Kuol Atak

[opsooner]

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?

And the important part here is having a coach that teaches D. No one should think a HS player can come into a college program and be ready to play D at that level. The same is true for offense. You shouldn’t have a high school green light once you get to college. You have to earn it.

 

[colston15]

You know, it's not hard to take a few minutes to double check your emotional opinions. You know.....with actual facts.

https://evanmiya.com/?player_ratings

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.

Nothing in those advanced metrics suggest Atak should play zero minutes and Nwankwo and Jones should play 10-15+.

We are 1-8 in conference for ****’s sake. The ONLY game we won in the SEC, Atak was lights out, by the way. He’s not a great player, but it’s typical Moser to bench someone like that.

 

[WTSooner]

Nothing in those advanced metrics suggest Atak should play zero minutes and Nwankwo and Jones should play 10-15+.

We are 1-8 in conference for ****’s sake. The ONLY game we won in the SEC, Atak was lights out, by the way. He’s not a great player, but it’s typical Moser to bench someone like that.

He didn't just bench Atak. He shortened the bench. One night we were playing 9-10 guys, then all of the sudden at some point Atak, Forsythe, and Rogers stopped getting minutes. Some of Rogers was because of the addition of Elatontsez(sp).

I think there was even a game that a healthy Nwankwo didn't play in at all.

Of all the things to criticize Moser for, and it's a LONG list, I have zero issues with him shortening the bench when he did, and going away from Atak and Forsythe.

 

[Sooner Season]

I don't have a problem with him trying to shorten the bench to see if that helps, but when it fails miserably (8 losses in a row) shouldn't you revisit the strategy? And he really never went away from Forsythe until he was injured and now he is right back in the rotation. And while Illyatonsev has been a decent addition, he is a one semester and done guy, while Rogers seemed to be making some strides only to be a casualty in the bench shortening and now he seems lost again when he gets in for a couple of minutes. Which means next year (not that it will matter to Moser) Illyatonsev will be somewhere in Europe playing ball and Rogers will be elsewhere in the NCAA getting developed.

I think @Sooner04 said it best, us discussing Kuol Atak minutes is a sure sign of how desperate our program is for talent!