Roster Thoughts

[pnkranger]

Watched some videos this week of the new guys (including Nwankwo and Jones) and had a few thoughts:

• Range and space - We've got a lot of guys who are dangerous out to NBA range. Brown, Pack, Jones, and Nwankwo all show the ability to space the floor with shots beyond the arc.
• Improvement on the Wing - Reid, Jones, Nwankwo, Davis, Blair, Atak -- lots of interchangeable athletic pieces in a position-group last year that included Moore, Glenn Taylor, Goodine, and Cole
• Scoring Punch - Last year, we had a 1-2 punch of Fears and Moore (who was not a great creator). Pack and Brown are proven, Davis averaged 15 ppg last year, Nwankwo has offensive tools, Reid has a high ceiling offensively. I also think Forsythe will get some more run this year, and he could generate points in a hurry. Just a lot more options.
• Length - Rogers, Reid, Davis, Jones, Nwankwo, Holst, Atak, and Blair all have great length (and overall better athleticism) than what we had available last year. So while we didn't add another 5, we should be able to hold our own more often in terms of rebounding.
• Defense? - Can we consistently play Pack and Brown (or Forsythe) together defensively in the SEC? Can we contain the dribble with smaller guards?
• Rebounding? - Do we have the strength / depth to consistently rebound?
• BLOB / SLOB? - Can Justin Scott improve our efficiency on out of bounds plays. I would guess we were in the bottom of most major conferences in that perspective.
• Post-Injuries? - We've got a handful of guys coming off of injuries (Reid, Nwankwo, Jones, Pack) -- can they fully recover?

Bottom line: highest ceiling roster of Moser's OU tenure with a solid floor but lots of questions.

 

[BulldogSooner]

What are we thinking win total wise? Feels to me like we should be in that 22-23 win range

 

[Maverick008]

What are we thinking win total wise? Feels to me like we should be in that 22-23 win range

Obviously, that depends on the non-con schedule, but the SEC should not necessarily be weaker but maybe not as top heavy as it was last year. Still some time for teams to finalize their rosters but some have gotten stronger while others have re-loaded. We won't know if any of it worked roster wise (OU included) to make teams better or at least be as good as they were last year.

If this roster played last year's schedule, I think the majority would count it as a failure if they didn't have 22-23+ wins given last year's team could/should have done that and on paper this is a better group.

 

[Boom Soon]

What are we thinking win total wise? Feels to me like we should be in that 22-23 win range

The SEC is gonna be tough and I think this may be the year Moser wises up on the non con schedule. I’m gonna say 20 wins again. But I think a better conference record.

 

[colston15]

I want us to be the higher seeded team in our first round NCAA game.

Anything short of that — barring injuries — would be underwhelming with this roster.

We also should be MUCH better in close games, which should help us achieve the above goal.

 

[hoopsaustin]

I want us to be the higher seeded team in our first round NCAA game.

Anything short of that — barring injuries — would be underwhelming with this roster.

We also should be MUCH better in close games, which should help us achieve the above goal.

1-4 seed should be the goal this year imo.
5-6 seed may be fair but sort of meh.
7-16 is not really a good year imo (unless the conference is just historically good again and we didnt have many games where we just collapsed and gave away wins like last year) and should likely keep pm on the hot seat and/or we work out a deal for him to move on imo

 

[pnkranger]

1-4 seed should be the goal this year imo.
5-6 seed may be fair but sort of meh.
7-16 is not really a good year imo (unless the conference is just historically good again and we didnt have many games where we just collapsed and gave away wins like last year) and should likely keep pm on the hot seat and/or we work out a deal for him to move on imo

My take is:

1-3 IMPRESSIVE year
4-7 Fair goal based on roster and SEC coming back to earth
8-9 Screw these seeds
10+ Terrible unless we make it to the second weekend...

 

[StoopsBros]

A visual look.



Credit HERE

 

[hoopsaustin]

A visual look.

View attachment 2765

Credit HERE

Is Hansen a 2 or 1?

Would still like a flier taken on another 5 to wrap everything up. I put no stock in holst playing this year.

 

[daqman]

I want us to be the higher seeded team in our first round NCAA game.

Anything short of that — barring injuries — would be underwhelming with this roster.

We also should be MUCH better in close games, which should help us achieve the above goal.

we were close in 3-4 games last season.
get those and surely that would have put us in the 5-6 seed range.
this roster looks a little better on paper.
pm has to start defending home court...even against better teams

 

[cmdsooner]

I’m generally pretty conservative on predictions but I like OU’s chances to finish top 5 in the league. Some things will have to go well for that to happen (health, but also the meshing of three players that are all quality scorers in Brown, Pack, & Davis, plus one more in Reid that expects to be — enough basketball for everyone?) but I’m optimistic.

