Thoughts from the Tech Game

Boom Soon

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Just got home from Norman. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the game against Tech. This is only the second game I've seen in the Lloyd Noble Center. Thought I would share some of my thoughts. The game was an absolute whirlwind so it's going to be hard for me to remember specifics. I'll try to be as positive as I can because at this point there is no reason to be super negative.

1. The energy was great. There were definitely times where the gym was quieter then you'd hoped but I thought the overall atmosphere was great. The gym went absolutely nuts when Oweh got that steal and jam in the second half and it was awesome. The Lloyd Noble center is far from the problem with this team. I think it's a fun place to watch basketball.

2. OU definitely has the athletes. OU did not lose because they were not athletic enough. in fact, I would argue that OU was more athletic than Tech. The only thing they're missing is an athletic big man. Yaya absolutely looks like he could be, but that's probably just a pipe dream.

3. There were alot of Tech fans there (relatively). They clearly travel well. There seems to be alot of passion in their fan base. Something that just seems to be lacking at OU (obviously a whole other conversation).

4. I thought OU's offense overall was pretty good. It did not start good but Moser made the needed adjustments and things got better. I liked some of the off the ball screens, double screens, and just overall movement of the offense. I never, for once, thought OU was in trouble because the offense.

5. Jalon Moore's energy and bounce is as advertised but man he is almost a walking turnover. He needs to be a slasher. Two dribbles, get to the rim, or jump stop and kick out. There was one time where he posted up, got the ball, dribbled too many times and then turned it over. I mean it was so hard to watch.

6. Soares might need to start. I'm not exactly sure for who but he was the best guard today bar none. He's long, athletic, and plays so hard. Say what you want about Moser but kudos for him for bringing in Soares. OU loses by 10+ without him, imo.

7. I am now in the "Darthard needs to play less camp." He was a liabilty on defense and his shot is not good right now. I really really don't think you would lose much bringing in Cooper more. "But Cooper's defense isn't good enough." Well Darthard's hasn't been either. "Cooper might not score enough." Well Darthard was like 1/5 from three. Get the young guy some reps and see what he can do. And I really didn't think that until watching in person.

8. Godwin played like a champ.

9. This team is infinitely better when Uzan is more aggressive. He was night and day different from the first half to the second half and it showed.

10. I don't have much to say for JM other than he had a tough day. That happens. The team is deep enough they don't actually need him to score 20 to win.

11. My last point. We would not even be having these conversations if they make their darn free throws. 62% is awful. That's the game right there. Basketball is such a simple sport. OU wins handily if they shoot 80%+from the line and I firmly believe that.

Overall, I had a blast at the game. I love watching Sooner basketball, and would go to every home game if I lived closer. But, it's just sad to be a fan right now. Every freaking season since Buddy has been disappointing to one degree or the next. It feels like OU basketball is just trapped in this vortex of mediocracy and can't escape. It's easy to harken back to the "glory days" under Lon, but I remember just as much disappointment then. It just feels like OU has slowly been falling over the edge since about 2016.

There is a tonne of basketball left to be played, so there is still hope. The potential for this team is absolutely there. As disappointing as the last two games were I still think they can put together a string of wins and get over the hump. I hope I'm right!
 
Def FT’s killed us… and some crappy def. Can’t let a team shoot 70% in a half and win
 
Def FT’s killed us… and some crappy def. Can’t let a team shoot 70% in a half and win
Agreed. Just like the football team, the basketball team cannot put together a complete game in conference. When the defense is good, the offense struggles and when the offense is clicking they are giving up easy buckets. OU had a chance to put Tech away but just couldn’t get enough stops to do it.
 
Outstanding post, one of the best game reports ever!!!

