Raise your hand if you had OU starting 9-1.....

[Sawyer]

Honestly, I probably would've predicted it. Your schedule set up well for Kruger to hit the ground running at OU.

You had four possibly difficult games in your first ten (three in the 76 classic and Arkansas at home; in hindsight Houston isn't bad, but they won 12 games last year). But none of those were really THAT difficult. Washington State without Klay Thompson, a few decent mid-majors (but not NCAA tournament-level mid-majors) and an Arkansas team that I didn't expect to be good (and I would have predicted as a loss for non-basketball reasons anyway). Your most difficult game of the season — your lone loss — came against a mid-major that won 12 games last year.

 

[DenverSooner]

EDIT: If you would have told me 10 years ago that our football team would be #3 and an eyelash away from playing for the national title and our basketball team would be in the basement of the Big 12, there's no way I would have believed you. Good grief.

What amazes me about the swings in football is that Nebraska, OU, Michigan, Notre Dame, FSU, Miami and Texas have all had losing seasons in the last 15 years. I would have said that was not possible when I was in undergrad in the late 80s.

 

[NickZepp]

Honestly I didn't think we would go much worse because our schedule was weak. But I've been more impressed by the way we've played in our first 10 games.

 

[Big Old Booger]

I certainly didn't have us at 9-1 but I was afraid to look past the next game because of the past 2 seasons. Now that I'm starting to feel confident about what we have and how Kruger is coaching them, I think we win the next 2 non-con games, lose to Mizzou and reel off 4 straight to start the conference season with wins over KU, @osu, KSU, and Tech. In 6 games we will be 14-2 and flying high with lots of confidence.

 

[BigTime]

Honestly, I probably would've predicted it. Your schedule set up well for Kruger to hit the ground running at OU.

You had four possibly difficult games in your first ten (three in the 76 classic and Arkansas at home; in hindsight Houston isn't bad, but they won 12 games last year). But none of those were really THAT difficult. Washington State without Klay Thompson, a few decent mid-majors (but not NCAA tournament-level mid-majors) and an Arkansas team that I didn't expect to be good (and I would have predicted as a loss for non-basketball reasons anyway). Your most difficult game of the season — your lone loss — came against a mid-major that won 12 games last year.

What are you going to say when we beat you in Columbia?

 

[MNsooner]

Honestly, I probably would've predicted it. Your schedule set up well for Kruger to hit the ground running at OU.

You had four possibly difficult games in your first ten (three in the 76 classic and Arkansas at home; in hindsight Houston isn't bad, but they won 12 games last year). But none of those were really THAT difficult. Washington State without Klay Thompson, a few decent mid-majors (but not NCAA tournament-level mid-majors) and an Arkansas team that I didn't expect to be good (and I would have predicted as a loss for non-basketball reasons anyway). Your most difficult game of the season — your lone loss — came against a mid-major that won 12 games last year.

We lost to an NAIA team. We lost 9 of our last 11. Cade Davis, our only consistent scorer by the end of conference play was leaving. We were bringing in a new coach with a new system to learn. Only the most optimistic fans thought we would be 9-1. Many of us were just hoping to be over .500. We were predicted to be a bottom feeder in the conference. No offense, but you and almost anyone who claims they could have predicted our start is thinking with hindsight.

 

[oSuJeff97]

Haha... So true.

What are your thoughts about Ford at this point?

On the positive side, each of his teams have generally gotten better as the year has progressed, and they always play really hard. I never get the feeling the teams "give up" like they did several times under Sean.

However, the bottom line in this business is results, and that generally starts with recruiting. I posted this in another thread -- there can be no question that Ford's first recruiting class in 2009 was a total disaster. There's only one guy left from that class (Reger Dowell), when they should be forming the core of our team this year.

If there were 3-4 starters from that class right now, our large stable of freshmen and sophomores wouldn't have be be starters right now.

So that's probably not a good sign overall. However, the optimist in me will say that his second class looks much better. All of the guys in that class look they they are going to be good contributors and Big 12 players (Olukemi, Cobbins, B. Williams, Markel Brown). Again, if D. Williams, who looked like a VERY good player, hadn't gotten in trouble, that second class would be looking really good.

And I think last year's class also looks OK with Nash, Guerro and Jurick.

So really it's about getting past the fact that his first recruiting class turned out to be horrible. If those next two classes continue to progress, I think we could be decent next year... so we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[stoops4pres]

On the positive side, each of his teams have generally gotten better as the year has progressed, and they always play really hard. I never get the feeling the teams "give up" like they did several times under Sean.

However, the bottom line in this business is results, and that generally starts with recruiting. I posted this in another thread -- there can be no question that Ford's first recruiting class in 2009 was a total disaster. There's only one guy left from that class (Reger Dowell), when they should be forming the core of our team this year.

If there were 3-4 starters from that class right now, our large stable of freshmen and sophomores wouldn't have be be starters right now.

So that's probably not a good sign overall. However, the optimist in me will say that his second class looks much better. All of the guys in that class look they they are going to be good contributors and Big 12 players (Olukemi, Cobbins, B. Williams, Markel Brown). Again, if D. Williams, who looked like a VERY good player, hadn't gotten in trouble, that second class would be looking really good.

And I think last year's class also looks OK with Nash, Guerro and Jurick.

So really it's about getting past the fact that his first recruiting class turned out to be horrible. If those next two classes continue to progress, I think we could be decent next year... so we'll just have to wait and see.

Yeah I recall you saying the same stuff on another thread, and I agree... That class has really hurt the program right now.

 

[oSuJeff97]

Yeah I recall you saying the same stuff on another thread, and I agree... That class has really hurt the program right now.

I think the thing that's hurt the most is that he hasn't been able to really develop a good point guard since Eaton left.

We all remember that Eaton was inconsistent to bad when he was a freshman and sophomore... but the key was that he continued to get minutes, play and learn the position. So by the time he was a junior and senior, he was a pretty darn good Big 12 point guard.

Since then, Ford hasn't given enough time for any of the young point guards he's recruited to develop. It's been a mix-and-match of Penn, Gulley, Dowell and now Guerrero.

The problem is that none of them (so far) have been given enough playing time to gain the experience needed to be a good Big 12 point guard.

You have to think that had Ray Penn stuck around, he would be the guy at this point...

So I don't know if you pin that problem on Ford or just those guys for being impatient and wanting to transfer at the first sign of adversity. Probably a bit of both.

 

[Mr.B!!!]

I'm not a guy that hates a coach at oSu just "because" and I think that Ford does a bunch of things right...but his recruiting and retention speaks volumes, there is something there that doesn't pass the smell test. Capel had some of the same problems.