One of the main reasons OU's SOS, like many other big 12 school's SOS's were high is due to the round robin. You are guaranteed a road game against whoever makes the tournament from your league. So we faced 6 NCAA tournament schools and the NIT champs all on the road. We faced them st home as well, but the road past is the significant part. plsces like the ACC, who are top heavy don't get that boost due to the size of the conference.
Schedule
- Thread starter WichitaSooner
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One of the main reasons OU's SOS, like many other big 12 school's SOS's were high is due to the round robin. You are guaranteed a road game against whoever makes the tournament from your league. So we faced 6 NCAA tournament schools and the NIT champs all on the road. We faced them st home as well, but the road past is the significant part. plsces like the ACC, who are top heavy don't get that boost due to the size of the conference.
SoonerBounce13
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I thought our non conf schedule was pretty tough for the youth of the team. I wouldn't call it murders row but there weren't many cupcakes or easy gimmes if I recall correctly. A bunch of good to average teams
Maverick008
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Non-Conference Schedule with final record for opponent from last year:
Northwestern State- 13-16- W
Tulane- 6-25- W
Northern Iowa- 14-16- L
Clemson- 17-16- W
Abilene Christian- 13-16- W
Northern Colorado- 11-18- W
Wisconsin- 27-10- L
Oral Roberts- 8-22- W
Wichita State- 31-5- L
Memphis- 19-13- L
Auburn- 18-14- L
Florida- 27-9- L
Total record of opponents- 204-180
OU record against opponents- 6-6
OU's best win against opponent per opponent record- Clemson at 17-16
While OU was in most of those game until the end, this schedule was far from "murderer's row" in my opinion and OU needs to finish no worse than 9-3 against a slate like that. Hopefully being a year wiser and adding some additional pieces they can do just that or even a little better.
chuckb
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Plus, we didn't get to play the 9th best team in the conference. Kansas, on the other hand, didn't have to play the best team in the conference.
SoonerBounce13
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it's not terribly tough but maybe it was just the latter half of the non conf made it seem like a really tough schedule. Wisconsin, WSU, memphi, auburn, Florida is a pretty tough stretch
Sooner04
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It's amazing what can happen when the Selection Committee does a ****ty job of seeding teams for the Tournament.
In this day and age, this is a really tough schedule compared to most teams. We had the toughest SOS at the end of the regular season. Texas for example had a harder SOS in the conference because they played us while we played them. Yet, ou had a harder SOS overall still because we didn't pad our record with a bunch of crap teams like 95% of the teams out there.
skyvue
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From pnkranger's post of March 1st:
* According to Ken Pom's site, OU has played the most difficult schedule of ANY team since 2002 (that's the earliest year he has available).
* ESPN BPI, Ken Pom, and Jeff Sagarin all rate OU's SOS as #1.
* We have played 13 games against the top 25 teams (as rated by BPI, Ken Pom, and Jeff Sagarin). No other team has played double digit games against the top 25.
* We have played 6 games against the top 10.
* We have played 19 games against the top 50.
http://ouhoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40240
My point stands: We played one of toughest schedules in the country last season, and I'm not especially eager to see our schedule get even more difficult in the upcoming season, especially since most, if not all, of the toughest non-conference games we'll play will be away from home.
We were #2 this year, #2 last year, and #3 the year before that in SOS. The only thing that changed was that our team sucked.
I don't think anybody in their right mind turns down the chance to play USC in Staples Center. The national exposure, the experience for the tourney, the increased focus in practice, the prep for a "murderous" Big XII schedule, and just an all-around fun trip for the team. It's all great stuff.
I don't think anybody in their right mind turns down the chance to play USC in Staples Center. The national exposure, the experience for the tourney, the increased focus in practice, the prep for a "murderous" Big XII schedule, and just an all-around fun trip for the team. It's all great stuff.
skyvue
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I'll look forward to your meltdown posts if we have more losses than you deem acceptable entering conference play.
