Roster update--we may be salty team???!!!??

[lexusooner]

2 Steven Pledger 6-4 217
3 T.J. Franklin 5-11 166
4 Andrew Fitzgerald 6-8 258

22 Ryan Randolph 6-4 191
25 Kyle Hardrick 6-8 229
34 Cade Davis 6-5 199
-------------------------------
Barry Honore 6'7' 245
TJ Taylor 6'3' 205
Cam Clark 6'6" 195
Ty Neal 6'6" 205
CJ Washington 6'7" 215
Nick Thompson 6'9" 220

If we sign a quick PG EVERYTHING changes ..this is NOT a bad roster..can they play together?? I dont know..but this is a good roster, not a great roster, but a good roster...Incredibly, Capel has put a scrappy team on the court....Taylor and Clark are special IMO and CJ is a rebounder and a scrapper...Nick can pull opposing post players away from the basket...
This team is a scoring PG away from being dangerous IMO...

 

[soonertboy824]

2 Steven Pledger 6-4 217
3 T.J. Franklin 5-11 166
4 Andrew Fitzgerald 6-8 258

22 Ryan Randolph 6-4 191
25 Kyle Hardrick 6-8 229
34 Cade Davis 6-5 199
-------------------------------
Barry Honore 6'7' 245
TJ Taylor 6'3' 205
Cam Clark 6'6" 195
Ty Neal 6'6"
CJ Washington 6'7" 215
Nick Thompson 6'9" 220

If we sign a quick PG EVERYTHING changes ..this is NOT a bad roser..can they play together?? I dont know..but this is a good roster, not a great roster, but a good roster...Incredibly, Capel has put a scrappy team on the court....Taylor and Cark are special IMO and CJ is a rebounder n scapper...Nick can pull opposing post players away from the basket...
This team is a scoring PG away from being dangerous IMO..

i think you are being slightly optimistic at this point. we can potentially compete for the nit though. if we can pick up 3 more good players we could be pretty good

 

[NickZepp]

If we pick up Jones and Ross we may be dangerous. Other than that I'll settle for decent.

 

[lexusooner]

NZ--
Good call on Nick--I thought he took too long and lost faith he would sign.

Nick and CJ make us a better interior defensive team than we were last year. CJ and Nick are veteran performers on high level Juco programs, guys who made a difference..both known as scrappy players...I like what I see...

 

[brumFTW]

Having only seen three of these players in Big 12 play, I'm not willing to predict how "salty" we might be. Honestly, I just want to see these kids mature, and maybe make a run in the NIT. That's enough for me.

 

[ousooners1baby]

Guys, i really think T.J. will be the biggest surprise next year. We all know he is good. I think he will be more consistent than Cam next year.

 

[OULad]

Way to early to say that, most of these guys are totally unproven. I just hope we dont suck.

 

[piehole]

I'm excited about next year's team. Then again, I'm always excited about next year's team.

I have no expectations for 2010-2011. If we consistently play hard and smart then we will be ahead of where we ended this year.

 

[HeismanWatch]

2 Steven Pledger 6-4 217
3 T.J. Franklin 5-11 166
4 Andrew Fitzgerald 6-8 258

22 Ryan Randolph 6-4 191
25 Kyle Hardrick 6-8 229
34 Cade Davis 6-5 199
-------------------------------
Barry Honore 6'7' 245
TJ Taylor 6'3' 205
Cam Clark 6'6" 195
Ty Neal 6'6" 205
CJ Washington 6'7" 215
Nick Thompson 6'9" 220

If we sign a quick PG EVERYTHING changes ..this is NOT a bad roster..can they play together?? I dont know..but this is a good roster, not a great roster, but a good roster...Incredibly, Capel has put a scrappy team on the court....Taylor and Clark are special IMO and CJ is a rebounder and a scrapper...Nick can pull opposing post players away from the basket...
This team is a scoring PG away from being dangerous IMO...

^^^Lacking a stout PG and a stout Center. You are NOT GOING anywhere in the NCAAs without that. That's a fact!!!

 

[NickZepp]

^^^Lacking a stout PG and a stout Center. You are NOT GOING anywhere in the NCAAs without that. That's a fact!!!

How many times has OU had true centers ever? We've had a lot of really good power forwards, very few centers. Blake was closest to a center. 03 run our best inside player was McGhee a PF and our 2nd best was probably Selvy a bench guy. 80s we never really had a true center with Tisdale he was a PF. Same with King later on although he was close to a center also.

