Some observations

[j2d2]

Our defense leaves a lot to be desired. We are susceptible to penetration and kickouts.
Good game from Lattin but he gets out muscled and outquicked. AK is learning fast.
We went inept for a while and must learn to become deliberate when that happens until we get a rhythm back. Poor game from Cousins and Spangler was asleep about half of the time for the second game in a row.
I'd much rather have quick than fast. Second game in a row where the opposition point was quicker than we could guard(until he got tired).
Got to develope better interior defense.
Got to develope better halfcourt offense.
When we get out to such a fast start, our defense seems to slack off just a smidgen.
OUr free throw shooting got better thank goodness.

 

[outest]

Our defense leaves a lot to be desired. We are susceptible to penetration and kickouts.
Good game from Lattin but he gets out muscled and outquicked. AK is learning fast.
We went inept for a while and must learn to become deliberate when that happens until we get a rhythm back. Poor game from Cousins and Spangler was asleep about half of the time for the second game in a row.
I'd much rather have quick than fast. Second game in a row where the opposition point was quicker than we could guard(until he got tired).
Got to develope better interior defense.
Got to develope better halfcourt offense.
When we get out to such a fast start, our defense seems to slack off just a smidgen.
OUr free throw shooting got better thank goodness.

Agree with you completely. That is my observation as well. When the game get close, having better interior offense and defense will help tremendously. We need to have cousin or buddy defend a quick point guard, the point guard will have harder time shooting over a taller defender. Jordan got burn by their point guard many time. It happened last year as well.

 

[Oklahoma Crew]

Obviously OU didn't play their best game and have identified some things to improve on. That said, they did all of that in a win on the home floor of an 8-1 basketball team who was ready to give the number 3 team in the land all it wanted. Guess what, winning games like these is what good teams do. Last years squad loses this game. Keep winning and get better, long time before March.

 

[Seymore Cox]

Spangler was awful.

 

[skyvue]

Spangler was awful.

He was hampered by foul trouble. I'm not sure 7 points, 7 rebounds, an assist and a block qualifies as awful.

 

[MisterF]

Refs were calling it so tight it was effecting our guys aggression on defense.

 

[SilliSooner]

Refs were calling it so tight it was effecting our guys aggression on defense.

Two things when that happens 1) You start driving the middle, run the pick and roll and make the refs put up or shut up with the whistle and 2) you have your best interior defenders take charges.

You get aggressive on offense and then take advantage of their aggression on defense.


We are a good shot blocking team but when the refs get whistle happy you have to adjust.

 

[MNsooner]

He was hampered by foul trouble. I'm not sure 7 points, 7 rebounds, an assist and a block qualifies as awful.

He's a good enough player that 7 & 7 is a bad game for him. I'm sure he knows he can play better. I agree it wasn't awful, just not as good as I've come to expect from him.

 

[skyvue]

He's a good enough player that 7 & 7 is a bad game for him. I'm sure he knows he can play better. I agree it wasn't awful, just not as good as I've come to expect from him.

Absolutely not a great or even a good game--foul trouble will do that to you--but far from awful.

 

[pnkranger]

We played a stinker last night defensively and Hawaii played above their heads. But all signs point to us as one of the best defensive teams in college basketball. Ken Pom's ratings show that our defense is one of the 5 most efficient in the nation. We are holding every team we play FAR below their shooting %s (except Hawaii) and are one of the best in the country as far as field goal % defense, especially around the 3 point line.

Teams are going to score more points on us than Harvard, for instance. But it's about # of possessions. We are an up tempo team and Hawaii is an up tempo team. That meant there were a LOT LOT LOT of opportunities to score in that game for both teams. We could play fantastic defense, and a team could still score 70 points simply because of the number of opportunities they get. Offensively, we're also very efficient (top 15). This means that, if we get more possessions and are more efficient than our opponents night in and night out, we'll win a LOT of games.

Think of it like the spread in football. We're giving up points because we're creating more possessions. But we're not giving up efficiency (Hawaii game notwithstanding).

Also, we're averaging 88 points per game 10 games into the season. That should win you a lot of games .

 

[Seymore Cox]

You guys use stats to justify if someone played a good game to much. The
Big kid for Hawaii was way too much for Spangler. Spangler got exposed because he can't push out and defend skilled bigs that can shoot and handle. Hopefully Burford can mature quick enough to defend Perry Ellis and the athletic kid from Iowa State.

 

[stormspencer]

You guys use stats to justify if someone played a good game to much. The
Big kid for Hawaii was way too much for Spangler. Spangler got exposed because he can't push out and defend skilled bigs that can shoot and handle. Hopefully Burford can mature quick enough to defend Perry Ellis and the athletic kid from Iowa State.

Wrong....if you DVR'd the game, go back and watch. Spangler didn't even play on Jankovic until late in the 2nd half. There were some rare instances he was isolated on him based off switches, but Jankovic was not Spangler's primary man during most of the game. Lattin actually played him for most of the game....and he did get the best of Lattin at times. But Jankovic is a VERY skilled big man that can play inside and out.....he is almost, but not quite, a George Niang clone.

 

[skyvue]

You guys use stats to justify if someone played a good game to much. The
Big kid for Hawaii was way too much for Spangler. Spangler got exposed because he can't push out and defend skilled bigs that can shoot and handle.

