BigTime
The Red Wig
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Like meth, you could cook up the recipe for today's disaster in any bathtub across the state.
First game after finals? Check.
Non-name opponent? Check.
Pouty performance from your "best" player? Check.
It takes a lot to make me not watch the final seconds tick away from my seat. I vanished before the end of last year's KU game because I couldn't bear the thought of hearing Rock Chalk in Norman. I split from the Sprint Center against Colorado in '08 because of complete disgust with the effort. I headed out of the AAC in Dallas during the Big 12 championship game in 2003 against Mizzou because of complete and total offensive ineptitude.
And then today. With 80 seconds to go, and leading 80-72, the game was firmly in hand for our boys. But then we executed the most perfect "**** the bed" I've seen in years. We took ill-advised shots (Crocker's jumper after breaking the press), we missed front ends (Cade, Crocker and TMG) and we failed to secure rebounds (Gallon and Wright). It was horrifying, aggravating and nauseating at the same time. I didn't make a complete exit, I watched TMG's clank from the walkway of the lower level, but it was close.
Honestly, what the hell was that? Northern Colorado is a good basketball team. They're not great, but they're good, and they were their best today. They hit big shots, they rebounded well and they took the fight right to us. Cade single-handedly turned the tide once and the Crock Pot cooked up another run, but other than that the Bears were far better than our Sooners this afternoon. Play like that in conference will get you beat at home and SMOKED on the road.
I'm proud of how we responded when we were smacked by a haymaker in the first half. We went from down 11 to down two in about ninety seconds. And I was proud of how we kept them at arm's length for most of the second half. But those last 3 1/2 minutes........whoo boy. These guys better be darn glad they've got a game Monday because if there wasn't one I'd imagine they'd be running stadium steps 'til Szendrei puked. It will be a somber dinner spread at the Capel house tonight. I'd bet the farm on that.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 19 [spit]
2nd - 20 [the world is a vampire]
3rd - 24 [sent to draaaaaaaaain.]
4th - 17 [blue whale afterbirth]
LEADING SCORERS:
25 - Cade Davis
24 - Tony "The Crock Pot" Crocker
LEADING REBOUNDERS:
10 - Tony Crocker [another double-double]
5 - Tiny Gallon
PLUSES:
1. Tony Crocker: The Crock Pot, once again, was cookin'! I used to set the mark for his stat night at 25 but he's been obliterating it lately. Points + boards + steals + assists + blocks - turnovers. 25 was the old. Today it was 38. Some of the shots he hit in the second half were complete daggers to end UNC mini-runs. We'd be up eight, they'd cut it to four and Crocker would bump it right back to six or seven. He made some bad decisions late but luckily it didn't cost us a loss and HOPEFULLY he'll learn from them.
2. Cade Davis: I don't think we win if Cade doesn't go all Reggie Miller late in the first half. 20 point halves don't come along too often and we've had a pair of them in the last two home games. Cade probably would've been #1 if he hadn't kept UNC in it late with pitiful foul shooting, but I'll let it slide considering he was active at both ends of the floor and didn't turn the ball over.
3. GottaHavePride: I believe that was our resident trombonist at halftime as a part of the Christmas Quintet. If that wasn't him, well, he's got a long-lost twin.
4. Crowd: Good group for the Saturday before Christmas at noon. 7,218 is about 2,218 more than I expected.
5. Northern Colorado: Those dudes played really hard.
MINUSES:
1. Willie Warren: I usually reserve player bashing only for Landry Jones (I'm kidding.....partly [wink wink] ) but Willie was putrid out there today. Funk & Wagnall's unabridged thesaurus probably has gobs of synonyms for Willie's effort out there, but putrid, abysmal, heinous and horrendous will do the trick for me. I don't know if his girlfriend left or his cat died or if he had a tooth on the verge of abcess. Whatever it was, that crap needs to cease. For the first time since he's been in Norman he looked like the kid who headed to Oak Hill a couple of years ago. Hopefully that Mr. Hyde goes far away, never to be seen or heard from again. Four points, one rebound and FIVE turnovers. That yak they've got tied up over at the GLC Biology building? He was barfing all over the place.
2. The End Game: In the last 41 seconds we missed the front end of three one-and-ones. That's six points....gone. When the UNC coach got T'd up a few minutes earlier Cade missed a FT and Tiny missed a freebie. Two points....gone. Awful. We were very, very lucky to waltz out of there with a win today with all the mistakes late. We showed symptoms of this up at Utah in regulation, but today it was epidemic. A chilling vision of things to come, I'm afraid.
3. Tiny Gallon: Early in the game, after he caught a long pass and dished it off for an assist, I proclaimed that Tiny could start for us at tight end in the Sun Bowl. In the second half, after he let a rebound hit him right in the face, I proclaimed that he could surely start for us at wide receiver. His hands didn't seem strong today.
I guess I shouldn't gripe too much about a win, but the laissez-faire route to closing out the victory really chewed at my insides. I can handle rough stretches here and there, but the better team should be the better team when the chips were down. Today we looked like some upstart trying to hold off a favorite while on the road. To perform like that down the stretch at home is really inexcusable. Winning teams make the winning plays and were far from making that claim today. Maybe we'll make those plays at the Ford Center on Monday. Capel said no progress was made in this game, but if we close out a ballgame the right way against UTEP I'll beg to differ.