I’ll admit that I’m partial to the boys from Ada. But, like you, I can’t help but wonder why Cooper doesn’t play more? If this team was loaded with great shooters, I might not ask that question. But a quick glance at Cooper’s profile from “The Skill Factory“ where he attended school his senior year, tells me that he might be able to fill that void if given the chance:


PREP/HIGH SCHOOL:
Labeled a four-star prospect by 247Sports, ESPN, On3 and Rivals ... Attended Ada High School in Ada, Okla., before transferring to The Skill Factory in Woodstock, Ga. ... Averaged 12.9 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks per contest in 28 games for The Skills Factory in 2021-22 ... Shot 62% from the field (115-186) and 48% from deep (29-60) ... Competed on the Adidas 3SSB Circuit for Team Trae Young and averaged 10.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.1 blocks in 17 games.
 
Outstanding post, one of the best game reports ever!!!

I’ll admit that I’m partial to the boys from Ada. But, like you, I can’t help but wonder why Cooper doesn’t play more? If this team was loaded with great shooters, I might not ask that question. But a quick glance at Cooper’s profile from “The Skill Factory“ where he attended school his senior year, tells me that he might be able to fill that void if given the chance:


PREP/HIGH SCHOOL:
Labeled a four-star prospect by 247Sports, ESPN, On3 and Rivals ... Attended Ada High School in Ada, Okla., before transferring to The Skill Factory in Woodstock, Ga. ... Averaged 12.9 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks per contest in 28 games for The Skills Factory in 2021-22 ... Shot 62% from the field (115-186) and 48% from deep (29-60) ... Competed on the Adidas 3SSB Circuit for Team Trae Young and averaged 10.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.1 blocks in 17 games.
hmmm, now I'm a bit miffed. I didn't know a lot about Cooper except he was top 100.

So his "Sr yr" he played against pretty good competition. Some kids dominate their HS season just because they are 6'7 going against 6'1 guys all the time..so their "stats" might be a bit off. You'd think he could provide SOMETHING since he played there and did fairly well.

I get up until conference the team was pretty dominate...so why not play him more..give him a chance to get his feet wet. So we could use him..the last couple of games he'd be ready.

I THOUGHT I heard the sooner announcers say not 1 guy on our team has any ncaa tourney experience...really? even the transfers? crazy.
 
hmmm, now I'm a bit miffed. I didn't know a lot about Cooper except he was top 100.

So his "Sr yr" he played against pretty good competition. Some kids dominate their HS season just because they are 6'7 going against 6'1 guys all the time..so their "stats" might be a bit off. You'd think he could provide SOMETHING since he played there and did fairly well.

I get up until conference the team was pretty dominate...so why not play him more..give him a chance to get his feet wet. So we could use him..the last couple of games he'd be ready.

I THOUGHT I heard the sooner announcers say not 1 guy on our team has any ncaa tourney experience...really? even the transfers? crazy.
Soonerinkc, a “bit miffed” pales in comparison to what I will feel if Cooper decides to leave after spending most of his freshman season on OU’s bench.

I have no inside info and he appears to be happy right now. But, Moser will lose my support if he continues to waste what should have been a redshirt season on his inability to manage Kaden’s time in a Sooner uniform. Nothing PM has done so far makes any sense to me!
 
IMO UT was the truly disappointing outing (the first all year honestly). Got to hit free throws. Will lose games like that against top 25 teams.

Agree about Darthard, would hope PM tinkers a bit and feel like getting some help shooting would be step-up especially since he’s been pretty poor defensively lately.
 
IMO UT was the truly disappointing outing (the first all year honestly). Got to hit free throws. Will lose games like that against top 25 teams.

Agree about Darthard, would hope PM tinkers a bit and feel like getting some help shooting would be step-up especially since he’s been pretty poor defensively lately.
The Tech game was the only loss where we even had a chance late. All the other losses, while not absolute blowouts, were effectively over with several minutes left. That’s very disappointing to me.
 
Outstanding post, one of the best game reports ever!!!

