SOONERS VS Couch Burners

[WTSooner]

They have won 15 games. This roster has 1 4 star player. You could find close to 100 teams with more than 1 4 star player on the roster.

Two 4* players according to 247. Manek and Doolittle.

And it shouldn't matter. This team has the talent to be better than they are. That is all that matters.

And if the talent isn't there, who's fault is that? Just shows that LK isn't a great coach. Plenty of coaches get more out of their teams than their individual talents. LK doesn't. He needs a great roster to have a good team. Maybe LK should stop running guys like McGusty off. Maybe he should stop recruiting guys like Polla and Freeman who have no business being at OU. Add Lazenby to that list. Kur Kuath probably ends up on that list too. LK's roster problems are his own doing. Always in panic mode to fill a roster (most years). Creates constant turnover. He needs some consistency so we aren't constantly picking up transfers and JUCO's (that don't pan out).

 

[mict085]

Lon replaces his top 2 assistants with his son and some other schmuck. Since then, the program has taken a nosedive. If it doesn’t dramatically change over the next 2 years, Lon should retire. This program is going the wrong way.

This team hasn’t been very good since the FF run and honestly, has been mostly awful in conference play.

 

[TINY]

Buddy was a 4*.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2012/buddy-hield-10352

 

[TINY]

Two 4* players according to 247. Manek and Doolittle.

And it shouldn't matter. This team has the talent to be better than they are. That is all that matters.

And if the talent isn't there, who's fault is that? Just shows that LK isn't a great coach. Plenty of coaches get more out of their teams than their individual talents. LK doesn't. He needs a great roster to have a good team. Maybe LK should stop running guys like McGusty off. Maybe he should stop recruiting guys like Polla and Freeman who have no business being at OU. Add Lazenby to that list. Kur Kuath probably ends up on that list too. LK's roster problems are his own doing. Always in panic mode to fill a roster (most years). Creates constant turnover. He needs some consistency so we aren't constantly picking up transfers and JUCO's (that don't pan out).

Roster has 0 top 100 guys according to 247. This roster is an embarrassment for OU standards. McGusty and Trae were the only top 100 guys on the team last year and we lost them both. I agree that Kruger has **** the bed in recruiting (outside of Trae and Kam) since the final 4 run. This class is finally one that we should be excited for again.

 

[coolm]

Lack of talent is not the problem here. You guys can just keep beating on that horse for as long as you like and it wont matter.

We'd better hope these guys coming in have some internal discipline of their own like Buddy did (who I could have swore was a 3 star but I really dont focus on that) or the new guys will suffer the exact same fate as we are seeing right now.

 

[soonermom1000]

Next up...Iowa State.....Oh boy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MrAnderson]

Lack of talent is not the problem here. You guys can just keep beating on that horse for as long as you like and it wont matter.

We'd better hope these guys coming in have some internal discipline of their own like Buddy did (who I could have swore was a 3 star but I really dont focus on that) or the new guys will suffer the exact same fate as we are seeing right now.

Agree. A coach with an undisciplined system better have some very mature and/or very talented players. This bunch is talented enough to win some games with the right coach so its become pretty clear that Lon is the main problem here.

Sampson would have this team above .500 in conference no doubt.

 

[coolm]

Sampson would have this team above .500 in conference no doubt.

I think he would also. There are things about Lon that I like better than Kelvin - don't get me wrong. But Lon's style does not mesh well with players who need to be driven by their coach to achieve.

 

[TINY]

Lack of talent is not the problem here. You guys can just keep beating on that horse for as long as you like and it wont matter.

We'd better hope these guys coming in have some internal discipline of their own like Buddy did (who I could have swore was a 3 star but I really dont focus on that) or the new guys will suffer the exact same fate as we are seeing right now.

Which teams have less talent than ou in this conference? Osu and...?

 

[sooner 1234]

This is the worst /hardest to watch three year span I can remember for OU basketball in three decades.
I’ve seen maybe worse teams during that stretch , but atleast they were enjoyable to watch most of the time .
I have never seen three years in a row where the teams NEVER improved over the course of the season , baring major injuries .

 

[WichitaSooner]

Agree. A coach with an undisciplined system better have some very mature and/or very talented players. This bunch is talented enough to win some games with the right coach so its become pretty clear that Lon is the main problem here.

Sampson would have this team above .500 in conference no doubt.

