Next season

[citty]

Any thoughts about next season? Just a gut feeling but I think we have a completely different season than this past year by starting slow and finishing strong...

 

[ArdmoreSooner]

I think they will play harder, and better defense. Would almost have to. I worry about offense and how they will score. I don't know enough about transfers to know if they can help here.

 

[Soonerguy06]

I think we will have a better season, because we will play more like a team and have better chemistry. There won't be any 'stars' on the team and I think that will make each individual player better. I'm interested in how Manek will develop and how the transfers will play. Excited!

 

[TINY]

Gonna be tough to make the tournament but I think we have an outside chance which is worlds better than what our odds were the day mcgusty announced his intention to transfer.

 

[hoopsaustin]

Anything can happen if we decide we're not cooler than exerting effort on defense

 

[coolm]

Anything can happen if we decide we're not cooler than exerting effort on defense

did you hear Trae talking to the NBA pundits on ESPN when he said (paraphrasing) "learning about things like how I didnt always work really hard on defense ...". I was more like never.

 

[hoopsaustin]

did you hear Trae talking to the NBA pundits on ESPN when he said (paraphrasing) "learning about things like how I didnt always work really hard on defense ...". I was more like never.

Yikes

 

[thebigabd]

I think it's gonna be rough... they can field a team but it's going to be rough.

Aaron Calixte is very small, and flat out didn't perform well against good competition. He also played for arguably the worst team in the nation for 4 straight years. That is our starting point guard.

At that position over the years OU has had Trae Young (NBA), Isaiah Cousins (NBA), Jordan Woodard (all league), etc... Then in the bad seasons they had Leary, Carl Blair, etc.

The best hope, in my opinion, is that Doolittle and Manek explode... Jamuni is a 5th year player this season and averaged 5-6 ppg last year. It is not realistic to expect him to throw in 12-13 a game all of a sudden.

Manek needs to average 14+ per game... Doolittle about the same.

Likely starters:

Aaron Calixte: I predict 5-6 points, 2-3 assists per game from him.
Christian James: I predict 10-12 ppg out of him
Doolittle: I predict 9-11 per game out of him
Manek: I predict 13-15 per game out of him
McNease: I predict 6 points and 6 rebounds per game out out of him

Reynolds, Odomes, Bienemy, Polla, Freeman, and Lazenby are the bench.

We will see.... gonna need to play great defense and rebound... but again, if Doolittle and Manek explode and everyone else is just support around them, maybe they surprise us.

 

[BoulderSooner]

I think it's gonna be rough... they can field a team but it's going to be rough.

Aaron Calixte is very small, and flat out didn't perform well against good competition. He also played for arguably the worst team in the nation for 4 straight years. That is our starting point guard.

At that position over the years OU has had Trae Young (NBA), Isaiah Cousins (NBA), Jordan Woodard (all league), etc... Then in the bad seasons they had Leary, Carl Blair, etc.

The best hope, in my opinion, is that Doolittle and Manek explode... Jamuni is a 5th year player this season and averaged 5-6 ppg last year. It is not realistic to expect him to throw in 12-13 a game all of a sudden.

Manek needs to average 14+ per game... Doolittle about the same.

Likely starters:

Aaron Calixte: I predict 5-6 points, 2-3 assists per game from him.
Christian James: I predict 10-12 ppg out of him
Doolittle: I predict 9-11 per game out of him
Manek: I predict 13-15 per game out of him
McNease: I predict 6 points and 6 rebounds per game out out of him

Reynolds, Odomes, Bienemy, Polla, Freeman, and Lazenby are the bench.

We will see.... gonna need to play great defense and rebound... but again, if Doolittle and Manek explode and everyone else is just support around them, maybe they surprise us.

well i guess we should just cancel the season ..


mcnease is going to average close to 10 and 10 or better

 

[CoachTalk]

I think top half of big 12.

I do expect muni to be a double double guy. 12-11 guy every night.

James will likely be our leading scorer. Manek and Doolittle will take that next step. Doolittle can get back to freshmen form where he nearly avg 10-10

Odomes will be best defender again. Calixte is a huge key. Can he make shots and run the offense. Reynolds can be a great 6th man I think.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

...

Likely starters:

Aaron Calixte: I predict 5-6 points, 2-3 assists per game from him.
Christian James: I predict 10-12 ppg out of him
Doolittle: I predict 9-11 per game out of him
Manek: I predict 13-15 per game out of him
McNease: I predict 6 points and 6 rebounds per game out out of him

Reynolds, Odomes, Bienemy, Polla, Freeman, and Lazenby are the bench.

I am concerned when I think about that lineup against B12 full court pressure (e.g., WVU). Both senior/transfer ball-handlers (Calixte and Reynolds) may spend a lot of time on the court together.

Regarding next season in general terms, it is hard for me to look forward to November with my typical summertime optimism and enthusiasm. I would be happy next season if:

• the team plays sound team defense with great effort,
• individual players demonstrate they have improved, and
• the team grows and improves over the course of the season.