I’ll admit that I’m partial to the boys from Ada. But, like you, I can’t help but wonder why Cooper doesn’t play more? If this team was loaded with great shooters, I might not ask that question. But a quick glance at Cooper’s profile from “The Skill Factory“ where he attended school his senior year, tells me that he might be able to fill that void if given the chance:


PREP/HIGH SCHOOL:
Labeled a four-star prospect by 247Sports, ESPN, On3 and Rivals ... Attended Ada High School in Ada, Okla., before transferring to The Skill Factory in Woodstock, Ga. ... Averaged 12.9 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks per contest in 28 games for The Skills Factory in 2021-22 ... Shot 62% from the field (115-186) and 48% from deep (29-60) ... Competed on the Adidas 3SSB Circuit for Team Trae Young and averaged 10.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.1 blocks in 17 games.
Thank you!

And if Cooper could even knock down two threes a game, play decent defense and not turn the ball over it would be a benefit over Darthard at this point.
 
IMO UT was the truly disappointing outing (the first all year honestly). Got to hit free throws. Will lose games like that against top 25 teams.

Agree about Darthard, would hope PM tinkers a bit and feel like getting some help shooting would be step-up especially since he’s been pretty poor defensively lately.
I think Moser has to do some tinkering at this point. I would hope Cooper is a part of that.
 
The Tech game was the only loss where we even had a chance late. All the other losses, while not absolute blowouts, were effectively over with several minutes left. That’s very disappointing to me.
Completely fair for sure.

Also, to add to that, I am disappointed in the Texas and Tech losses. Happy with the Cincy and ISU wins.

Here is a breakdown I have on the other board.


OU is going to still be a Top25 ranked team in the AP poll, most likely.

According to KenPom OU is ranked 28th with 5 losses to:

#5 UNC (flat out beat)
#17 Kansas (Phog and Dickinson)
#21 TCU (OU got hosed in calls, allowed TCU to steal it)
#26 Texas Tech (we should have won this, but flopped it up)
#38 Texas (this is a bad loss to me, UT was on fire)

It is not like OU is playing a cake schedule, but they have to start winning those 50/50 games (TT - FT shooting) and winning the home games (UT - outshot and outrebounded).

On the bright side, OU's record against 51+ and below is 11-0.
Record vs. 26-50: 3-2
Record vs. Top 25: 1-3

Gotta be positive in the 26-50 range and steal one from the Top25 range to prove you are still a Top 25 team.

Games left (by KP rank)?
51+: 4
26-50: 2
Top 25: 5

Need to win the 4, split the 2 and take 1 from 5 if we can. That is 6 wins which puts us at 9-9. 8-10 gets us in the tournament. 7-11 and we are on bubble watch, AGAIN. OU currently has no bad losses on their resume.


(Last year WVU went 7-11 in conference and got the 9 seed.

Record vs.:
51+: 12-2
26-50: 5-1
Top 25: 2-11 (+1 loss to MD in tourney))
 
Completely fair for sure.

Also, to add to that, I am disappointed in the Texas and Tech losses. Happy with the Cincy and ISU wins.

Here is a breakdown I have on the other board.


OU is going to still be a Top25 ranked team in the AP poll, most likely.

According to KenPom OU is ranked 28th with 5 losses to:

#5 UNC (flat out beat)
#17 Kansas (Phog and Dickinson)
#21 TCU (OU got hosed in calls, allowed TCU to steal it)
#26 Texas Tech (we should have won this, but flopped it up)
#38 Texas (this is a bad loss to me, UT was on fire)

It is not like OU is playing a cake schedule, but they have to start winning those 50/50 games (TT - FT shooting) and winning the home games (UT - outshot and outrebounded).

On the bright side, OU's record against 51+ and below is 11-0.
Record vs. 26-50: 3-2
Record vs. Top 25: 1-3

Gotta be positive in the 26-50 range and steal one from the Top25 range to prove you are still a Top 25 team.