We got lucky.......but I'll take it.
Thank you for your time.
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First game after finals? Check.
Non-name opponent? Check.
Pouty performance from your "best" player? Check.
It takes a lot to make me not watch the final seconds tick away from my seat. I vanished before the end of last year's KU game because I couldn't bear the thought of hearing Rock Chalk in Norman. I split from the Sprint Center against Colorado in '08 because of complete disgust with the effort. I headed out of the AAC in Dallas during the Big 12 championship game in 2003 against Mizzou because of complete and total offensive ineptitude.
And then today. With 80 seconds to go, and leading 80-72, the game was firmly in hand for our boys. But then we executed the most perfect "**** the bed" I've seen in years. We took ill-advised shots (Crocker's jumper after breaking the press), we missed front ends (Cade, Crocker and TMG) and we failed to secure rebounds (Gallon and Wright). It was horrifying, aggravating and nauseating at the same time. I didn't make a complete exit, I watched TMG's clank from the walkway of the lower level, but it was close.
Honestly, what the hell was that? Northern Colorado is a good basketball team. They're not great, but they're good, and they were their best today. They hit big shots, they rebounded well and they took the fight right to us. Cade single-handedly turned the tide once and the Crock Pot cooked up another run, but other than that the Bears were far better than our Sooners this afternoon. Play like that in conference will get you beat at home and SMOKED on the road.
I'm proud of how we responded when we were smacked by a haymaker in the first half. We went from down 11 to down two in about ninety seconds. And I was proud of how we kept them at arm's length for most of the second half. But those last 3 1/2 minutes........whoo boy. These guys better be darn glad they've got a game Monday because if there wasn't one I'd imagine they'd be running stadium steps 'til Szendrei puked. It will be a somber dinner spread at the Capel house tonight. I'd bet the farm on that.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 19 [spit]
2nd - 20 [the world is a vampire]
3rd - 24 [sent to draaaaaaaaain.]
4th - 17 [blue whale afterbirth]
LEADING SCORERS:
25 - Cade Davis
24 - Tony "The Crock Pot" Crocker
LEADING REBOUNDERS:
10 - Tony Crocker [another double-double]
5 - Tiny Gallon
PLUSES:
1. Tony Crocker: The Crock Pot, once again, was cookin'! I used to set the mark for his stat night at 25 but he's been obliterating it lately. Points + boards + steals + assists + blocks - turnovers. 25 was the old. Today it was 38. Some of the shots he hit in the second half were complete daggers to end UNC mini-runs. We'd be up eight, they'd cut it to four and Crocker would bump it right back to six or seven. He made some bad decisions late but luckily it didn't cost us a loss and HOPEFULLY he'll learn from them.
2. Cade Davis: I don't think we win if Cade doesn't go all Reggie Miller late in the first half. 20 point halves don't come along too often and we've had a pair of them in the last two home games. Cade probably would've been #1 if he hadn't kept UNC in it late with pitiful foul shooting, but I'll let it slide considering he was active at both ends of the floor and didn't turn the ball over.
3. GottaHavePride: I believe that was our resident trombonist at halftime as a part of the Christmas Quintet. If that wasn't him, well, he's got a long-lost twin.
4. Crowd: Good group for the Saturday before Christmas at noon. 7,218 is about 2,218 more than I expected.
5. Northern Colorado: Those dudes played really hard.
MINUSES:
1. Willie Warren: I usually reserve player bashing only for Landry Jones (I'm kidding.....partly [wink wink] ) but Willie was putrid out there today. Funk & Wagnall's unabridged thesaurus probably has gobs of synonyms for Willie's effort out there, but putrid, abysmal, heinous and horrendous will do the trick for me. I don't know if his girlfriend left or his cat died or if he had a tooth on the verge of abcess. Whatever it was, that crap needs to cease. For the first time since he's been in Norman he looked like the kid who headed to Oak Hill a couple of years ago. Hopefully that Mr. Hyde goes far away, never to be seen or heard from again. Four points, one rebound and FIVE turnovers. That yak they've got tied up over at the GLC Biology building? He was barfing all over the place.
2. The End Game: In the last 41 seconds we missed the front end of three one-and-ones. That's six points....gone. When the UNC coach got T'd up a few minutes earlier Cade missed a FT and Tiny missed a freebie. Two points....gone. Awful. We were very, very lucky to waltz out of there with a win today with all the mistakes late. We showed symptoms of this up at Utah in regulation, but today it was epidemic. A chilling vision of things to come, I'm afraid.
3. Tiny Gallon: Early in the game, after he caught a long pass and dished it off for an assist, I proclaimed that Tiny could start for us at tight end in the Sun Bowl. In the second half, after he let a rebound hit him right in the face, I proclaimed that he could surely start for us at wide receiver. His hands didn't seem strong today.
I guess I shouldn't gripe too much about a win, but the laissez-faire route to closing out the victory really chewed at my insides. I can handle rough stretches here and there, but the better team should be the better team when the chips were down. Today we looked like some upstart trying to hold off a favorite while on the road. To perform like that down the stretch at home is really inexcusable. Winning teams make the winning plays and were far from making that claim today. Maybe we'll make those plays at the Ford Center on Monday. Capel said no progress was made in this game, but if we close out a ballgame the right way against UTEP I'll beg to differ.
We got lucky.......but I'll take it.
Thank you for your time.
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