BigTime
The Red Wig
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- Nov 2, 2008
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Helpless. Tonight, for the first time in quite a while, I felt helpless watching the Oklahoma Sooners on the basketball floor. Tied 20-20, I let myself get excited thinking I'd be watching a fast-paced game full of brilliant offensive moved and active defensive plays. One team, the one in blue and orange, came through with flying colors. The other team, the one I pull for, looked punchdrunk for ten-minute stretch and it was a stretch from which they'd never recover.
From 20-20 to 47-30. How did that happen? UTEP shot incredibly well, we all saw that. But it was the types of shots they were hitting that worried me. The types of shots they were hitting were the types of shots they wanted. If they wanted to shoot from outside, they did. If they wanted to work it inside, they did. If they wanted to pull up on a drive, they did.
Once we went cold we had no chance. All we could do on offense was jack up threes while the crowd could call out a particular offensive set for the Miners to run and they'd execute it like some sort of doomsday scoring machine. It was a completely helpless feeling. Every shot we clanked was like another shovel-full of dirt on our grave because UTEP came right back down the floor and added to the misery.
For the first ten minutes we were even, and in the second half we were better for large stretches, but the last ten minutes of the first half were our doom. We are a decent offensive team, but we are woeful on defense. As I watched VCU drill us in Richmond I thought I was witnessing an aberration, but the theme for the 2010 Sooners has been proven time again from Anchorage to Norman to Oklahoma City, and it is this: if you run your sets efficiently you will beat this basketball team.
I don't know what the answer is because I'm no defensive guru, but what I do know is that if we are forced to play defense for the life of the shot clock we are prone to breakdowns. Not a singular breakdown, but multiple breakdowns, both on the perimeter and the interior. I don't have the in-depth box score and scoring run in front of me, but there were several possessions in the second half where we'd score to cut the deficit to 11, and every time UTEP came through with the bucket to put them back up 13. That's an alarming indictment of our defensive toughness.
I bet Capel thought he had things on the right track defensively after the Alaska debacle, but I'm afraid he'll have to blow things up and start over. It's ten days until we play Gonzaga in Spokane. Time to go to work.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 20 [at 7 PM the main hatchway gave in]
2nd - 10 [and the good ship and crew were in peril.]
3rd - 22 [and later that night when her lights went out of sight]
4th - 22 [came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.]
LEADING SCORERS:
26 - Willie Warren
20 - Tommy Mason-Griffin
13 - Tiny Gallon
10 - Tony Crocker
LEADING REBOUNDERS:
8 - Tony Crocker
8 - Tiny Gallon
4 - Ryan Wright
PLUSES:
1. Tommy Mason-Griffin: TMG, for lack of a better analogy, got popped in the mouth early on. He was getting dominated on both ends of the floor, but he stepped up and really played hard in the second half. 20 points, and I think they all came in the second stanza. It was nice to see him respond when he could've crawled into a shell. He'll be a great one for us.
2. Willie Warren: I was as down on Willie as anybody, but he played another solid offensive game. He still turns the ball over too often, but the aggressiveness that was lacking against Northen Colorado returned tonight. He just didn't have much help.
3. UTEP: They may be the Boys Town of El Paso All-Stars, but this traveling bunch was really good. We may make mediocre teams look better than they actually are, but UTEP is stout. They identified early on that we couldn't defend them and they responded by absolutely mauling us. Kudos to them.
MINUSES:
1. Jeff Capel: DISCLAIMER!!! I'm a big Jeff Capel fan. Huge. But there is far too much talent on this team to have double-digit non-conference losses to the likes of VCU, San Diego and UTEP. I'm very confident we'll be a much better basketball team in a month than we are right now, but we shouldn't be sitting through his kind of a performance. We will improve, I KNOW we'll improve, but tonight the blame starts at the very top.
2. Cade Davis: Playing the part of last year's Tony Crocker is........Cade Davis! Off shooting night and benched in favor of Steven Pledger to start the second half. Maybe he'll go for 25 in Spokane.
3. Rebounding: During our "death by outside shooting" stretch late in the first half we didn't even sniff an offensive board. Not even close. If you'd given our guys the option of poison ivy or attacking the glass they all would've stocked up on calamine lotion. It was epidemic, and it has to stop.
4. All-College Classic: They better get some teams with national buzz or this tournament will completely go down the tubes. I was there in December of 2002 when OU hosted Michigan State in the nightcap and the Ford Center was packed. 18,000+ in the house. Fast forward to tonight and I'd be suprised if there were 5,000 people there. Sad.
I'm very anxious to see how we respond to the challenge that lies ahead. We're 8-4 with a VERY tough road game in ten days. There's no reason to think we'll beat Gonzaga. So that's 8-5. We beat Maryland Eastern-Shore to get to 9-5 and then we dive head first into Big 12 play at a time when the conference is as good as it's ever been. Wins will be very tough to come by, and once it begins there'll be no rest for the weary when you consider this team only goes seven deep.
The task before us is mighty, but the unknown of the journey is always the most fun. Here's to these Sooners getting the ship righted.