I think Reid, Jones, and Nwankwo could provide some real juice on the defensive end with their length. Brown & Pack have been 30+ minute guys their entire careers though, which means they’ll probably share the floor for at least 20 minutes a night. Their offense likely offsets any defensive deficiencies from those two but still something to think about. I do like our length 3-5 in a way that I haven’t before under Moser, which should give some more opportunities to be versatile in our defensive calls. To me you can’t usually play zone well at this level without length at those 3-4 spots and I think we’ve got that this season. Still going to be in man the vast majority of the time (and should be) but it gives you a chance to change things up or do my favorite thing, which is go zone for a couple possessions out of a timeout to screw up whatever ATO the opposing coach just called.

Offensively they’ll have the ability to score. They’ve got players that are effective as pick & roll handlers. They’ve got shooting (spacing). They’ve got rim/lob finishers in Reid, Davis, Rogers. Would love to see Wague take a step as a finisher around the rim (people forget he had an injury that kept him out for the majority of last offseason).

To me if they stay healthy, buy in, and play with energy & effort, there’s no way they wouldn’t finish in the top half of the league, and with some things falling their way maybe even top quarter.

 

[cbertus6]

I’m generally pretty conservative on predictions but I like OU’s chances to finish top 5 in the league. Some things will have to go well for that to happen (health, but also the meshing of three players that are all quality scorers in Brown, Pack, & Davis, plus one more in Reid that expects to be — enough basketball for everyone?) but I’m optimistic.

I think Reid, Jones, and Nwankwo could provide some real juice on the defensive end with their length. Brown & Pack have been 30+ minute guys their entire careers though, which means they’ll probably share the floor for at least 20 minutes a night. Their offense likely offsets any defensive deficiencies from those two but still something to think about. I do like our length 3-5 in a way that I haven’t before under Moser, which should give some more opportunities to be versatile in our defensive calls. To me you can’t usually play zone well at this level without length at those 3-4 spots and I think we’ve got that this season. Still going to be in man the vast majority of the time (and should be) but it gives you a chance to change things up or do my favorite thing, which is go zone for a couple possessions out of a timeout to screw up whatever ATO the opposing coach just called.

Offensively they’ll have the ability to score. They’ve got players that are effective as pick & roll handlers. They’ve got shooting (spacing). They’ve got rim/lob finishers in Reid, Davis, Rogers. Would love to see Wague take a step as a finisher around the rim (people forget he had an injury that kept him out for the majority of last offseason).

To me if they stay healthy, buy in, and play with energy & effort, there’s no way they wouldn’t finish in the top half of the league, and with some things falling their way maybe even top quarter.

Man, I'd love to believe we are capable of a top 5 SEC finish but I just don't see it. This team is much more talented/deeper than last year's team. But this team also will not have a lottery pick on it. Not to mention, the SEC is still going to be ridiculous next year even if it isn't as good as it was this past season. To be Top 5, we would have to finish ahead of at least one of the following schools and I just don't see it: Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky, Alabama. Not to mention schools like Arkansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Georgia, and Texas.

I could see us finishing somewhere around 8th to 10th in conference which should get us into the tournament. I'm projecting us to finish as a 7 seed this upcoming season which would be kinda meh to me, but would be the best finish we've had under Moser.

 

[cmdsooner]

Man, I'd love to believe we are capable of a top 5 SEC finish but I just don't see it. This team is much more talented/deeper than last year's team. But this team also will not have a lottery pick on it. Not to mention, the SEC is still going to be ridiculous next year even if it isn't as good as it was this past season. To be Top 5, we would have to finish ahead of at least one of the following schools and I just don't see it: Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky, Alabama. Not to mention schools like Arkansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Georgia, and Texas.

I could see us finishing somewhere around 8th to 10th in conference which should get us into the tournament. I'm projecting us to finish as a 7 seed this upcoming season which would be kinda meh to me, but would be the best finish we've had under Moser.

It’s certainly fair to have that opinion. Conference play hasn’t been kind. But this is OU’s best roster since 2016 in my opinion and I don’t see it as being particularly close. If I’m not going to be high on them now, would I ever be?

I don’t agree with all of these starting lineups but I’ll defer to the depth charts created on the discord. Very surface-level look but finishing ahead of one of those 5 does not feel far-fetched to me (obviously depth can play a part here too).

