Playing with a lead

[BoomSoon]

As awful as the Creighton loss was, it helped us tonight.

Once Cousins hit the 3 to open the second and put us up 22, the lead never dropped below 20. That's insane. You never see that in a game on the road between two good teams.

What a freaking win.

 

[BigTime]

Celebrate my friend. It was gorgeous!!!

 

[skyvue]

Once Cousins hit the 3 to open the second and put us up 22, the lead never dropped below 20. That's insane. You never see that in a game on the road between two good teams.

And yet, when texas hit a three with approximately 4:30 remaining in the game, Fran all but shouted into his mic, "Here they come!"

 

[SoonerJK12]

The defense was just incredible. They never let up. So fun to watch.

 

[SilliSooner]

And yet, when texas hit a three with approximately 4:30 remaining in the game, Fran all but shouted into his mic, "Here they come!"

He was trying to keep most of the TVs South of the Red on.

 

[MercedeSooner]

if you noticed we attacked when we had opportunities down the stretch and didn't just sit on the ball which was markedly different then earlier this year. Definitely learned our lesson, in this day and age with the 3 ball being that prevalent you need to keep pushing until the game is over.

 

[DenverSooner]

And yet, when texas hit a three with approximately 4:30 remaining in the game, Fran all but shouted into his mic, "Here they come!"

That is his job. I guaranty he wanted OU to win. His son is on the team.

 

[skyvue]

That is his job. I guaranty he wanted OU to win. His son is on the team.

Denver, do you think I don't know his son is on the team?

His job is not to insult the intelligence of his audience, which is what he did with the absurd call cited above. His job is to call the game as it plays out, not spend the entire second half trying to convince us he's impartial. Honestly, no one cares that his son sees 15 minutes of action per season for us.

I also understand that he was, in part, trying to keep the viewers interested. But honestly, when one of the basketball elite -- Duke, KU, UK, those kind of teams -- are dominating a team like we did tonight, the announcers don't spend the whole game citing a comeback win from two years ago. They just rave about that program -- its amazing coach, its uber-talented players and on and on. But when we're kicking longhorn butt on national TV, Fran spends the second half downplaying it. That's BS.

If Fran, who I usually like very much, can't play it straight when calling an OU game, then he shouldn't be assigned them until James has graduated.

 

[DenverSooner]

I am not trying to insult you. I just think you are making too big of an issue over this. He just doesn't want to seem biased. Perhaps he went too far but it is not a big deal in my option.

 

[playmakr]

I actually agree with Skyvue.

It was a bit ridiculous when after Texas goes on a 5-0 run (gasp!) down 25 with like 4 minutes left he is claiming OU is "falling apart." He literally said OU is falling apart after a 5-0 run.

But, I do like Fraschilla normally. When he does OU games, I think he tries too hard to not appear a homer, taking it a little far at times. It became a problem tonight.

 

[MsProudSooner]

Fran is between a rock and a hard place when he calls OU games. If he praises us too much he'll stand accused of rooting for his son's team. Give him a break.

Did Fran make the comment about the 'Wine and Cheese' crowd waking up? I thought that was classic!

 

[skyvue]

Fran is between a rock and a hard place when he calls OU games. If he praises us too much he'll stand accused of rooting for his son's team. Give him a break.

Did Fran make the comment about the 'Wine and Cheese' crowd waking up? I thought that was classic!

But here's the thing: Have you ever heard one person -- an opposing fan, a member of the media, anyone -- accuse him of being biased in favor of OU? I never have. If his son averaged even five minutes a game, it might be different, but last season, he averaged 1.8 minutes per game and every single one of his minutes was in mop-up time. This season, he's down to 1.4 minutes.

When a team leads a top ten opponent by more than 20 points for the entire second half of a game, I think it's safe for him to relax and just call it like it is, rather than pretending the whole time that texas is on the verge of storming back to win the game. As I said to FF in a tweet, maybe, just maybe, he could have waited till the lead dropped under 20, perhaps even 15 points before he began to suggest (over and over and over) that OU was at risk of blowing their lead.