What exactly do you guys mean by lack of discipline? This team doesn't jack up a ton of threes, and since JB took over, we don't turn it over much. I've heard just about every opposing coach say that Lon does as good a job as any coach creating and taking advantage of mismatches. Our offense isn't good this year, but I don't see lack of discipline as the issue. We don't have many guys, if any, who can consistently get their own shot, we don't have a post player who we can just dump it into and rely on, and we have a couple guys who struggle to make layups or shots at the rim. Those are all huge problems but don't seem to be a product of undisciplined play.

 

[MrAnderson]

What exactly do you guys mean by lack of discipline?

Getting out-rebounded 46-30, including allowing 18 offensive rebounds. Not blocking out, allowing too many open shots, careless turnovers in crucial situations, getting out hustled to loose balls. In general just making low IQ bball plays.

It's like they've never had a film session before because the same mistakes happen over and over again.

 

[sdcloud9]

What exactly do you guys mean by lack of discipline? This team doesn't jack up a ton of threes, and since JB took over, we don't turn it over much. I've heard just about every opposing coach say that Lon does as good a job as any coach creating and taking advantage of mismatches. Our offense isn't good this year, but I don't see lack of discipline as the issue. We don't have many guys, if any, who can consistently get their own shot, we don't have a post player who we can just dump it into and rely on, and we have a couple guys who struggle to make layups or shots at the rim. Those are all huge problems but don't seem to be a product of undisciplined play.[/QUOTE

I agree. This team just has a small margin for error.

When you struggle to score, all the other things you do poorly are magnified.

 

[WTSooner]

When you struggle to score, all the other things you do poorly are magnified.

Before the season started, a few of us pointed that out. All we heard was how chemistry and defense was going to be better (and both probably are), but that group of us thought our offense would hold us back. And for the past 1-2 months, it has.

 

[Stikboy]

Two 4* players according to 247. Manek and Doolittle.

And it shouldn't matter. This team has the talent to be better than they are. That is all that matters.

And if the talent isn't there, who's fault is that? Just shows that LK isn't a great coach. Plenty of coaches get more out of their teams than their individual talents. LK doesn't. He needs a great roster to have a good team. Maybe LK should stop running guys like McGusty off. Maybe he should stop recruiting guys like Polla and Freeman who have no business being at OU. Add Lazenby to that list. Kur Kuath probably ends up on that list too. LK's roster problems are his own doing. Always in panic mode to fill a roster (most years). Creates constant turnover. He needs some consistency so we aren't constantly picking up transfers and JUCO's (that don't pan out).

Spot on.

 

[TulsaWorld]

Recap from the Associated Press...

Oklahoma (15-7, 3-6) went more than 6½ minutes without scoring from the field but hit 13 free throws to cut the Mountaineer lead down to as little as one with six minutes to play.

...

Brady Manek led the Sooners with 18 points, Aaron Calixte added 17 and Kristian Doolittle pulled 12 rebounds.

“Tough battle,” said Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger. “Obviously, it’s pretty clear that boards were the biggest difference. They had their way with us inside.”

From Guerin Emig's weekly column...

The year Kansas finally decides to let someone else win the Big 12 basketball race — they are going to, aren’t they? — and the two Bedlam schools are getting lapped. They are getting lapped by a bunch of good, but hardly great, conference teams.

Buddy Hield’s 2015-16 Sooners were great. Blake Griffin’s 2008-09 Sooners were great. The 2012-13 Cowboys of Marcus Smart, Markel Brown and Le’Bryan Nash were great. None overcame Kansas.

All three of those teams would have overcome Kansas this year. All three would have won this version of the Big 12.

But these versions of the Sooners and Cowboys? One lost a home game to Baylor by 30 points last Monday. The other trailed a home game against Kansas State by 34 Saturday.

This is a worse example of wasted opportunity than Lunardi’s Tulsa bracket.

Speaking of Lunardi's bracket, here's a link to that. Spoiler for Tulsa regional predictions: Marquette vs. Jacksonville State, Mississippi State vs. Indiana/Arizona State play-in winner, Purdue vs. George Mason, Buffalo vs. Alabama.

Finally, here's Eric Bailey's preview of tonight's game vs Iowa State...

The Sooners will play on Mondays and Saturdays, exclusively, during February. The trend continues with Monday’s 8 p.m. home game against No. 20 Iowa State.

It isn’t an ideal situation for a basketball team searching for consistency. OU will play two games in three days on three different occasions.

Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger was asked about the scheduling.

“I think most coaches would rather have (games) spaced out,” Kruger said. “But again, it’s nothing we can control or worry about. We’d rather have 2-3 days of preparation always, but when you have back-to-back, at least you have four-five days preparation on the back end.”