Projected Exhib. Game Lineup

[cowboysooner]

What do you guys think of the "projected starting lineup" for us in the exhibition game tomorrow (curtesy of Hale); Thompson, Fitz, Bird, Blair and Cade.

Haven't seen the new guys to really comment myself -- I'll wait until after I have seen everyone play to decide who I want to get minutes. But, this would be our most experianced lineup. Cade is in his 4th year, thompson and blair are in their 3d year from high school (blair did prep after HS), pledger and Fitz are in their second year. I sort of like the idea of not having to rely on freshmen, but they may be our most talented. I guess we will see tomorrow.

Bet we see a lot of mixing and matching with the kids. Looking forward to seeing what the new guys look like.

 

[thebigabd]

Starting Blair/Davis together (if it sticks throughout the season) will probably be the least talented 1/2 combo OU has had since I started watching in 1995.

Unless of course Blair turns out to be good and Davis proves he is a starter caliber player in the Big 12.

 

[scrybe]

Starting Blair/Davis together (if it sticks throughout the season) will probably be the least talented 1/2 combo OU has had since I started watching in 1995.

Kind of like the combination of you and gracefor24 on OUHoops? :ez-laugh:

 

[cowboysooner]

Big, I don't know anything about Blair, but apparently, I have a better opinion of Cade than you do. He was pretty good last year and should be a little better this year just due to experiance.

When you say "talent", you must be just referring to offensive skill. I think he is as good defensively as a wing as we have had going way back. He rebounds as well for a 2 as any I can remember. Offensively, he is solid, but I'm not sure how I would rank him compared to some of the other wings we have had.

I'm not remembering too many guys, but I would take him over Godbolt, Heskett, Newton, and Neal ((close call on this). At his best, Crocker is more talented, but for most of the games he played, he didn't perform any better than Davis played last year.

Just my opinion, and I could be wrong.

 

[scrybe]

Big, I don't know anything about Blair, but apparently, I have a better opinion of Cade than you do. He was pretty good last year and should be a little better this year just due to experiance.

When you say "talent", you must be just referring to offensive skill. I think he is as good defensively as a wing as we have had going way back. He rebounds as well for a 2 as any I can remember. Offensively, he is solid, but I'm not sure how I would rank him compared to some of the other wings we have had.

I'm not remembering too many guys, but I would take him over Godbolt, Heskett, Newton, and Neal ((close call on this). At his best, Crocker is more talented, but for most of the games he played, he didn't perform any better than Davis played last year.

Just my opinion, and I could be wrong.

I believe your opinion is spot on, cowboy sooner. Obviously, bigabd doesn't. But then again, has he ever had anything positive to say about OU basketball?

 

[thebigabd]

Well, if you look at the other Big 12 teams and who they are likely to start at the 1/2 im pretty sure most objective observers wouldnt have Carl/Blair in the top 10 combos.

But, you guys are right, I could be completely wrong. Cade might come out and light the nets on fire and be a 12-15 ppg guy, and Carl Blair might be the second coming of Quannis White, who knows.

We will find out pretty quick.

 

[boksooner]

PG: Carl Blair (6'2'' 205-Soph) - Transfer from the University of New Orleans. Started in 29 of 30 games with the Privateers last season, averaging 9.2 points and 4.4 rebounds per contest. He also led the team in assists with 112.

Quotes:

"Carl's basketball IQ and vision are terrific," UNO Coach Joe Pasternack said. "We're really excited to have him."

"Carl makes everybody around him better," Pasternack said.

SG: Cade Davis (6'5'' 200 - Senior) - Averaged 9.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.0 assist and a team-high 1.5 steals in 31.8 minutes per outing ... Played at least 36 minutes in each of last 10 games and in 14 of last 15 ... Shot .392 from the field, .347 from 3-point range and .778 from the free throw line.

Cade has gotten better every year. Cade, obviously, has to improve his FG%. If he does, he will easily score 12-15 ppg.

 

[NickZepp]

Starting Blair/Davis together (if it sticks throughout the season) will probably be the least talented 1/2 combo OU has had since I started watching in 1995.

Unless of course Blair turns out to be good and Davis proves he is a starter caliber player in the Big 12.

Can you even remember the name of the starting guards in 1999 with Eduardo and that group? It was Michael Johnson, and Spaulding/Martin. This group is more talented then those two, and much deeper.

 

[coolm]

Can you even remember the name of the starting guards in 1999 with Eduardo and that group? It was Michael Johnson, and Spaulding/Martin. This group is more talented then those two, and much deeper.

Nick I've been agreeing with you a lot lately but Michael Johnson wasn't without skills.

Of course I also don't think this current group is without skills of their own.

 

[hoopsaustin]

Starting Blair/Davis together (if it sticks throughout the season) will probably be the least talented 1/2 combo OU has had since I started watching in 1995.

