If they had a bench to speak of, I would be concerned too. But Sager and Hammonds off the bench just can't compete.
Agreed 100%. The biggest reason for their slide isn't Smart. It's the loss of Cobbins and Clark, because they came into the season with 8 guys who were big12 quality players. That was their rotation, and like us, they were already thin in the frontcourt. Cobbins was their only decent rebounder and shot-blocker. He wasn't a great player, but they had nobody behind him who can do what he did. When he went down, they became a team with little to no front-court, and not enough bodies to run and gun like you expect with a 4 guard lineup. Clark getting booted just limited that rotation even more.
Add to that, Ford doesn't really seem to have any idea how to run a half-court offense and set up good looks for good spot-up shooters. They take bad shots and have little chance of getting many offensive rebounds.
Still, with all this, they aren't an easy team to beat. They have a ton of talent in their starting lineup, and if Smart ever gets his outside shot going again, They'll start winning some of these close games that they have been losing lately.
Back on topic, if Smart misses any real time, they are down to 5 players who really belong at this level. Anybody else is just a foul magnet. That's not an easy situation to win any games in this conference.
With that lineup, it would be easy for a team like OU to draw a ton of fouls and live on the free throw line all night, even on the road.
