Iowa State at OU

[sybarite]

15:51 6-6 first time out. Poppens with 4, Prins with two.

Griffin, Sharane, and Hook with two each.

 

[sybarite]

Griffin for two.
Kristofferson hits one FT after being fouled by Jo.
8-7
Griffin again, 10-7
14:58
Griffin called for a foul on Poppens.
Poppens misses first FT, hits second, 10-8 14:40
Sharane throws it away
Griffin reb
Sharane misses, IS reb
Kristofferson ties it
13:56
Vegas hits from 15, 12-10 13:35
Kristofferson scores on a putback.
Vegas from 14 14-12
13:02
Kristofferson for two, ties it
trading missed shots
Jo scores 16-14 12:10
time out 11:51

 

[sybarite]

Christofferson of IS and Griffin of OU with six each.

Both teams shooting pretty well.

OU has turnovers (three?)
Christofferson hits, has nine already, 16-16

Foul Hook on moving screen.

Poppens throws it away.
Vegas misses from three, Portia fouls on reb
Foul on Prins, hits Jo in face
Hartman misses from five, Portia misses on putback, reb out off IS
Durrett scores 18-16 9:56

Prins misses from three, Vegas reb
Airball from Vegas, Hartman reb, Hartman hits from 8 20-16 9:05

Blaskowsky hits
Portia misses from three, bad shot selection
Poppens travels
8:23
Vegas travels, fifth OU turnover
Sharane fouls, her first, fifth team. 7:58 time out

 

[sybarite]

Halftime: 27-27

OU was sloppy in the last ten minutes, as was IS also. We quit moving, and it led to a lot of forced shot decisions that had no rhythm. When IS began to force Griffin away from the basket, she kept trying--not a good idea. But, we kept trying to go through Griffin rather than moving.

Campbell 7, Griffin 6
Poppens 10
IS has ten turnovers, OU 9
Reb: OU 19 IS 16

MOVE. MOVE. MOVE.

 

[Sooner Suzie]

That Prins, Poppens, Christofferson trio is just a bad matchup for a team that has a depleted front line. All three are very talented bigs on both ends of the floor.

 

[sybarite]

I thought the key was that Iowa State did NOT make some silly mistakes and did what they do best. We had our chances to take control, and we made some silly mistakes, usually bad passes.

A few bad calls didn't help. But, the key was that we weren't as smart tonight as Iowa State was.

 

[Oliver Hardy]

I agree. We simply cannot handle their front line and then you add in Blakowsky scoring at will and it's just too much. They are just better than us.

I was surpised that Jaz played so much tonight, especially when we needed scorers. At least Durrett could hit something once in a while and would have given us more size. I'm not sure why she didn't play much second half.

I also don't understand why we don't try running some double picks at the top of the key to free up AE.

Ah, well. On to the next game.

 

[Soonercuda]

Ellenburg tweaked her ankle early when Williamson plowed into her and fouled Aaryn going for the ball. I think that was a reason she had an off night; and with the inside advantage isu has we really need a good game from Aaryn to beat them.

 

[Sooner Suzie]

I agree. We simply cannot handle their front line and then you add in Blakowsky scoring at will and it's just too much. They are just better than us.

Well, "better" is still TBD. They got beat by OSU and KU on the road (but then OU might as well). But OU simply doesn't match up well head-to-head against those bigs.

They beat OU last time by taking advantage of the size mismatch and routed them. This time it was obvious from the start they were planning to utilize the same strategy as they all but abandoned the 3. It seemed they were determined to get Nicole and McFarland in foul trouble.

I also wondered why there weren't more picks for Vegas.

 

[SoonerinNC]

I'm a big Sherri fan and if we lost her we would probably end up like we have been since losing Kelvin Sampson.

She does a great job of identifying under the radar players and really developing them to excell before leaving the program. Ny Stevenson for example and now McFarland, Hook and Griffin. I think Griffin will be really tough next year.

A more productive recruiting program could put her up with the top coaches. I'm not sure what the answer is but for whatever reason OU has never been a place that has atracted top recruits outside of football.

A couple of things I do wonder about.

First we score a high percentage on out of bounds plays on our end. Yet at times we run a very ragged half court offense. Don't understand why. I would think we could set those same solid screens in our half court offense.

Also she just will not use her depth. Obviously she doesn't have much now but at times she has had depth. It is like she doesn't trust her reserves. We had a deep team before all of the injuries but Campbell and McFarland was doing very little. Hook and Manning goes down and Campbell and McFarland shines. I wonder if the male practice team is partially responsible as she is using only has five of the team members on the court and possibly the reserves are not getting enough preparation. I was frustrated on how much she had the male practice players on the court in the intra-squad scrimmage that was televised. I wanted to see the girls play.

Fortunately we seem to hold up pretty well with players playing 33-40 minutes but we are very vulnerable to fouls. If you read the quotes after the game tonight Sherri seemed to be close to blasting the officials. Sometimes she needs to really go off on the officials. It is almost a given that after a coach goes off on the officials they get a quick even up call.

I hope she stays at OU until she retires. It was tough to lose tonight but the team usually comes back pretty strong after a tough loss.

 

[SoonerNorm]

I didn't get to see the game but have looked at the stats and read the comments on the board.

