Kuol Atak

He is one of the worst defenders I’ve seen at OU. Makes him pretty much unplayable.
 
pnkranger said:
I miss Kuol. he brought a spark every time he stepped on the floor. I think he unfairly took the brunt of Moser's "we've got to get better on defense" talks. He's going to go somewhere like Iowa State next year and average 12 a game as the 6th man on a sweet sixteen team.
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i bet he goes some where in texas and averages more then that
 
WTSooner said:
He is one of the worst defenders I’ve seen at OU. Makes him pretty much unplayable.
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So instead we play Nwankwo and Jones, who have combined to shoot well below 30% on 3s.

And it’s not like either does anything special defensively.
 
Our whole team is bad defensively. If he is actually benching Atak for defense, it’s interesting he is the only guy on the team he is holding accountable, despite the fact he is a much bigger offensive threat than the three guards who come off the bench in front of him.
 
WichitaSooner said:
Our whole team is bad defensively. If he is actually benching Atak for defense, it’s interesting he is the only guy on the team he is holding accountable, despite the fact he is a much bigger offensive threat than the three guards who come off the bench in front of him.
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The worst defender on the team is Brown and he doesn’t sit. Brown gets beat off the dribble by every guard in the SEC.

Nwankwo is the worse shooter on the team and every average defensively.
 
I don't understand why he's being benched, we couldn't do a whole lot worse than we currently are. When you have nothing to lose give guys like him with a lot of upside a chance to prove themselves. Instead he's benching this kid and undoubtedly he's already got his mind in the portal. At this rate looks like we're going to have an entirely new staff and roster again next season... Maybe for the best
 
Soonerguy06 said:
I don't understand why he's being benched, we couldn't do a whole lot worse than we currently are. When you have nothing to lose give guys like him with a lot of upside a chance to prove themselves. Instead he's benching this kid and undoubtedly he's already got his mind in the portal. At this rate looks like we're going to have an entirely new staff and roster again next season... Maybe for the best
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Oh we were also going to have to look for an entirely new roster. Moser can’t retain players. It’s another of his many virtues lol. But we see plenty of examples of new coaches with entirely new rosters winning, so the roster isn’t my worry.
 
colston15 said:
So instead we play Nwankwo and Jones, who have combined to shoot well below 30% on 3s.

And it’s not like either does anything special defensively.
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OklaSooners said:
The worst defender on the team is Brown and he doesn’t sit. Brown gets beat off the dribble by every guard in the SEC.

Nwankwo is the worse shooter on the team and every average defensively.
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You know, it's not hard to take a few minutes to double check your emotional opinions. You know.....with actual facts.


You can filter to just show the OU players. Atak's defense is brutal, and his offense doesn't do much to pull him up.
 
WTSooner said:
You know, it's not hard to take a few minutes to double check your emotional opinions. You know.....with actual facts.


You can filter to just show the OU players. Atak's defense is brutal, and his offense doesn't do much to pull him up.
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This is a really useful site for those of us who don't want to do the research, thanks for the link. I understand Atak is not good on defense but I would say what do we have to lose? Texas shot over 70% after the first 10 minutes Saturday and we still stayed close but not scoring in the last 9 possessions was the killer. Maybe say ok, we have to outscore them because we can't stop them so let's put offense on the floor. By the way, Atak's overall ranking is just above our much valued sixth man who Moser constantly praises for his energy but the stats say he is worse for our team than Atak. As I recall (it's been a while since I've seen him on the floor) Atak definitely played with energy as well when on the floor. One other interesting stat, Atak's +/- is tied for second on the team. Seems like he is worth a shot when nothing else is working.
 
Sooner Season said:
This is a really useful site for those of us who don't want to do the research, thanks for the link. I understand Atak is not good on defense but I would say what do we have to lose? Texas shot over 70% after the first 10 minutes Saturday and we still stayed close but not scoring in the last 9 possessions was the killer. Maybe say ok, we have to outscore them because we can't stop them so let's put offense on the floor. By the way, Atak's overall ranking is just above our much valued sixth man who Moser constantly praises for his energy but the stats say he is worse for our team than Atak. As I recall (it's been a while since I've seen him on the floor) Atak definitely played with energy as well when on the floor. One other interesting stat, Atak's +/- is tied for second on the team. Seems like he is worth a shot when nothing else is working.
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Yes, Texas shot 60% from the floor and they scored 19 more in second half than first half. Atak’s D isn’t good but it was horrendous early in the season and has improved some. It was clear we lost all momentum during the first half. But we did nothing to stop it. I would be willing to gamble on a guy to give us a lift when Texas is already scoring at will on us.
 