 

[Sam]

Ace was 02 and he had Brown next to him as a good defensive minded true 5.

 

[NickZepp]

Ace was 02 and he had Brown next to him as a good defensive minded true 5.

Brown was a little inconsistent though. He had a lot of raw talent.

 

[Sam]

Outside of Longar he was our last true 5 who played a significant role on. Also Brown would be a great asset to this upcoming team.

 

[afaSooner]

Call me crazy but I liked what I saw out of Fitzgerald towards the end of the year. He seemed to be in better positions on the court and his confidence climbed a bit. If he can develop his back to the basket game he can be productive underneath.

 

[Sam]

Fitz's offensive game with his mid range jumper is very promising. I am not worried about Fitz in regards to offense as I expect him to average a solid 8 points or so. I'm just hoping Fitz (and the rest of the posts) can be textbook on defense and blocking out. I get the feeling that the bulk of our offensive production will be from the guards and we just need the posts to be tough down low on defense and hit the boards.

I am not sure if salty is a great term based on our green at the division 1 level but I think we have the pieces to be scrappy and tough to beat at home.

 

[p230]

Right now this is all the salt I am willing to give them until we see how they at least practice together. Not taking a shot at them just a wait and see approach. I am happy with what we have put together so far.

 

[Krugerfan52]

^^^Lacking a stout PG and a stout Center. You are NOT GOING anywhere in the NCAAs without that. That's a fact!!!

Do they have a PG and Center that we are recruiting?

 

[AdaSooner]

How many times has OU had true centers ever? We've had a lot of really good power forwards, very few centers. Blake was closest to a center. 03 run our best inside player was McGhee a PF and our 2nd best was probably Selvy a bench guy. 80s we never really had a true center with Tisdale he was a PF. Same with King later on although he was close to a center also.

Nick is right. There have been very few true centers at OU. Longar Longar was the last in recent years. Before that Oleg Reztsov in 2000. Victor Avila was listed as a center on that team, but in reality he was a PF. You could name several players over the years who had a "C" by their name on OU's roster. But being called a center didn't make them one.

I think the concern that OU will struggle against a team with bigger players is valid. But last year's team held their own on the boards when most of us thought rebounding would be our Achilles heel. For an undersized team they did quite well, averaging 34.4 rpg compared to our opponents 35.5 rpg. It's true that our biggest player on that team is gone. But Tiny was not exactly a rebounding machine with his 7.9 rpg average.

Rebounding this fall will be by committee again. But I believe the group we've got coming in stands a good chance of being a better rebounding team, because we'll have more size overall at nearly every position. I'll go out on a limb right now and say that C. J. Washington will at least match Tiny's rebounding numbers. C. J. has a nose for the ball like few players I have seen this year. Time will tell if I'm right on both predictions.

My biggest concern is where our scoring will come from? It won't be easy to replace the 56 or so ppg we lost with the departure of Tiny, WW, Tony, TMG and Ray. Our incoming freshmen will have to hit the ground running and not let up. Pledger will need to find his stroke and show everyone why he was thought to be one of the best three point shooters coming out of high school two years ago. As the obvious team leader, Cade will be counted on to carry a good deal of the load on both ends of the floor. Drew, Kyle and our two JUCO recruits will have to be men on the low block.

It will definitely be an uphill battle. But this team could actually be decent if they develop the team chemistry and sense of family and playing as one unit last year's team could never seem to find.

 

[NickZepp]

The thing is we won't have anyone that is really small either. We will have Taylor who is about 6-1 or so. Rest of the lineup will be 6-5 or bigger. That's not bad.

 

[Edmond_Sooner]

Can we possibly wait and see if these newcomers can actually produce at this level before we start proclaiming they will be salty...

We only have 1 guy on our team that is a regular starter and has played enough minutes to feel comfortable in what we will get out of him...Cade

we have two guys that could be solid but neither are game changers in pledger and Fitzgerald...not really seeing either of these guys as leading scorers, pledger can fill it up but hasn't shown an ability to be Versatile...

All the newcomers I'm sure look great on the highlight reel but haven't proven they can be successful at this level yet, so let's not annoint and give them a chance to come in and work and find their role...Hopefully 1 or 2 will step up and be a solid scorer, possibly even leader for this squad...

I just think we should have probably learned our lesson about projecting if a team will be any good or not after last season, and we have even more question marks this next yr than last...