******OKLAHOMA vs. UTEP GAME THREAD*****

[OUHoops]

Thanks for all your updates OUHOOPS!! Please keep it up in the second half

I will try if I can stay sober.

 

[seniorsooner]

Zep, I wouldn't say that Willie is "playing his heart out". Just because youre scoring doesn't mean you're playing hard.

 

[Guitardeth]

Who do we have for depth ? I am not trying to argue with anybody but this team needs another good post player to be competitive.

And as many said that is on capel, he does the recruiting.

 

[sooners78]

I will try if I can stay sober.

me too

 

[sooners78]

barnes may be the best coach in the country

 

[coolm]

I also hafta throw fault Capel's way on this.

If it means putting scrubs and intra-mural walkons in C&C we need some damn defense. Capel's job to get this across. He hasn't done it and the program suffers.

Now - that said I do suspect we'll find UTEP is an awfully salty team and the bludgeoning wont look so bad...but we're not getting the effort and hustle out there.

 

[NickZepp]

Zep, I wouldn't say that Willie is "playing his heart out". Just because youre scoring doesn't mean you're playing hard.

He's playing hard on D too but the rest of the team isn't. Does this team even practice defense?

 

[SoonerfanTU]

we have depth ... capel just doesnt use it, ever

I don't agree. Our 2nd and 3rd best bigs should be our 4th best, at best. Guys like Wright and Allen weren't counted on to get minutes over the last two decades, MOST seasons. Now they are the 2nd and 3rd options.

And Willis has been terrible guys. He really just doesn't get team, college basketball yet. He is athletic as heck, but that just doesn't cut it. Cade shouldn't be starting if we had depth.

While Capel has done well recruiting the top line talent, I think he's really dropped the ball on rounding out the roster.

 

[luckyc1423]

I will try if I can stay sober.

I think we will be fine...I am not saying we will come back and win but we will make a game of it....The problem I think it is is that our team doesnt know how to play well when WW is playing well....it seems like the rest of the team does not play well when willie is....we just have to figure that out and we will

 

[OU918]

Why does every mid major school we play have wayyy better shooters than us? Seems like they all have career days against us. Is it luck or bad defense?

 

[NashSooner57]

It is bad defense now which happens with a young team.

 

[seniorsooner]

When is the last time an Oklahoma basketball team was this bad defensively? The end of the Tubbs era?

 

[NickZepp]

I don't agree. Our 2nd and 3rd best bigs should be our 4th best, at best. Guys like Wright and Allen weren't counted on to get minutes over the last two decades, MOST seasons. Now they are the 2nd and 3rd options.

And Willis has been terrible guys. He really just doesn't get team, college basketball yet. He is athletic as heck, but that just doesn't cut it. Cade shouldn't be starting if we had depth.

While Capel has done well recruiting the top line talent, I think he's really dropped the ball on rounding out the roster.

I think Capel may be learning that recruiting athletes isn't all it is cut up to be because they don't know how to play ball. Even guys like Tiny who are really athletic, the problem is that he can't play the position we need him to play at the post at this point. He's better off redshirting and learning to be a post instead of actually trying it against teams like this.

 

[Guitardeth]

, I think he's really dropped the ball on rounding out the roster.

This, they have no chemistry and seem to be a bunch of me players instead of team players, you can look at utep and see the chem they have.


I havn't given up on this team yet, but the future isn't looking so bright. i"m just hoping it's youth and will get worked out sooner then later.

 

[NickZepp]

When is the last time an Oklahoma basketball team was this bad defensively? The end of the Tubbs era?

I think those teams may have been a bit better but they at least scored about 80 a game. The pace they played probably made their defensive numbers look worse.

 

[sooners78]

capel does a good job of recruiting, but his team's or this team is so fundamentally BAD on defense.

 

[seniorsooner]

I don't agree. Our 2nd and 3rd best bigs should be our 4th best, at best. Guys like Wright and Allen weren't counted on to get minutes over the last two decades, MOST seasons. Now they are the 2nd and 3rd options.

And Willis has been terrible guys. He really just doesn't get team, college basketball yet. He is athletic as heck, but that just doesn't cut it. Cade shouldn't be starting if we had depth.

While Capel has done well recruiting the top line talent, I think he's really dropped the ball on rounding out the roster.

There is a lot of truth in this post.

 

[ouboomer]

Well i am done ranting for the night, hopefully OU plays with a bit more effort and can get this down to single digits.

 

[SoonerfanTU]

I think Capel may be learning that recruiting athletes isn't all it is cut up to be because they don't know how to play ball. Even guys like Tiny who are really athletic, the problem is that he can't play the position we need him to play at the post at this point. He's better off redshirting and learning to be a post instead of actually trying it against teams like this.

Tiny would be fine if he wasn't suppose to be our 2nd best player this year. He really needs another post or two to take some of the pressure off of him. But instead of surrounding him with a good JUCO post, or even a guy like Jabahri Brown or Renzi Stone, we have Wright and Allen. Those guys should be playing the role of 4th big man that only plays after massive foul trouble, or in a blow out. Yet, one started early this year, and now he's the first big off the bench, and playing major minutes b/c Tiny is young and in foul trouble.

 

[OU918]

Here's my Captain Obvious statement of the year: We just plain are not a very good team this year. We all need to adjust our expectations and hope these young guys learn to play defense and improve as a cohesive unit. A 6-10 campaign is looking like a realistic possibility in the Big XII.