Unless of course Blair turns out to be good and Davis proves he is a starter caliber player in the Big 12.

lol wow.. way to cover your bases... so your telling me they will either be good or be bad.... great analysis, dont quit your day job of praising the legend that is doc sadler and the like....

 

[OUHoops]

According to OU's pregame notes released by the university, the projected starters are Thompson, Fitzgerald, Pledger, Blair and Davis.

 

[thebigabd]

lol wow.. way to cover your bases... so your telling me they will either be good or be bad.... great analysis, dont quit your day job of praising the legend that is doc sadler and the like....

Well, its unknown... My gut is telling me they wont be very good in comparison to league foes, but its preseason and that could just as easily be wrong. I hope im wrong.

 

[NickZepp]

Nick I've been agreeing with you a lot lately but Michael Johnson wasn't without skills.

Of course I also don't think this current group is without skills of their own.

I didn't say he was that bad either. I'm just saying I would take our guards now over those earlier Sampson teams. It wasn't till he got Raymond around 2000 then Price after that when our guards were upgraded in talent. And I'm not going to diss guys like Brewer, Erdmann early on with Sampson and others but the depth is still a big difference. I'm not sure how good Blair is at this level. But Calvin Newell, Steven Pledger are pretty talented. And Cade is really underestimated by some.

 

[luckyc1423]

I didn't say he was that bad either. I'm just saying I would take our guards now over those earlier Sampson teams. It wasn't till he got Raymond around 2000 then Price after that when our guards were upgraded in talent. And I'm not going to diss guys like Brewer, Erdmann early on with Sampson and others but the depth is still a big difference. I'm not sure how good Blair is at this level. But Calvin Newell, Steven Pledger are pretty talented. And Cade is really underestimated by some.

Huh, just this past january you said otherwise!?
I dont think cade is that great....I think he is a role player and if we are depending on him to be our play creater we are in severe trouble....he is what he is and thats a side kick that hustles and plays hard

When Capel first got here we had some okay talent. Not any special talent but some good players that could play some decent roles. AJ and Taylor were good athletes. Nate Carter was our best player. Jeff didn't play him the first half of the season at all which is probably why we ended up missing post season play. But that team also played hard every game and was pretty solid defensively. If Capel has that team now they probably win more games and play every team pretty good. Maybe lose a couple games by double digits but nothing like 20 points like this team is regularly.

My point is that team had more talent than this team. This team is flat out slow. They can play okay in the half court sometimes but that's inconsistent. Crocker is probably our best role player but he's not a real leader. Cade is probably our fastest player and that says a lot for this team. I like Cade and he plays hard but if he's probably our best athlete that says a lot about how bad your team is. We need a roster revamp. I know Capel loves his guys and he recruited all these guys but there's only about 5 guys that are at the level we've had even under Sampson. And maybe they are athletic than some of those players we've had but they aren't any good at basketball at this level. The guys I think we should keep are Willie, Fitz, Gallon, Cade and maybe TMG although I'm not sure about him most of the time. We need to open up the rest of the roster spots for people that can actually play.

 

[NickZepp]

I'm not sure it's good if a guy like Cade is your best athlete its' a good for how athletic you are. But I don't think the is our best athlete this year. Even a guy like Tyler Neal seems pretty athletic and he's probably not going to play a lot this year. Last years freshmen group was vastly overrated.

 

[luckyc1423]

Yea thats very true....I still dont see cade as our best player.....we are in for a long year if he is
I just think he is great at being that scrapper that hustles and gets rebounds and points.....now hes developed into a 9-12 ppg guy which is great...but would be much better suited playing around talented guys

 

[NickZepp]

He's gonna have to be our leader. I'm not sure about our best player though. It depends on how good Clark, Pledger, and Fitzgerald have improved.

 

[boksooner]

He's gonna have to be our leader. I'm not sure about our best player though. It depends on how good Clark, Pledger, and Fitzgerald have improved.

I think you can throw Newel and TJ Taylor in that group. All of those guys are, arguably, more talented and more athletic than Cade. That doesn't mean Cade won't play a big role this year as a leader and defender.

 

[SoonerDan74012]

Can't wait for tomorrow night! I know it's just an exhibition game but I want to see what this new group is all about! Especially this Calvin Newell kid, he may just turn out to be the biggest steal out this recruiting class..

 

[OUGenius]

From what we've heard, you've got to believe that Newell has a better upside than Blair, but it sounds like Blair is a chemistry guy. Hopefully not a Chris Walker chemistry guy but a John Ontjes chemistry guy.

Cade is good but if he's our best player we are definitely in trouble. Hard to imagine he won't start, though, at least for the first 10+ games.

This is the preseason of conjecture; never before have we had so little on who we have playing.

All that said, I also agree with those who find BigABD to be a self righteous prig. Because it's clear he is.