And you're ignoring the fact that he was in foul trouble. If you think that doesn't impact a player's ability to defend, you're kidding yourself.

But if you want to freak out over one game and call a decent performance awful, have at it. Far be it for me to interrupt your doom and gloom.

 

[chuckb]

Wrong....if you DVR'd the game, go back and watch. Spangler didn't even play on Jankovic until late in the 2nd half. There were some rare instances he was isolated on him based off switches, but Jankovic was not Spangler's primary man during most of the game. Lattin actually played him for most of the game....and he did get the best of Lattin at times. But Jankovic is a VERY skilled big man that can play inside and out.....he is almost, but not quite, a George Niang clone.

This. He wasn't even matched up on Jankovic most of the game.

To me, Spangler was far too tentative, especially defensively. That's due, at least in part, to his foul trouble. The team, in general, was far too tentative defensively. I think there were 2 reasons for this. First, the officials called the game extremely tight and we got tentative because of the number of fouls they were calling. Second, I think we were caught off guard when they came back with such energy after being down by 16 early. They seemed to stun us and we were back on our heels the rest of the game as a result.

 

[chuckb]

OU fans need a little perspective. The team played pretty poorly last night but that game was not representative of what kind of team we have. Be careful not to extrapolate too much from 1 bad performance. In other words, just because we didn't guard for most of last night doesn't make us a bad defensive team. We had a bad night. Spangler didn't play very well. That doesn't mean that he can't handle certain kinds of players.

Don't overgeneralize based on 1 bad performance. We're not the best team in college basketball history when we play 1 great game and we're not awful when we play 1 bad game.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

Here is another stat for the OU-Hawaii game ...

http://newsok.com/three-observations-from-oklahomas-84-81-win-over-hawaii/article/5468664

The defense was hurt by Ryan Spangler having to go to the bench with foul trouble. Spangler picked up his second foul less than nine minutes into the game with OU up 14. When he came back in, the Sooners trailed.

Spangler had a plus/minus of plus-23 against the Rainbow Warriors, by far the best on the Sooners. No one else was better than plus-11.

Disregard the stats. Using the eye test, OU is a better TEAM when Spangler is on the floor. This is true on offense and defense.

 

[stormspencer]

Here is another stat for the OU-Hawaii game ...

http://newsok.com/three-observations-from-oklahomas-84-81-win-over-hawaii/article/5468664



Disregard the stats. Using the eye test, OU is a better TEAM when Spangler is on the floor. This is true on offense and defense.

Exactly, others and I have mentioned this before.....this team goes as Spangler goes. It's not so much with Spangler's actual stats that have the effect, but it is what he does that doesn't show up in the stat sheet. In most situations, he needs to be on the floor for 32+ minutes for OU to be at their best.

 

[DenverSooner]

He was hampered by foul trouble. I'm not sure 7 points, 7 rebounds, an assist and a block qualifies as awful.

It is actually a good game and when that is your bad game it means you ar a borderline all conference player. on the Internet many of us have a tendency to over react.

 

[AdaSooner]

OU fans need a little perspective. The team played pretty poorly last night but that game was not representative of what kind of team we have. Be careful not to extrapolate too much from 1 bad performance. In other words, just because we didn't guard for most of last night doesn't make us a bad defensive team. We had a bad night. Spangler didn't play very well. That doesn't mean that he can't handle certain kinds of players.

Don't overgeneralize based on 1 bad performance. We're not the best team in college basketball history when we play 1 great game and we're not awful when we play 1 bad game.

Agreed. No one was saying Spangler is awful or pointing to a multitude of weaknesses when this team beat Memphis on their own floor, sent last year's NC runnerup back to Wisconsin with a 17 points loss, and absolutely destroyed a #9 ranked Villanova on a neutral court.

There is no such thing as a bad win in my vocabulary. On the contrary, I see last night's three point win as a blessing in disguise. Beating Memphis by 6 on the road was the only real test this team had experienced before last night, and even that game left little doubt about the outcome. The others have been much too easy, with our 13 points win over Creighton serving as the only game an opponent pushed our players to buckle down in an effort to pull out a victory.

While I would like nothing better than to see OU win every game by twenty or more, the realist in me says that is an unrealistic expectation. There were lessons to be learned in OU struggling to put an 8-1 Hawaii team away. That was easily our worst game of the season, but it would be wrong not to give the Rainbow Warriors some of the credit for our struggles. They're a well coached team with some solid pieces that should make them very competitive in the Big West conference this season.

I think we'll look back on this game as a positive in the not too distant future. Teams learn a lot more from adversity than from easy victories.

 

[DenverSooner]

Wrong....if you DVR'd the game, go back and watch. Spangler didn't even play on Jankovic until late in the 2nd half. There were some rare instances he was isolated on him based off switches, but Jankovic was not Spangler's primary man during most of the game. Lattin actually played him for most of the game....and he did get the best of Lattin at times. But Jankovic is a VERY skilled big man that can play inside and out.....he is almost, but not quite, a George Niang clone.

I know the media loves Niang but in many ways that guy looked better than Niang. Niang is like a point forward. That guy was more of a true power forward. They are both really good but that kid last night had some nice post moves.