Games left (by KP rank)?
51+: 4
26-50: 2
Top 25: 5

Need to win the 4, split the 2 and take 1 from 5 if we can. That is 6 wins which puts us at 9-9. 8-10 gets us in the tournament. 7-11 and we are on bubble watch, AGAIN. OU currently has no bad losses on their resume.


(Last year WVU went 7-11 in conference and got the 9 seed.

Record vs.:
51+: 12-2
26-50: 5-1
Top 25: 2-11 (+1 loss to MD in tourney))
Thanks for posting this breakdown, yeah it’s not fun to be out of games late but a top 5 KP team in @UNC and @KU are not that upsetting IMO.

Can concede the TCU performance & definitely the UT performance/outcome were disappointing.
 
Completely fair for sure.

Also, to add to that, I am disappointed in the Texas and Tech losses. Happy with the Cincy and ISU wins.

Here is a breakdown I have on the other board.


OU is going to still be a Top25 ranked team in the AP poll, most likely.

According to KenPom OU is ranked 28th with 5 losses to:

#5 UNC (flat out beat)
#17 Kansas (Phog and Dickinson)
#21 TCU (OU got hosed in calls, allowed TCU to steal it)
#26 Texas Tech (we should have won this, but flopped it up)
#38 Texas (this is a bad loss to me, UT was on fire)

It is not like OU is playing a cake schedule, but they have to start winning those 50/50 games (TT - FT shooting) and winning the home games (UT - outshot and outrebounded).

On the bright side, OU's record against 51+ and below is 11-0.
Record vs. 26-50: 3-2
Record vs. Top 25: 1-3

Gotta be positive in the 26-50 range and steal one from the Top25 range to prove you are still a Top 25 team.

Games left (by KP rank)?
51+: 4
26-50: 2
Top 25: 5

Need to win the 4, split the 2 and take 1 from 5 if we can. That is 6 wins which puts us at 9-9. 8-10 gets us in the tournament. 7-11 and we are on bubble watch, AGAIN. OU currently has no bad losses on their resume.


(Last year WVU went 7-11 in conference and got the 9 seed.

Record vs.:
51+: 12-2
26-50: 5-1
Top 25: 2-11 (+1 loss to MD in tourney))
Awesome break down! Thank you. As frustrated as the fans are there is no reason to throw in the towel yet. I think it will be very hard to keep any 19 win Big 12 team out of the tournament.
 
Awesome break down! Thank you. As frustrated as the fans are there is no reason to throw in the towel yet. I think it will be very hard to keep any 19 win Big 12 team out of the tournament.
If we win only four more games, and, say, only one is a quad one win, we won’t make it, nor should we. It can’t be overstated how bad our schedule was. The difference between playing a couple awful (NET 300) teams and 6 or 7 is massive when it comes to the metrics. We couldn’t have expected USC and Arkansas to suck, or for Iowa to be worse than usual, but our staff knew those buy game opponents were among the worst in the nation. If you schedule teams in the 125-200 range, you give yourself a better chance to make it with a 7-11 conference record.

We are already down to 35 in the NET. We dropped 15 spots this week alone. If we go 4-7 the rest of the way, we will end up lower than we were two years ago. I think we need five more wins, and a couple need to be big scalps.
 
If we win only four more games, and, say, only one is a quad one win, we won’t make it, nor should we. It can’t be overstated how bad our schedule was. The difference between playing a couple awful (NET 300) teams and 6 or 7 is massive when it comes to the metrics. We couldn’t have expected USC and Arkansas to suck, or for Iowa to be worse than usual, but our staff knew those buy game opponents were among the worst in the nation. If you schedule teams in the 125-200 range, you give yourself a better chance to make it with a 7-11 conference record.

We are already down to 35 in the NET. We dropped 15 spots this week alone. If we go 4-7 the rest of the way, we will end up lower than we were two years ago. I think we need five more wins, and a couple need to be big scalps.
I am very concerned about this. We’re reminding me of last year in last 2 games. I haven’t given up yet but I don’t have confidence we are going to fix our issues. This league is too good for mistakes and lapses.
 
