The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Badger edition

[BigTime]

G: Ryan Spangler. My goodness he out wisconsined- wisconsin in every way possible with toughness and power. Shot it very confident. Really like his driving game.

B: Forcing up shots. Buddy and Cousins are both good for at least a couple of forced shots every game and this game was no exception

U: All the empty seats. I know it is November. I know it was a holiday weekend. I know it was wet, cold and there were power outages. I know that there were hungover and thawing out fans from the night before. I know that Wisconsin lost their key guys. I know that it was during the NFL games. But this team deserves better...I am hopeful that the crowds will grow by January. I was hoping for 7k (thinking there may be around 8k) and we ended up with 6.5...

Overall a good win against a team that will improve as the season goes on as they always do under Bo Ryan.

 

[AdaSooner]

It's not easy to find something negative when you beat a power conference team by 17 points and never really find yourself in danger of losing a big lead. The only thing I can think of is we need to do a better job of rebounding on the defensive glass. We gave up too many second and third chance shots in that game, after doing the same thing against Memphis two weeks ago.

When you win going away by a large margin, you expect to look at the stats and see where OU dominated one or more offensive categories, or that five or more players scored in double digits. That wasn't the case in this game. Ryan, Buddy and Isaiah were the only ones who scored more than 4 points, and two of those three (Buddy and Isaiah) didn't exactly set the nets on fire. This win came as a result of OU playing solid defense and forcing Wisky into a poor shooting performance, likely their worst in years. I'm fine with that, because defense can win a lot of games for you when it's played well. It's also the most reliable.

Ryan Spangler had an amazing performance. Isaiah and Jordan were efficient running the point, with 8 assists between them and only 1 turnover. Khadeem Lattin had a good game. He only had 2 points, but he made up for it with 8 boards, 2 blocks, 1 steal and some solid defense. Walker had a good game in limited minutes, and for that matter, so did our other back up players. This team is in the process of developing a very deep bench that will serve us well down the stretch.

 

[jaymOU]

Good - Spangler's increased range and willingness to shoot the ball! Times last year he, literally, disappeared in the scoring column. The high pick-and-roll early was a thing of beauty.

Bad - Buddy's shooting for sure, but even worse for me was shot selection. He and Isaiah both went Russell Westbrook a couple of times and OU had those "no pass possessions" Russell has made famous for the Thunder. I know LK has had guard-oriented offenses - either by necessity or design - but this team has some posts who pose threats and would likely be double-teamed. I'd love for the ball to touch a post player's hand - in the post - every non-fast break possession.

Ugly - outside of Wisconsin's shooting percentage and their methodical style was too many offensive boards given up. Noticed it especially with McNease in the game. Appears AK can rebound out of his area, but looked noticeable tired on a couple of possessions. Agree this may be a future area of concern.

 

[Max Power]

I really didn't see much to be negative about. McNease and Lattin need to work on grip strength when grabbing rebounds but that will come with more time in the weight room. Other than that we played really well. The Pack Line D and the pace at which Wisconsin plays disrupt the flow of most offenses, but we hummed right alone like a legit top 10 team. I don't have a problem with Buddy and Isaiah shooting because that's who they are. they will have an off night every now and again but overall we want them getting the bulk of the shots. Spangler played his you know what off and came up huge for us, and Manyang is slowly getting back in to shape. Woodard and the rest of the guards took care of the ball. Overall a very positive game for us heading into a huge test in one week on the Island.

 

[Larry72]

They slowed the game down and we did nothing to alter the pace. With all of the depth, we should apply pressure D the entire game. Nobody is going to get tired at the pace of this game. Spangler was the only one that was aggressive. I am little disappointed in the coaching strategy with the athletes we have.

 

[Sooner04]

We won.....

By 17.....

 

[Larry72]

It could have been 30 with great D and better rebounding

 

[WaymanFan]

We won.....

By 17.....

Yes, but just because one of the best guards we'll face all year (Koenig) had a horrible game doesn't mean there aren't things this OU team needs to work on.


Good: Ryan Spangler's noticeable difference in his confidence in taking outside shots.

Bad: I found myself yelling these same three words over and over again: "Rebound! Rebound! Rebound!".

Ugly: Seriously, one minute of game action for the highest rated Lon Kruger Sooner recruit? I doubt any of us would have predicted that at the beginning of the year.