Traveler, Ada, Denver?

[ousooners1baby]

Give me some hope. Shed some light. What’s happening?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[outest]

OU bigs sucked. That's all.

 

[chuckb]

OU bigs sucked. That's all.

Lattin was maybe the team's best player last night. If you want to go Young and then Lattin, I can get behind that. Except for the Texas game, Lattin has probably been the team's 2nd best player over the last 5 games or so. Maybe 3rd with Odomes in there.

 

[BigDLamb]

Lattin was huge on the D end... however he does get a little hesitant in the paint once his shot has been altered a time or 2. He had a few late on passes and couple put backs he was very hesitant with and went up soft. I do agree he has been very solid though. I thought we just had too many careless turnovers with ball out of Trae's hands. James and Odomes lost a few just bringing it up the court. To me the biggest issue for us is Dolittle and McGusty...they are contributing nothing at all. And I also thought maybe the most crucial part of the game was when Lon left Freeman and Dolittle in together for quite a few min and the lead quickly went from 4 to 12 again i think.

 

[jaymOU]

Lattin was maybe the team's best player last night. If you want to go Young and then Lattin, I can get behind that. Except for the Texas game, Lattin has probably been the team's 2nd best player over the last 5 games or so. Maybe 3rd with Odomes in there.

agree 100% - and got ripped on Twitter because of this stance. People only see points and rarely know how basketball is won and lost. Sad. Lattin did not play well against UT - foul trouble - but outside that game, he has been great for several weeks in a row.

Lattin's mystery to me are his hands. Unbelievable how many times he tips balls on D - even swiping the ball from guards, then can't catch a pass near the rim. Strange. Regardless, he has helped this team during their most recent stretch of games.

 

[jaymOU]

Lattin was huge on the D end... however he does get a little hesitant in the paint once his shot has been altered a time or 2. He had a few late on passes and couple put backs he was very hesitant with and went up soft. I do agree he has been very solid though. I thought we just had too many careless turnovers with ball out of Trae's hands. James and Odomes lost a few just bringing it up the court. To me the biggest issue for us is Dolittle and McGusty...they are contributing nothing at all. And I also thought maybe the most crucial part of the game was when Lon left Freeman and Dolittle in together for quite a few min and the lead quickly went from 4 to 12 again i think.

Can Shep and TY play together? James has not been shooting the ball well at all, and Shep actually looked better last night in limited action than he has in a while. I know this was an experiment earlier in the year, but it is food for thought. Woodard played the two as a JR so size isn't really an issue. Anything to provide a spark at this point

 

[SoonerSpock]

agree 100% - and got ripped on Twitter because of this stance. People only see points and rarely know how basketball is won and lost. Sad. Lattin did not play well against UT - foul trouble - but outside that game, he has been great for several weeks in a row.

Lattin's mystery to me are his hands. Unbelievable how many times he tips balls on D - even swiping the ball from guards, then can't catch a pass near the rim. Strange. Regardless, he has helped this team during their most recent stretch of games.

He does not aggressively attempt to catch the ball with two hands. Ditto on rebounds.

 

[WichitaSooner]

agree 100% - and got ripped on Twitter because of this stance. People only see points and rarely know how basketball is won and lost. Sad. Lattin did not play well against UT - foul trouble - but outside that game, he has been great for several weeks in a row.

Lattin's mystery to me are his hands. Unbelievable how many times he tips balls on D - even swiping the ball from guards, then can't catch a pass near the rim. Strange. Regardless, he has helped this team during their most recent stretch of games.

Great? Several weeks? He was brutal for more than a month and a half, and has now played well in three of his last four games. I'm guilty of sometimes overlooking some of the things he does well, but the reason I'm frustrated is that the mistakes he makes are ones that a player with his experience and athletic ability simply shouldn't make. Plus, many of his mistakes (dropping or fumbling passes, not going up strong and finishing) directly cost us points. One example -- late in last night's game, when we needed every bucket we could get, