Oklahoma-Arkansas

[gohogs14]

Hey sooner fans...looking foward to our game saturday. We hung in there for the most part agaisnt Connecticut, but they were obviously too much for us to handle. What does you team look like this year? We lost our best player for the season in marshawn powell, and we are a very young team...i expect some growing pains this year but we should be pretty good next year

freshman PG BJ young had a career high 28 points against uconn and freshman C Devonta Abron had 16 rebounds...so we are excited about their futures. We are very thin in the frontcourt now and only play 4 players. Our guards are pretty good though and im glad 40 minutes of hell is back!

If powell had stayed healthy and rotnei clarke had stayed i think we'd have a chance at the tourney...but how does kruger have OU looking this year?

 

[thebigabd]

Well, OU just lost their top pure scorer in Calvin Newell to transfer. In the one game this year he did not play well, OU got run by a very good Saint Louis team. It's really hard to tell what impact his departure will have, but we will know more after the ORU game.

OU is a very small team. The two primary post players are about 6'7'' at best.

I would say guard play is the strength of the team. Sam Grooms (juco transfer PG) is very solid, and Steven Pledger (junior shooting guard) is playing as good as any shooting guard in the Big 12 right now. He is scoring about 18 per game with very efficient numbers.

 

[Sawyer]

OU has a point guard who can handle the pressure and a post guy who can score. That is typically enough to beat a Mike Anderson team (easier said than done).

Arkansas will lose this game.

 

[gohogs14]

Well, OU just lost their top pure scorer in Calvin Newell to transfer. In the one game this year he did not play well, OU got run by a very good Saint Louis team. It's really hard to tell what impact his departure will have, but we will know more after the ORU game.

OU is a very small team. The two primary post players are about 6'7'' at best.

I would say guard play is the strength of the team. Sam Grooms (juco transfer PG) is very solid, and Steven Pledger (junior shooting guard) is playing as good as any shooting guard in the Big 12 right now. He is scoring about 18 per game with very efficient numbers.

We're pretty small too. We were terrible at rebounding but somehow outrebounded Uconn by 12 when they had the #1 rebounding margin in the country :ez-laugh:

Im glad we dont have to worry about blake griffin anymore

 

[DenverSooner]

OU has four effective scorers in Fitzgerald (honorable mention all-Big XII last season as a sophomore), Osby, Clark and Pledger. Osby is pretty good and makes things look easy. Clark is a sophomore that is going to be a really good player before he leaves Norman. The pg, Sam Grooms, will contribute a little but he is not a big scorer or at least hasn't been to this point in the season. Personally (and many OU fans disagree) I think OU has a solid backup pg in Carl Blair. The kid started a season at New Orleans and last year for OU. He probably isn't a Big XII or SEC caliber starter but he is a guy that can rest the starter and not really hurt his team. He also has a respectable 3 point shot. With Newell gone I expect him to see some time at sg because OU only has three scholarship guards.

The biggest weakness for OU is that they don't have a proven scorer off the bench now that Calvin Newell left the team. They have a sophomore named Neal that is going to need to step up. He has had his moments (both good and bad) but has not proven himself yet. OU has some bodies to throw in the paint but none of them can really be counted on for much more than adequate defense and adequate rebounding. With no disrespect intended to the players, they probably are not as good as one would expect OU's bench players to be. (With that said, they do all appear to be good kids that stay out of trouble and work hard in practice.)

It sounds like OU and Arkansas are quite similar with both teams looking towards next year as the point where they really turn the corner and get things back to where they belong. I went to OU in the late 80s and early 90s. I look forward to a time when OU and Arkansas are fielding great teams again like they did back then. I don't really care for Arkansas to much as a football school but I always appreciated the basketball team when I was younger.

Personally, I think OU will and should win because the game is in Norman. I might say Arkansas will and should win if it were in Fayetteville. Hopefully it will be a good game and OU will win (although you probably don't hope for that last part).

 

[SuperHoops]

OU has a point guard who can handle the pressure and a post guy who can score. That is typically enough to beat a Mike Anderson team (easier said than done).

Arkansas will lose this game.

It will be interesting to see how Pledger, Clark and Osby handle the ball pressure. They like to push the ball on offense but will have to make good decisions and not get caught up in the frenetic pace.

 

[Sawyer]

It will be interesting to see how Pledger, Clark and Osby handle the ball pressure. They like to push the ball on offense but will have to make good decisions and not get caught up in the frenetic pace.

Neither Clark nor Pledger did all that poorly last year against Mizzou. Both had two turnovers, which isn't great, and Pledger didn't shoot well. Clark actually had a pretty good game.

Arkansas isn't generating turnovers at quite the pace Missouri did in most years under Anderson (I believe they rank 19th in the nation in steals right now; only one Missouri team under Anderson ranked outside the top 5).

 

[Stringmusic]

Living here in Arkansas I have seen a good bit of the Razorback play and, of course, follow OU on this site. The teams are very evenly matched and I would agree with Denver that home court gives OU about a 3 pt edge. This should be a good game.

 

[campbest]

Neither Clark nor Pledger did all that poorly last year against Mizzou. Both had two turnovers, which isn't great, and Pledger didn't shoot well. Clark actually had a pretty good game.

Arkansas isn't generating turnovers at quite the pace Missouri did in most years under Anderson (I believe they rank 19th in the nation in steals right now; only one Missouri team under Anderson ranked outside the top 5).

Pressey and Dixon are one of four backcourt tandems that have steal percentages over 4%, which is very impressive. Obviously the chances of them finishing above 4% goes down as the schedule gets tougher, but still noteworthy.

 

[BoulderSooner]

still can't believe the clark transfered from ARK ... didn't and doesn't make sense he would be perfect in anderson's system and would average close to 20 a game