It can’t be overstated how bad our schedule was.
again, this is hogwash. you can talk down the schedule all you want.
Our SOS is still rated in the top 60 and SOR in the top 30 in the places I've looked.
We have had much worse schedules over the years
 
again, this is hogwash. you can talk down the schedule all you want.
Our SOS is still rated in the top 60 and SOR in the top 30 in the places I've looked.
We have had much worse schedules over the years
Our noncon schedule was around the 260s. It’s not difficult to find this info. Of course our overall number is relatively good .. you could play nothing but junior high teams in noncon and the strength of our league would make the overall number look decent. But that doesn’t help you if you lose 11 or 12 conference games.

There have been tons of articles written about the art of nonconference scheduling. The key is to play a few legitimately good opponents, and then make sure that the rest of the teams on the schedule aren’t awful. We made the tournament almost exclusively on the way we executed that approach a couple times in seasons where we really struggled in the league under Lon. Before Porter, it had been ages since we played a schedule with this many teams in the bottom 50.

And of course, not only does it hurt your metrics, it also does very little to get you ready for the big boys. I’ll grant that Providence was a solid team when we played them, but the first time we truly stepped on the floor with a top 20 team, UNC handled us with relative ease. We didn’t have to learn how to execute halfcourt offense when we were overwhelming bad teams, or how to win on the road. Those fluff wins padded our record and followed pollsters, but those things don’t matter come selection Sunday.
 
Our noncon schedule was around the 260s. It’s not difficult to find this info. Of course our overall number is relatively good .. you could play nothing but junior high teams in noncon and the strength of our league would make the overall number look decent. But that doesn’t help you if you lose 11 or 12 conference games.

There have been tons of articles written about the art of nonconference scheduling. The key is to play a few legitimately good opponents, and then make sure that the rest of the teams on the schedule aren’t awful. We made the tournament almost exclusively on the way we executed that approach a couple times in seasons where we really struggled in the league under Lon. Before Porter, it had been ages since we played a schedule with this many teams in the bottom 50.

And of course, not only does it hurt your metrics, it also does very little to get you ready for the big boys. I’ll grant that Providence was a solid team when we played them, but the first time we truly stepped on the floor with a top 20 team, UNC handled us with relative ease. We didn’t have to learn how to execute halfcourt offense when we were overwhelming bad teams, or how to win on the road. Those fluff wins padded our record and followed pollsters, but those things don’t matter come selection Sunday.
Today I learned that if a team isn't top 20, it is considered a fluff team.
OU's schedule was about perfect this year. It isn't their fault that the stronger scheduled teams haven't faired as well as hoped.
With playing in a tough conference like the Big 12, you don't want a super hard non conference. Especially with a new roster.

One thing is for sure, If OU had a really tough noncon, and we lost them, you would be bitching about how dumb it was to schedule a tough nonconference schedule
 
Today I learned that if a team isn't top 20, it is considered a fluff team.
OU's schedule was about perfect this year. It isn't their fault that the stronger scheduled teams haven't faired as well as hoped.
With playing in a tough conference like the Big 12, you don't want a super hard non conference. Especially with a new roster.

One thing is for sure, If OU had a really tough noncon, and we lost them, you would be bitching about how dumb it was to schedule a tough nonconference schedule
lol so in your view, the two options are laughably weak or “super hard?” If playing a few teams in the 150-200 range would have been too challenging for us, that says it all. I’ve never in my life complained about a noncon being too tough. Good teams challenge themselves. And enough with the new roster stuff. Again, this applies to 95 percent of teams in the country every year. I guess we can just use that excuse every year. Given the fact Moser is unwilling to play freshmen, we take the court with more experience than most teams. The excuse making is truly incredible at this point.
 
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