OSU beats UCO 89-80

[Cheno]

You have determined that from a meaningless preseason game?

Yes, I've based my opinion 100% on this past game. Jeez.
And I wasn't being in the least bit facetious.

In the game which preceeded that, Syracuse struggled all game long against a solid but unspectacular Memphis team.

Point? Memphis is comparable to UCO? Are you serious? Memphis made the NCAA tourney and had multiple guys on the team who play/played in the NBA.
And to compare OSU to a loaded but young Syracuse team is ridiculous. That was Carmello's first game. McNamara's first game. Hakeem Warrick and Craig Forth were young soph's. OSU is experienced...just not very good.

And again, you are comparing UCO to an NCAA tourney team with multiple guys that played in the NBA. Come 'on.

Now that Moses has improved,

And you are basing this off what? His 2 point effort vs UCO?
How do you know he has improved?

They have one of the best pure shooters in America with James Anderson, and I would be shocked if they're not Dancing in March.

And no PG and no big man. Makes it pretty hard on shooters.
They will miss Eaton a ton. They will miss Terrell Harris as well.
I'll be surprised if they make the tourney. Very surprised.

 

[OUHoosier]

I keep going back to them losing their best perimeter defender too. Paige and Penn will really cause so problems for them defensively, especially against teams like OU and UT with taller, scoring guards. They can't really risk Anderson guarding WW, Avery, etc can they?

I'm guessing they'll press a lot, but OU, UT, KU, ATM, Baylor and KSU all have bigger, more experienced/talented guards that can match or exceed OSU's tempo and pressure.

 

[WaymanFan]

Point? Memphis is comparable to UCO? Are you serious? Memphis made the NCAA tourney and had multiple guys on the team who play/played in the NBA.
And to compare OSU to a loaded but young Syracuse team is ridiculous. That was Carmello's first game. McNamara's first game. Hakeem Warrick and Craig Forth were young soph's. OSU is experienced...just not very good.

And again, you are comparing UCO to an NCAA tourney team with multiple guys that played in the NBA. Come 'on.

You obviously missed my point which is: IT'S EARLY NOVEMBER and whether one's team will be good or not literally has nothing to do with any preseason or early season contest.

I doubt they'll miss Harris that much. Eaton is their only significant loss, but if their incoming recruits play well, they'll be ready for Big XII action. I hope they don't make the Dance, but would be genuinely surprised if they didn't. If they had actually lost that preseason game, my opinion wouldn't change.

 

[Cheno]

I keep going back to them losing their best perimeter defender too. Paige and Penn will really cause so problems for them defensively, especially against teams like OU and UT with taller, scoring guards. They can't really risk Anderson guarding WW, Avery, etc can they?

I'm guessing they'll press a lot, but OU, UT, KU, ATM, Baylor and KSU all have bigger, more experienced/talented guards that can match or exceed OSU's tempo and pressure.

Exactly. You need great PG play and pressure defense to make that system go. They ain't got it. They will miss Eaton immensley.

 

[earlpearl]

There is talent at the PG positon. They have the ability to be pretty solid by years end. Right the the frosh are lost and look to have trouble remembering which sets are which. By the way Pilgrim is a man.

If we can get solid pg play OSU will be better this year than last.

 

[Seymore Cox]

There is talent at the PG positon. They have the ability to be pretty solid by years end. Right the the frosh are lost and look to have trouble remembering which sets are which. By the way Pilgrim is a man.

If we can get solid pg play OSU will be better this year than last.

There's the difference between OSU and OU. TMG is a guy that will be able to run a team better off the bat than those guys. If you look at Penn and Page, they are both guys that came up in systems with Offenses geared around them from AAU to High School. TMG knows how to run a team with talented players which gives him an advantage.

 

[bgrch1350]

I really believe OSU was better off with Sean Sutton as their coach. Fords system is better suited for a mid-major team. I think they could have been so much better last year with Sean plus Thomas and Adams.

Watching Ford talk about how he wants Page at the 2 and Obi at the 4...I hope OSU fans enjoy the NIT.

 

[elmocarp]

UCO had quite a few layups off of turnovers. Plus, OSU is still a perimeter oriented team. They are going to get outscored in the paint quite a bit this year. I guess I don't see how that is a very telling stat? I looked at OU's game, and they outscored their opponent by 6 in the paint...

OSU out rebounded them by 22, which I think is a more apropos stat as far as post players...which I think you might be alluding too?

Of course UCO plays 5 guards, so they had better out rebound them by a lot.

Ford's hyperbolic as hell, but I heard on the post game show that he said, how disappointed he was in the effort. And it was one of the only times in his career that he felt the other team played harder.

I'm honestly not coming after OSU...like I said, we tend to read too much into games like this. I just think that 27 turnovers, getting outscored in the paint and giving up 31 points off of turnovers seem like really big numbers to give up to anyone, let alone a team that isn't D1. If OU had a game like that, I would be saying the same thing...those are big, ugly numbers that don't get explained away too easily.

Also, I'm having a little trouble with how you defended the points in the paint. So they weren't points given up on post ups or dribble drives, they were uncontested layups following turnovers...and that's better? I think its ok to acknowledge that the game gave you a glimpse of what some of the team's weaknesses are without feeling like you're giving up on the season or being disloyal...I promise you those numbers jumped out to Ford and the OSU coaches...

I've picked OSU to finish in the upper half of the league and go to the tournament, I'm not hating on OSU...

