Last 5 minutes of regulation and OT

[WTSooner]

Actually, Doolittle getting kicked out of school for academic misconduct was a very big problem for this team.

I don't know if I agree with that. Had Manek not started the season on fire, and OU not won what, 11 of our first 12 games or so, I might agree with you. But I'm not ready to say Doolittle's poor play the second half of the season was due to not playing the first half, and even if he played better, I'm not sure our record or play is much better.

So yeah, maybe it hurt him as a player, but I don't really see that it hurt the team.

 

[152219]

I don't know if I agree with that. Had Manek not started the season on fire, and OU not won what, 11 of our first 12 games or so, I might agree with you. But I'm not ready to say Doolittle's poor play the second half of the season was due to not playing the first half, and even if he played better, I'm not sure our record or play is much better.

So yeah, maybe it hurt him as a player, but I don't really see that it hurt the team.

You don't think integrating him back into the team was smooth? Also, his play didn't help?

The bottomline is that OU didn't have their full team for the entire year because Doolittle was caught cheating.

 

[WTSooner]

You don't think integrating him back into the team was smooth? Also, his play didn't help?

The bottomline is that OU didn't have their full team for the entire year because Doolittle was caught cheating.

They they didn't struggle without him, so......

Again, I don't think he was our problem this year, and I don't have any evidence that his poor play was b/c he missed time or was being "integrated" back in. If that were true, we should have seen improvement later in the season, and we really didn't. If he starts the season with the team, he probably starts over Manek, and maybe we don't start the season so well. Maybe Manek never has that streak of good shooting nights. Maybe TY and Manek never develop some of that lob chemistry.

Too many what-ifs to go down that road.

 

[152219]

They they didn't struggle without him, so......

Again, I don't think he was our problem this year, and I don't have any evidence that his poor play was b/c he missed time or was being "integrated" back in. If that were true, we should have seen improvement later in the season, and we really didn't. If he starts the season with the team, he probably starts over Manek, and maybe we don't start the season so well. Maybe Manek never has that streak of good shooting nights. Maybe TY and Manek never develop some of that lob chemistry.

Too many what-ifs to go down that road.

And they struggled when they tried to integrate him back into the team, so....

(and then add his comments to the media that made it sound like was a team leader, which if I was a member of the team I would take as a joke since he missed the first half of the season due to his academic misconduct).

Or maybe Manek doesn't hit the wall because he isn't relied on too heavily.

Doolittle wasn't there the entire season and that is 100% on him. And his play wasn't great either.

But, like you said, I'm not ready to write him off. There are times that he shows a skill set that no one else has on the team (rebounding in traffic, defense, etc).

 

[sperry]

Nah, I just don't like the use of stats in a poor manner. If he had made 2-3 shots during they year, and had a shooting percentage just north of 40%, you'd still be complaining, you just wouldn't be able to use that stat.

I thought he looked good as a freshman, and had a lot of potential. Obviously he wasn't very good this year. I'm going to see how he looks next year before I completely write him off. But keep bashing him like somehow he was anywhere near our biggest problem this year. He wasn't. Not even close.

If he had made 2-3 additional shots, he still would have had an absolutely abysmal shooting percentage for a guy who takes most of his shots within 10-12 feet of the basket. And of course he wasn't our biggest problem, but he certainly didn't help either. I'm not excited about a 6'6-7" forward with no handle and no touch inside. His shooting percentage was virtually identical last year, so this is not an issue of a small sample size. Over the course of 50 games spanning two seasons and close to 300 shot attempts, he's about a 39% shooter.

 

[oudna]

If he had made 2-3 additional shots, he still would have had an absolutely abysmal shooting percentage for a guy who takes most of his shots within 10-12 feet of the basket. And of course he wasn't our biggest problem, but he certainly didn't help either. I'm not excited about a 6'6-7" forward with no handle and no touch inside. His shooting percentage was virtually identical last year, so this is not an issue of a small sample size. Over the course of 50 games spanning two seasons and close to 300 shot attempts, he's about a 39% shooter.

Nah, if he were that bad of a shooter he wouldn’t have shot 40% 3PG and 81% FT last season.

He has very good potential. I agree his touch around the basket is poor at this stage.

 

[oudna]

I don't mind him as a garbage man off the bench, but he is one of the least offensively skilled players I've ever seen at OU. There's a reason he shot sub 40% in both of his seasons here.

Doolittle career
.404 3FG 47 attempts
.773 FT 137 attempts

Shooting ability is there.

 

[sperry]

Doolittle career
.404 3FG 47 attempts
.773 FT 137 attempts

Shooting ability is there.

The shooting from distance is there, but that takes him away from the basket and negates his offensive rebounding ability. He has such a poor handle that putting him on the perimeter makes him super easy to defend. He's got some really weird, hard to overcome holes in his game.