Alabama
Aden Holloway
Latrell Wright
Houston Mallette
Taylor Bol Bowen
Aiden Sherrell

So a bunch of guys that haven’t proven anything yet at this level. There’s plenty of talent there but I’d take OU’s 5 over theirs without hesitation because of the proven successful experience of the good guys.

Auburn
Tahaad Pettiford
Kevin Overton
Elijah Freeman
Keyshawn Hall
KeShawn Murphy

Again, talented and they may be better than OU but not a group that overwhelms OU’s 5. Pettiford has a ton of ability but he’ll force it some too. Hall does some of the same in a bigger body. OU matches up just fine.

Florida
Xaivian Lee
Desmond Claude - probably
Thomas Haugh
Alex Condon
Rueben Chinyelu

They should be a good team. I wonder about fit with Lee & Claude a little. Both high-usage players but they should be able to make it work. Probably taking a step back from a shooting standpoint. How does no Walter Clayton change things for them?

Kentucky
Jaland Lowe
Denzel Aberdeen
Otega Oweh
Mo Dioubate
Brandon Garrison

Pretty good group, and Quaintance getting healthy would help. Are we sure OU can’t compete? Reid/Jones/Nwankwo on Oweh instead of Miles/Goodine/Elvis might make a difference there, no?

Tennessee
Ja’Kobi Gillespie
Amaree Abram
Nate Ament
Jaylen Carey
Felix Okpara

They’ll be physical again like usual. Gillespie’s a really good player & Ament has high level talent but he’s a freshman. Like the other four of these teams, they should be a tough game but the personnel doesn’t overwhelm OU’s.

If those are the top 5 I think OU fits in. Doesn’t mean they’re a lock to break into that group. They should absolutely be top half of the league. Health & buy-in are going to be a big deal but I don’t know if they could’ve done a much better job of putting the roster together.

 

[austing7]

It’s certainly fair to have that opinion. Conference play hasn’t been kind. But this is OU’s best roster since 2016 in my opinion and I don’t see it as being particularly close. If I’m not going to be high on them now, would I ever be?

I don’t agree with all of these starting lineups but I’ll defer to the depth charts created on the discord. Very surface-level look but finishing ahead of one of those 5 does not feel far-fetched to me (obviously depth can play a part here too).

Alabama
Aden Holloway
Latrell Wright
Houston Mallette
Taylor Bol Bowen
Aiden Sherrell

So a bunch of guys that haven’t proven anything yet at this level. There’s plenty of talent there but I’d take OU’s 5 over theirs without hesitation because of the proven successful experience of the good guys.

Auburn
Tahaad Pettiford
Kevin Overton
Elijah Freeman
Keyshawn Hall
KeShawn Murphy

Again, talented and they may be better than OU but not a group that overwhelms OU’s 5. Pettiford has a ton of ability but he’ll force it some too. Hall does some of the same in a bigger body. OU matches up just fine.

Florida
Xaivian Lee
Desmond Claude - probably
Thomas Haugh
Alex Condon
Rueben Chinyelu

They should be a good team. I wonder about fit with Lee & Claude a little. Both high-usage players but they should be able to make it work. Probably taking a step back from a shooting standpoint. How does no Walter Clayton change things for them?

Kentucky
Jaland Lowe
Denzel Aberdeen
Otega Oweh
Mo Dioubate
Brandon Garrison

Pretty good group, and Quaintance getting healthy would help. Are we sure OU can’t compete? Reid/Jones/Nwankwo on Oweh instead of Miles/Goodine/Elvis might make a difference there, no?

Tennessee
Ja’Kobi Gillespie
Amaree Abram
Nate Ament
Jaylen Carey
Felix Okpara

They’ll be physical again like usual. Gillespie’s a really good player & Ament has high level talent but he’s a freshman. Like the other four of these teams, they should be a tough game but the personnel doesn’t overwhelm OU’s.

If those are the top 5 I think OU fits in. Doesn’t mean they’re a lock to break into that group. They should absolutely be top half of the league. Health & buy-in are going to be a big deal but I don’t know if they could’ve done a much better job of putting the roster together.

Yeah definitely agree with this. Think in the past the issue has always been matchup issues for us, our guys were never athletic or physical enough to compete defensively in the SEC/Big 12. However, with this team we have length and athleticism, which is something Moser has never really had in his time at OU. Like you said, think we will be able to matchup with just about every team.

Only problems I could see us running into is teams that have big guards (like Florida with Lee and Claude)... they could present some issues for Brown & Pack. Another problem is if someone has a complete dominant big man, think Wague/Rogers could struggle but then again they have much more length/athleticism than Godwin & Groves.