 

[Seymore Cox]

I actually picked OSU ahead of OU because of their scoring potential. I'm totally backed off of that now.

 

[CarlWeathers]

UCO finished on a 7-0 run while Ford played gulley and penn for the last 4 minutes despite tow or three to's in a row. The score should have ended up about 91-75.

Penn had a good line but showed a lot of nerves. Same with gulley except he has no idea how to break the press, still a very good defender which will get him pt. Franklin looked like he could give a very solid 10-15 min a game. Pilgrim had a double double after only having played 13 minutes and finished with an impressive stat line. Moses still needs to work on his offense coming off his broken wrist. Keiton looked a lot more confident and bulked up.

James Anderson is going to have on very fantastic year as well as obi.

This team could struggle mightly though if the pg's continue to. I don't think we will have any early games where we are bown away but I think we might end up shooting our selves in the foot against a la salle type team.

 

[thebigabd]

27 turnovers? yikes.....

 

[OKhoops]

I really believe OSU was better off with Sean Sutton as their coach.

LOL, if I were an OU fan I would probably say the same thing.

 

[Cheno]

There is talent at the PG positon. They have the ability to be pretty solid by years end.

Not in the Big 12 they don't. This isn't D2 ball Earl. They will be exposed by very good PG play in the Big 12.

 

[OUHoosier]

Given the love/hate relationship osu fans had with Eaton I expected them to not think losing him would be as big as it really is. He gave teams fits with his ability to penetrate and flop, I mean, get fouled going to the hole. He set Paige and Anderson up so many times and made them better. I don't see Penn or Gulley making anyone better this year.

When you lose an all-conference caliber point guard and your best defender your in trouble. I think OSU is going to have to help more on defense for Paige and Penn because they don't have a lock-down perimeter defender like they had the last 3-4 years. Ford came in and had 3 experienced guards to run his guard oriented offense and this year he has a really worry at the point both offensively and defensively.

 

[Sooner79]

Hmmm. When conference play comes around, OSU will be the same "pain in the ass" they always are. Count on it.

 

[Seymore Cox]

UCO finished on a 7-0 run while Ford played gulley and penn for the last 4 minutes despite tow or three to's in a row. The score should have ended up about 91-75.

Penn had a good line but showed a lot of nerves. Same with gulley except he has no idea how to break the press, still a very good defender which will get him pt. Franklin looked like he could give a very solid 10-15 min a game. Pilgrim had a double double after only having played 13 minutes and finished with an impressive stat line. Moses still needs to work on his offense coming off his broken wrist. Keiton looked a lot more confident and bulked up.

James Anderson is going to have on very fantastic year as well as obi.

This team could struggle mightly though if the pg's continue to. I don't think we will have any early games where we are bown away but I think we might end up shooting our selves in the foot against a la salle type team.

That's bad news for you guys. Because at this point in basketball development it's not about having an "idea" how to break a press, it's about being able to singlehandledly break a press. Page can't single handedly do it and now you're saying Gulley cant. That means you have to use a team concept of breaking the press, which mean a no no to the "uptempo" playing style that OSU wants to employ.

 

[Seymore Cox]

The worst stat of the whole game is a 5/9 assist turnover ratio between your three PGs. That's horrible. The only positive thing that you can take from this game is that your 6'9 three year transfer dominated a D2 team and your guys who generally score 20plus a game did the status quo.

 

[One More Rebound]

27 turnovers? yikes.....

Did I read correctly that Gulley had 9 turnovers?

 

[HoHum]

I'm honestly not coming after OSU...like I said, we tend to read too much into games like this. I just think that 27 turnovers, getting outscored in the paint and giving up 31 points off of turnovers seem like really big numbers to give up to anyone, let alone a team that isn't D1. If OU had a game like that, I would be saying the same thing...those are big, ugly numbers that don't get explained away too easily.

Also, I'm having a little trouble with how you defended the points in the paint. So they weren't points given up on post ups or dribble drives, they were uncontested layups following turnovers...and that's better? I think its ok to acknowledge that the game gave you a glimpse of what some of the team's weaknesses are without feeling like you're giving up on the season or being disloyal...I promise you those numbers jumped out to Ford and the OSU coaches...

I've picked OSU to finish in the upper half of the league and go to the tournament, I'm not hating on OSU...

I'm not trying to defend it, it was a horrible performance. I was trying to figure out why you were making the points in the paint...point and figured it had something to do with post defense. Which it really didn't, it was a lot of breakway layups. Not saying that's any better, by no means.

I just don't get what the points in the paint stat MEANS as far as the game goes. As I said, OU only outscored their opponent by 6 in the paint and destroyed their opponent by 30 or whatever it was. I don't see any correlation between points in the paint comparisons and the final scores.

I even said in an earlier post, if the PG play never improves from this point it will be an ugly season. This was a disappointing start to the season,but at least they didn't pull a Syracuse.

 

[BoulderSooner]

I really believe OSU was better off with Sean Sutton as their coach. Fords system is better suited for a mid-major team. I think they could have been so much better last year with Sean plus Thomas and Adams.

Watching Ford talk about how he wants Page at the 2 and Obi at the 4...I hope OSU fans enjoy the NIT.

and you would be wrong .. sutton was not a very good coach ..

i think OSU is a borderline tourney team by years end .. Ford is a very good coach ... as he showed last season ..

and they have some very good players .. that said they lose all 4 to OU and texas