one game is that we only had one truly impressive noncon win.

just stop. so tiring

 

[austing7]

Anyone have an idea on when we should expect jones or nwankwo to return?

 

[skyvue]

Anyone have an idea on when we should expect jones or nwankwo to return?

There's a thread devoted to that question:

Jones and nwankwo

oklahomahoops.com

 

[Stikboy]

Bent out of shape.....no. Posting legitimate concerns and frustration........yes.

I agree with this and your original post. Moser really needs to win tomorrow night to show if he's maybe started to turn a corner. It's just one game but in this his fourth year he hasn't shown he can beat a team like this, besides a ridiculously few and far between one-off like Bama last year. Of course, the expectation is to win more than just tomorrow night. But, tired of hearing the excuses too. Find a way to get it done. Put or shutup time!

 

[Skeeter1]

just stop. so tiring

Amen bro. . Boomer

 

[jdizzle34]

Glad to see some on here were impressed with the abomination that OU threw out there against Bama.

 

[Skeeter1]

Glad to see some on here were impressed with the abomination that OU threw out there against Bama.

 

[Soonermarty]

I'm not as upset about the Bama loss as I could be, but according to ESPN analytics we are projected to pretty much lose every SEC game moving forward, and if we actually do lose all of them as predicted, then I WILL be upset. Any team that has talented height will give us problems, that's just the reality. Moser doesn't seem to be able to land stud centers just yet, once he does maybe things will change. Perhaps the incoming freshman next season will be a stud. But then we will also be depleted of our guards, so it seems like an unwinnable battle.

Any update on when Jones or the juco guy will be ready? We need to like yesterday in order to be competitive moving forward, IMO.

If he misses the tournament this year, there won’t be a next year for him to land said bigs imo.