There is a huge middle ground that he seems unable to find, and given that, he really shouldn't be covering our games. Again, he's one of my favorite announcers, so I don't default toward criticizing him -- quite the opposite -- but last night's call truly did insult the intelligence of his audience.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

Denver, do you think I don't know his son is on the team?

His job is not to insult the intelligence of his audience, which is what he did with the absurd call cited above. His job is to call the game as it plays out, not spend the entire second half trying to convince us he's impartial. Honestly, no one cares that his son sees 15 minutes of action per season for us.

I also understand that he was, in part, trying to keep the viewers interested. But honestly, when one of the basketball elite -- Duke, KU, UK, those kind of teams -- are dominating a team like we did tonight, the announcers don't spend the whole game citing a comeback win from two years ago. They just rave about that program -- its amazing coach, its uber-talented players and on and on. But when we're kicking longhorn butt on national TV, Fran spends the second half downplaying it. That's BS.

If Fran, who I usually like very much, can't play it straight when calling an OU game, then he shouldn't be assigned them until James has graduated.

i give him a pass bc he saw that comeback firsthand two years ago and it was a historic one. coming back from 20+ points with under 8 minutes is a historic comeback.

That said, it did get tiresome and I enjoyed Brent basically telling fran that texas isn't coming back and it was total domination.

 

[MI Sooner]

His job is to make money for ESPN, not to satisfy the ombudsmen of ouhoops.com.

 

[SoonerinNC]

I like Fran. His job is to keep the fans interested. The only thing he had last night was that we blew a 20 plus lead two years ago. And even I expected Texas to make more of a game of it and come on strong at the end.

What Fran could have made a bigger case is that we had no one who could get the ball to halfcourt under pressure two years ago but we now have 5 guys on the court who can handle the ball under pressure. If we don't get careless we should not have problems with pressure this season.

 

[steverocks35]

"Having a 20 point lead is HARD" might be the dumbest thing I've ever heard an announcer say.

 

[DenverSooner]

As awful as the Creighton loss was, it helped us tonight.

Once Cousins hit the 3 to open the second and put us up 22, the lead never dropped below 20. That's insane. You never see that in a game on the road between two good teams.

What a freaking win.

It would have been better if OU blew the lead but still won the game.

 

[sperry]

Denver, do you think I don't know his son is on the team?

His job is not to insult the intelligence of his audience, which is what he did with the absurd call cited above. His job is to call the game as it plays out, not spend the entire second half trying to convince us he's impartial. Honestly, no one cares that his son sees 15 minutes of action per season for us.

I also understand that he was, in part, trying to keep the viewers interested. But honestly, when one of the basketball elite -- Duke, KU, UK, those kind of teams -- are dominating a team like we did tonight, the announcers don't spend the whole game citing a comeback win from two years ago. They just rave about that program -- its amazing coach, its uber-talented players and on and on. But when we're kicking longhorn butt on national TV, Fran spends the second half downplaying it. That's BS.

If Fran, who I usually like very much, can't play it straight when calling an OU game, then he shouldn't be assigned them until James has graduated.

No, his job is to keep viewers tuned in. Not to say, "this game is history, switch it to the food network."

 

[OU84]

Fran is between a rock and a hard place when he calls OU games. If he praises us too much he'll stand accused of rooting for his son's team. Give him a break.

Did Fran make the comment about the 'Wine and Cheese' crowd waking up? I thought that was classic!

and he did do the downward horn sign on national t.v. :woot

 

[SoonerNorm]

Fran is between a rock and a hard place when he calls OU games. If he praises us too much he'll stand accused of rooting for his son's team. Give him a break.

Did Fran make the comment about the 'Wine and Cheese' crowd waking up? I thought that was classic!

+1. I like Fran.