Let's just hope the ship's not named the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Thank you for your time.
Helpless. Tonight, for the first time in quite a while, I felt helpless watching the Oklahoma Sooners on the basketball floor. Tied 20-20, I let myself get excited thinking I'd be watching a fast-paced game full of brilliant offensive moved and active defensive plays. One team, the one in blue and orange, came through with flying colors. The other team, the one I pull for, looked punchdrunk for ten-minute stretch and it was a stretch from which they'd never recover.
From 20-20 to 47-30. How did that happen? UTEP shot incredibly well, we all saw that. But it was the types of shots they were hitting that worried me. The types of shots they were hitting were the types of shots they wanted. If they wanted to shoot from outside, they did. If they wanted to work it inside, they did. If they wanted to pull up on a drive, they did.
Once we went cold we had no chance. All we could do on offense was jack up threes while the crowd could call out a particular offensive set for the Miners to run and they'd execute it like some sort of doomsday scoring machine. It was a completely helpless feeling. Every shot we clanked was like another shovel-full of dirt on our grave because UTEP came right back down the floor and added to the misery.
For the first ten minutes we were even, and in the second half we were better for large stretches, but the last ten minutes of the first half were our doom. We are a decent offensive team, but we are woeful on defense. As I watched VCU drill us in Richmond I thought I was witnessing an aberration, but the theme for the 2010 Sooners has been proven time again from Anchorage to Norman to Oklahoma City, and it is this: if you run your sets efficiently you will beat this basketball team.
I don't know what the answer is because I'm no defensive guru, but what I do know is that if we are forced to play defense for the life of the shot clock we are prone to breakdowns. Not a singular breakdown, but multiple breakdowns, both on the perimeter and the interior. I don't have the in-depth box score and scoring run in front of me, but there were several possessions in the second half where we'd score to cut the deficit to 11, and every time UTEP came through with the bucket to put them back up 13. That's an alarming indictment of our defensive toughness.
I bet Capel thought he had things on the right track defensively after the Alaska debacle, but I'm afraid he'll have to blow things up and start over. It's ten days until we play Gonzaga in Spokane. Time to go to work.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 20 [at 7 PM the main hatchway gave in]
2nd - 10 [and the good ship and crew were in peril.]
3rd - 22 [and later that night when her lights went out of sight]
4th - 22 [came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.]
LEADING SCORERS:
26 - Willie Warren
20 - Tommy Mason-Griffin
13 - Tiny Gallon
10 - Tony Crocker
LEADING REBOUNDERS:
8 - Tony Crocker
8 - Tiny Gallon
4 - Ryan Wright
PLUSES:
1. Tommy Mason-Griffin: TMG, for lack of a better analogy, got popped in the mouth early on. He was getting dominated on both ends of the floor, but he stepped up and really played hard in the second half. 20 points, and I think they all came in the second stanza. It was nice to see him respond when he could've crawled into a shell. He'll be a great one for us.
2. Willie Warren: I was as down on Willie as anybody, but he played another solid offensive game. He still turns the ball over too often, but the aggressiveness that was lacking against Northen Colorado returned tonight. He just didn't have much help.
3. UTEP: They may be the Boys Town of El Paso All-Stars, but this traveling bunch was really good. We may make mediocre teams look better than they actually are, but UTEP is stout. They identified early on that we couldn't defend them and they responded by absolutely mauling us. Kudos to them.
MINUSES:
1. Jeff Capel: DISCLAIMER!!! I'm a big Jeff Capel fan. Huge. But there is far too much talent on this team to have double-digit non-conference losses to the likes of VCU, San Diego and UTEP. I'm very confident we'll be a much better basketball team in a month than we are right now, but we shouldn't be sitting through his kind of a performance. We will improve, I KNOW we'll improve, but tonight the blame starts at the very top.
2. Cade Davis: Playing the part of last year's Tony Crocker is........Cade Davis! Off shooting night and benched in favor of Steven Pledger to start the second half. Maybe he'll go for 25 in Spokane.
3. Rebounding: During our "death by outside shooting" stretch late in the first half we didn't even sniff an offensive board. Not even close. If you'd given our guys the option of poison ivy or attacking the glass they all would've stocked up on calamine lotion. It was epidemic, and it has to stop.
4. All-College Classic: They better get some teams with national buzz or this tournament will completely go down the tubes. I was there in December of 2002 when OU hosted Michigan State in the nightcap and the Ford Center was packed. 18,000+ in the house. Fast forward to tonight and I'd be suprised if there were 5,000 people there. Sad.
I'm very anxious to see how we respond to the challenge that lies ahead. We're 8-4 with a VERY tough road game in ten days. There's no reason to think we'll beat Gonzaga. So that's 8-5. We beat Maryland Eastern-Shore to get to 9-5 and then we dive head first into Big 12 play at a time when the conference is as good as it's ever been. Wins will be very tough to come by, and once it begins there'll be no rest for the weary when you consider this team only goes seven deep.
The task before us is mighty, but the unknown of the journey is always the most fun. Here's to these Sooners getting the ship righted.
Let's just hope the ship's not named the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Thank you for your time.