These items seem so basic, yet have been largely missing the past two seasons.

Jamuni has shown steady year-to-year improvement, but I was expecting much more growth from other players on the team.

I guess I am hopeful for the 2018-19 season, but with low expectations.

 

[skyvue]

Aaron Calixte is very small, and flat out didn't perform well against good competition. He also played for arguably the worst team in the nation for 4 straight years. That is our starting point guard.

Arizona, DePaul, Florida State, GCU, Missouri -- these are some of the programs that were pursuing Calixte. I don't know how good he'll be and neither do you, but unless you are convinced you know more than the experienced coaches at these programs, maybe it's time you drop the relentless bashing of the young man and adopt a wait-and-see approach.

I know this much about Calixte: He's better than no point guard at all, which is what we had before he signed with us.

 

[coolm]

I think we'll have a team we can grow with next season. This last season was kind of an aside for Lon ... now we can get back to normal programming.

 

[Max Power]

People expecting Muni to average a double double need to pump the breaks. Only 12 times has somebody at ou averaged 10 rebounds a game

Alvin Adams (3 Times)
Wayman (2 Times)
Don Sidle (2 Times)
Blake (1 Time)
Gar Heard (1 Time)
Clifford Ray (1 Time)
Ernie Abercrombie (1 Time)
Stacey King (1 Time)

That said we sould be better than we were 2 years ago, but not a good as last year. NIT bound IMO

 

[Sooner04]

I think it's going to be tough sledding. I think we'll be around .500 overall. 6-12 in the league, maybe 7-11. I think McNease will be an 8/6 guy. My guess is he's in foul trouble in most of our tough games.

If we are relying on Christian James to be the leader....the alpha dog....then I think we'll be below .500. He might have the worst body language I've ever seen in a major contributor in crimson and cream.

I like that Lon has tried to plug some holes, but I hate that we are in this position. I was hoping Kuath's LOI would get lost in the mail. It feels like the ship is taking on a lot of water.

But that's just me. I've been wrong before, and I'll be wrong again.

 

[skyvue]

I wish we didn’t again have a very tough non-conference schedule. As someone else posted recently, I think this season could be the reverse of last season, in that we will hopefully get better as the season progresses, not worse. But we may have taken so many losses in non-conference play that it won’t much matter. It’s odd to be in the position to hope that, in fact, TY’s presence was part of the problem last year, that his departure will be a plus, not a minus. That’s a strange thing to hope for.

 

[thebigabd]

People expecting Muni to average a double double need to pump the breaks. Only 12 times has somebody at ou averaged 10 rebounds a game

Alvin Adams (3 Times)
Wayman (2 Times)
Don Sidle (2 Times)
Blake (1 Time)
Gar Heard (1 Time)
Clifford Ray (1 Time)
Ernie Abercrombie (1 Time)
Stacey King (1 Time)

Exactly... this is typical fan stuff. Muni is a nice player, but I think he kind of is what he is at this point. 5-7 ppg, 5-7 rpg. Thats a nice, solid player. Especially since he is tall and athletic.

I think it's going to be tough sledding. I think we'll be around .500 overall. 6-12 in the league, maybe 7-11. I think McNease will be an 8/6 guy. My guess is he's in foul trouble in most of our tough games.

This.

I think we'll have a team we can grow with next season. This last season was kind of an aside for Lon ... now we can get back to normal programming.

Grow with? Most of this team won't even be around the next season. If nobody transfers, the team loses James/Odomes/Muni/Lazenby/Calixte/Reynolds and maybe someone else I am forgetting. This is a very strange transition year and then it's up to the staff to put together basically a full team for the next season.

Or did you mean grow together this year?

well i guess we should just cancel the season ..

Nope... go ahead and play it. I will watch regardless.

 

[kbsooner]

Likely starters:

Aaron Calixte: I predict 5-6 points, 2-3 assists per game from him.
Christian James: I predict 10-12 ppg out of him
Doolittle: I predict 9-11 per game out of him
Manek: I predict 13-15 per game out of him
McNease: I predict 6 points and 6 rebounds per game out out of him

Reynolds, Odomes, Bienemy, Polla, Freeman, and Lazenby are the bench.

If I were a betting man I think Odomes starts, Manek/Doo are liabilities on guarding the perimeter, having both on the court will lead to Muni having 3 fouls by the 8 minute mark...

 

[skyvue]

Muni is a nice player, but I think he kind of is what he is at this point. 5-7 ppg, 5-7 rpg. Thats a nice, solid player. Especially since he is tall and athletic.

Except he'll be playing significantly more minutes this season. And he'll be a year older and more experienced, and he may just thrive by the mere fact that he's the starter. One never knows what might spark a player's progress.

 

[Darwin]

To finish in the top half of the B12 they will have to get much, much, more than a little, much better on defense. No valid reason to be confident of that but not impossible.