+++Oklahoma (15-5, 5-3) vs. Baylor (12-9, 2-6) Game Thread+++

[oudna]

TY-greatness
Lattin - two really good games in a row...both offense and defense
Odomes - starting to round into form; best defender/effort
Manek - hits some 3s and rebounded; defense on the other hand....ugh.
McGusty - it's about to reach critical mass with this guy....is he ever going to find it this season?
James - we really missed his toughness tonight

The bench - not even worth mentioning outside of Doolittle. I'm really beginning to lose hope that he will contribute anything this year. He just has zero confidence and looks extremely tentative.

Lon ought to say to the guys who want minutes off the bench that they are going to have to fight to earn any minutes (but he won't). I don't see a lot of "want to" from any of the reserves right now. Maybe one or two of them will step up....hopefullt.

We’ve gotten next to nothing from the 2 best players of a year ago. Yet 16-5....

 

[Crimson King]

McGusty has zero chemistry with TY. He's the only one that has seemed a little PO'd by Young's takeover of the team.

An unnecessary gut check last night.

 

[Zimwillett]

Can anyone spin that defensive effort and the lack of bench production? I’m far from a pessimist but that defensive effort was poor tonight. The switching defense was flat out awful.

Happy with the way Lattin and Odomes played. Need James back for Saturday.

Defensive effort? No spin. No excuses. I'm willing to accept that given this team's style of play, they're going to find themselves in the occasional shootout. That's fine. What I can't accept is just getting plain lost on defensive rotations leaving the teams best and hottest shooters completely wide open and/or a complete lack of effort in transition D. We're now 21 games into the season. These aren't the kinds of things they should be struggling with.

I'm at least able to justify the lack of bench scoring by the fact that the 6th man and best bench scorer was forced into a starting role last night and the second best player off the bench is still hampered with an ankle injury. Guys like Shep and Doolittle still need to do more to contribute, but there are a lot of teams that would struggle to find bench production if forced down to the 8th and 9th spots on their bench.

 

[OUSKINS]

I honestly think it's kind of too late to really "fix" the problems we have. This is also due to the fact that some of the problems are just realities. TY is a poor defender; he isn't very big and he's a freshmen. Sometimes becoming a good defender takes experience. It is unlikely he will drastically improve in that area over the next month and a half. And Lattin and McNeace not being able to score outside of a few feet is also not changing. And Shepherd is likely to continue to only get a handful of minutes per game so it is unlikely he contributes. Odomes, James, and Manek have all been pretty good for us. Manek will get better and better, but it will probably be next year before he makes any serious improvements.

This isn't to say we can't PLAY better in individual games. We've seen how much more we can score when other guys hit shots. But make no mistake those shots are CREATED by TY. He creates them every single game, for himself or others--- generally the ones he creates for others are "easy"-- either wide open three's or finishes in and around the basket. The shots he creates for himself are much harder due to defenses keying on him. He is just so darn good that he can still go for 40+.

I think they are what they are. The hit a hot patch for awhile and now seem to be spiraling a bit, saved by TY's heroics in a game like last night. The reality is probably a little somewhere in between. We've been great at home and pretty dreadful on the road. Come March neither of those are in play-- it's all neutral site stuff.

I'm not worried about March. OU is the kind of team that could get bounced early if we have an off shooting night or they could go VERY deep if TY goes into total Superman mode. The cool thing is that the latter is even possible. That makes me excited for March. I've accepted that there likely won't be much "building" on this particular season. It's a unique year for all. It's the year of TY and next year we likely go back to being a "normal" team. Hopefully over the next two seasons the guys we have coming in pan out and we can build sort of like we built towards to the Final Four team two years ago.

Remember, we are essentially rebuilding from that team. We wound up with this gem in the interim. This year to me is one unto itself. It's the year we see how far one man can carry a college basketball team. I'm cool with that. It's pretty fun.