Fouls obviously played a huge part in the game. I know that it is not uncommon for Jo and Nicole to get into foul trouble (usually silly fouls) but we don't see the others in that situation often.

Another factor was our 18 turnovers. Teams put themselves in a hole when they commit excessive turnovers. We could very possibly have won the game if we would have held TO's to 13 or 14. I get tired of talking about turnovers but, we do not improve in this area and in close games they can be the determining factor in who wins and who loses.

I sure never expected us to lose to ISU at home.

 

[35TangoTango]

A more productive recruiting program could put her up with the top coaches. I'm not sure what the answer is but for whatever reason OU has never been a place that has atracted top recruits outside of football.

I think most people nationally would already put her up with the top coaches. One thing for sure. If we lost her, we would have no chance at getting a coach anywhere near her ability.

First we score a high percentage on out of bounds plays on our end. Yet at times we run a very ragged half court offense. Don't understand why. I would think we could set those same solid screens in our half court offense.

We do, all the time. We seem to have a preference for off-ball screens rather than on-ball screens, but we do run a lot of both. Sherri would prefer to run just straight motion offense, but with this limited personnel, we are running set plays a lot more.

Also she just will not use her depth. Obviously she doesn't have much now but at times she has had depth. It is like she doesn't trust her reserves. We had a deep team before all of the injuries but Campbell and McFarland was doing very little. Hook and Manning goes down and Campbell and McFarland shines. I wonder if the male practice team is partially responsible as she is using only has five of the team members on the court and possibly the reserves are not getting enough preparation. I was frustrated on how much she had the male practice players on the court in the intra-squad scrimmage that was televised. I wanted to see the girls play.

This is just a totally inaccurate statement. If you would research the top 50 basketball teams, both women and men, you would find that their substitution patterns are pretty much the same as ours.

Fortunately we seem to hold up pretty well with players playing 33-40 minutes but we are very vulnerable to fouls. If you read the quotes after the game tonight Sherri seemed to be close to blasting the officials. Sometimes she needs to really go off on the officials. It is almost a given that after a coach goes off on the officials they get a quick even up call.

From my perspective at the game, she let her opinions be known a lot. I thought she was close to a technical a couple of times.

I hope she stays at OU until she retires. It was tough to lose tonight but the team usually comes back pretty strong after a tough loss.

It was a tough loss. In truth, I think ISU is slightly the better team, but our effort could have prevailed anyway, given a more favorable officiating climate.

Give us Hand, Manning, and Williams, and we would have won going away even with these officials.

 

[SoonerNorm]

One thing for sure. If we lost her, we would have no chance at getting a coach anywhere near her ability.

I don't know what you base that statement on. If Sherri left, OU would likely receive a couple of hundred applications. OU found Sherri who was without any D-1 coaching experience, not sure why you would think they couldn't find another great coach just as good or better who has D-1 experience.

 

[35TangoTango]

I don't know what you base that statement on. If Sherri left, OU would likely receive a couple of hundred applications. OU found Sherri who was without any D-1 coaching experience, not sure why you would think they couldn't find another great coach just as good or better who has D-1 experience.

Sherri no longer an obscure high school coach. Now she is recognized as one of the top 20 coaches in the country (I picked 20, but any number you pick has to be close to that). How many of the other 19 do you really think would want to come to Oklahoma?

I can explain it to you - I can't understand it for you.

 

[SoonerNorm]

Sherri no longer an obscure high school coach. Now she is recognized as one of the top 20 coaches in the country (I picked 20, but any number you pick has to be close to that). How many of the other 19 do you really think would want to come to Oklahoma?

I can explain it to you - I can't understand it for you.

Why would they need to be considered top 20 coaches? There are MANY really good head coaches at lesser programs who would love to come to OU. There are MANY great assistant coaches in this country just waiting for a chance to be a head coach. The vast majority of great coaches in the country rose to prominance from one of those two categories.

 

[Options]

We will go nowhere as long as Griffin is the center period

 

[35TangoTango]

Why would they need to be considered top 20 coaches? There are MANY really good head coaches at lesser programs who would love to come to OU. There are MANY great assistant coaches in this country just waiting for a chance to be a head coach. The vast majority of great coaches in the country rose to prominance from one of those two categories.

What are the chances one of those obscure unknown coaches will turn out to be as good as Sherri? You'd get better odds at a roulette table.

Like I said, I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.

 

[SoonerNorm]

What are the chances one of those obscure unknown coaches will turn out to be as good as Sherri? You'd get better odds at a roulette table.

Like I said, I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.

You haven't explained anything yet. If OU can hire a high school coach that turned out to be a really good college coach, I'm pretty sure they can find another college coach or assistant who can do a great job too.

 

[35TangoTango]

We will go nowhere as long as Griffin is the center period

She was darn good last game and the game before. Defensively she handled both Prins and Poppen with minimal help. She ran Toni Young out of the gym. Griffin is our center, and we are certainly gone long way up from nowhere. Outside of Griner, who's a better center in our conference?

 

[gosooner2]

I did not get to see the game but from the box score I would agree with Sherri, I don't see how you lose. However, with the current crew of referees sometimes you are the fouler and sometimes you are the foulee, and you never know which is which.