My report on Mercer

[NorthCarolinaSooner]

Got them up close and personal last night. Very solid group.

Post play is good....the Coursey kid (6'10" center) is solid....has decent post moves, good jump hook and strong.

Their best player is Langston Hall (6'4" PG)...he can shoot and is athletic.

The shoot the ball pretty well and run the floor well. They will try to get their posts involved and will try to sneak a screener behind you and get the backdoor lob.

They were way too big and physical for us...we are non-scholarship and our biggest guy is about 6'4"-6'5"....we don't turn it over very much and they didn't really try to press us at all (even the beginning) and we finished the game with only 5 TO's but got outrebounded by over 30 rebounds...that was the game...they beat us 109-56. We played without two starters (two of my most important, including our starting PG and a guard who averages 17 ppg) so that hurt bad.....not a game we probably would have won regardless but we could have possibly made it closer.

Overall the are solid and will be a good matchup for OU.....but not one they cannot handle.

 

[BoulderSooner]

thanks for the great report

 

[MNsooner]

Seems like a tough mach-up for anyone, but they should really test OU. Their size inside will challenge our post depth and Woodard sounds like he'll have his hands full. We should have the athletes and discipline to handle them. They make surprise some people by playing hard against us and keeping it close.

I can see how they dominated the boards. Giving up that much size is tough. It was probably hard to get good shots too. You can always cheat a bit more on D when you are the bigger team.

 

[AdaSooner]

Nice report, NCSooner! Aside from last night's loss, how is your season going so far?

Mercer appears to be a solid team that could present match up problems for OU at a couple of positions, due to their size. That's especially true at the point. Jordan will have to use his speed and quickness to defend their 6' 4" PG. We can always go to Je'lon if the Hall kid proves to be to much for him to handle on the defensive end. Maybe Jordan can use his speed and quickness to turn the tables on Hall on the offensive end.

Judging by the things you've said about Mercer, though, I'm glad we'll be playing that game in Norman.