Seymore Cox said:
Not worse than Northweather…. And Moser snuck him in at every chance.
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But he is though. Check the link provided by WT, it has stats for each year. Atak's defensive breakdowns are catastrophic, he often gets lost in transition and ends up guarding nobody. His body also needs to be developed. He doesn't have the foot speed to defend guards or the strength to guard wings. He needs one more year of physical development. Now that there is nothing to lose, may as well play him in lineups without Pack.
 
allday92 said:
But he is though. Check the link provided by WT, it has stats for each year. Atak's defensive breakdowns are catastrophic, he often gets lost in transition and ends up guarding nobody. His body also needs to be developed. He doesn't have the foot speed to defend guards or the strength to guard wings. He needs one more year of physical development. Now that there is nothing to lose, may as well play him in lineups without Pack.
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If you recruit a guy who needs two full years of physical development, you are an idiot. And like usual, Loser doesn't follow through with any of the things he said he might do in the preseason. He said he may play some zone this season as a way to get Atak on the floor because we needed his offense. Welp . . . not so much. We play probably one possession of zone per game. Granted, our zone sucks, but so does our man to man. Come to think of it, so does everything Loser does.
 
Okay, we all understand Kuol is not good at defense. However, we are not a particularly strong defensive team overall. Texas in the last 5 minutes was just driving to the paint and getting what they wanted. That is why their FG% was so high. We are routinely outscored in the paint not only because we don't have an inside presence on offense, but because we can't defend the paint. At all. Whatever is going on now isn't working so benching him didn't solve the problem.

And IIRC, I can think of guys going as far back as Jeff Webster and as recently as Trae Young that couldn't play a lick of defense, but you wanted them on the floor as much as possible. Not saying Atak is anywhere near that level of player, but he can help on the offensive end, and could develop if he were coached and had a chance to learn.

But then again, player development and substitution patterns are not the strength of the current HC and staff.
 
WichitaSooner said:
If you recruit a guy who needs two full years of physical development, you are an idiot. And like usual, Loser doesn't follow through with any of the things he said he might do in the preseason. He said he may play some zone this season as a way to get Atak on the floor because we needed his offense. Welp . . . not so much. We play probably one possession of zone per game. Granted, our zone sucks, but so does our man to man. Come to think of it, so does everything Loser does.
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THIS.

I'm not signing a guy that doesn't know how to play basketball even if he's the best shooter of all time. I guess that's just me
 
I think it's a microcosm of the ills that plague the program that we're sitting here debating the merits of minutes for Kuol Atak. Serious basketball teams aren't wasting time developing a player like this. These are the situations that come up when you recruit guys from "Parts Unknown". Go out and find some basketball players. You know who else can shoot really well? Me. And I had trouble getting past Court #2 at the Huff because I couldn't guard anybody. Neither can Atak! If you're depending on a player of his ilk to play 20-25 minutes a game the battle is already lost.
 
Sooner04 said:
I think it's a microcosm of the ills that plague the program that we're sitting here debating the merits of minutes for Kuol Atak. Serious basketball teams aren't wasting time developing a player like this. These are the situations that come up when you recruit guys from "Parts Unknown". Go out and find some basketball players. You know who else can shoot really well? Me. And I had trouble getting past Court #2 at the Huff because I couldn't guard anybody. Neither can Atak! If you're depending on a player of his ilk to play 20-25 minutes a game the battle is already lost.
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I'm not sure I agree. If a guy is a really high level shooter, there should be a spot for him, even on good teams. Did Tim Heskett or Kelly Newton possess the athletic ability to guard people (talking about after their injuries)? No. But they were important players on a very solid team that went to the tournament every year, and they defended well enough because, well, their coach taught defense and demanded it from everyone on the roster. And I don't think anyone in this thread has advocated for 20-25 minutes a game. We are advocating for something greater than zero, especially when guys like Dayton and JN, who have no elite traits, are playing ahead of him. The underlying question is, why did his minutes dry up pretty much right after he had a really good game in our only win since the calendar flipped to January?
 
MJSooner said:
Okay, we all understand Kuol is not good at defense. However, we are not a particularly strong defensive team overall. Texas in the last 5 minutes was just driving to the paint and getting what they wanted. That is why their FG% was so high. We are routinely outscored in the paint not only because we don't have an inside presence on offense, but because we can't defend the paint. At all. Whatever is going on now isn't working so benching him didn't solve the problem.

And IIRC, I can think of guys going as far back as Jeff Webster and as recently as Trae Young that couldn't play a lick of defense, but you wanted them on the floor as much as possible. Not saying Atak is anywhere near that level of player, but he can help on the offensive end, and could develop if he were coached and had a chance to learn.

But then again, player development and substitution patterns are not the strength of the current HC and staff.
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I guess I would counter that and say it actually could be worse defensively.
If you take a high level view of the year, scoring hasn't been a big issue (outside of crunch time scoring obviously).
So it makes sense to me to try and get the best defensive lineups out there.
 
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