The point isn't the USC game or the early games played in Portland or the road game with Wichita State -- it's the cumulative effect of a very difficult nonconference schedule combined with a tough conference schedule.
At this rate, we could be MUCH improved next season and still miss the tourney. I'm not saying we will, but it could certainly happen. And if it took scheduling just two or three fewer tough games away from LNC to prevent that, I'm in favor of it. We'll play more than our share of tough games in the Big 12.
I want us well above .500, in the top half of the Big 12 and in the tourney, at a minimum, and our schedule is more and more not looking conducive to that goal. I'm not throwing in the towel on these tough nonconference games -- who knows, the team could make a huge leap forward and TY could play like a savvy upperclassman from the season's opening tip. But as great as Trae is, he's still going to be a true freshman. It'd be nice if he could get his legs under him a bit against some decent but not top-tier competition before being thrown to the wolves.
If we go 10-8 in conference, then we'll be dancing.
AdaSooner
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Me too. I may be alone in saying this, which is not all that unusual, but I think last year's team was closer than some seem to believe in winning enough games to make the tourney.
Most of the pieces from last year are still there. Our best players were freshmen and sophomores who should be a lot better by the start of the season this fall. That's just the way it is with first and second year players. More importantly, we'll have a difference maker at the point who will make EVERYONE better. Add a space eater down low, a sharp shooter in Manek and the possibility of an immediate impact grad transfer, and most of the fifteen or so close losses we had last season could easily move to the win column.
Overly optimistic? That's possible, of course. But I honestly think I'm a lot closer to being right than being wrong.
BoulderSooner
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100% agree with this .. so you are not alone
chuckb
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I agree completely. Things really snowballed after Woodard's 1st injury. Lose a couple of games we should win, then James's confidence goes in the crapper, and we're chasing our tails for a month. A good break or 2 early on and the season could've ended completely differently.
I agree with most of it, with the one exception being that I don't see us getting any contribution from Manek or Polla (though he is a mystery). Just having somebody who could safely get the ball down the court would have won us 2-3 games last year. We blew several other leads simply because we'd run the clock under 10 seconds and then not even be able to get an attempt off. Part of that is coaching, but it's also a lot easier to do when you have a guy like Mason or Morris on your team. Not saying Trae would be the caliber of those guys as a true freshman, but a legitimate PG that can score will go a long way. I got as depressed as anybody last year, but I told one of my buddies toward the end of the year that if we had even HS Senior version of Trae on our team, we'd have been .500 in Big XII play. I'm sticking to that. As bad as we were last year, this team is oozing with more depth of talent than we've seen in a long time.
AdaSooner
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We may be closer to the same page than you realize. Notice that I said Polla is a "space eater" and that Manek is "sharp shooter." I didn't add more to my description because I'm not expecting more. If they are able to contribute to the team's success as freshmen, I see that as a bonus.
Our differences may lie in our expectations of Trae Young. I don't expect him to be on Morris and Mason's level his freshman season due to their experience, but I do expect him to be just as good. I believe he's that special. I also think it's safe to say he would agree with me. The kid exudes confidence. When he tweeted, "Help is on the way," I saw that as a confident future player stating a fact, not an empty promise from someone who likes to brag on himself.
You were spot on in telling your friend our shot clock woes and our inability to get the ball up the court would have had a different outcome if Trae had been available last season. I'll add one more thing. TY will give us that on-the-court leader we didn't have last year. He's a natural leader who also leads by example. If someone else steps up, that will be another bonus.
We definitely agree that this team oozes talent and more depth than we have seen in sometime.
I didn't mean to sound as if I disagreed with much. I was just pointing out the one thing.
I do expect Young to be on Mason and Morris' level eventually, and probably better if he stays as long as they did (which I doubt), but I think it's a bit unrealistic to expect that as a freshman (which I think is kinda what you were saying). I do think Young will be capable of being that guy that you don't have to draw a play up for with 7 seconds left on the clock, but I think he'll have to wrestle that role away from McGusty later on in the season.
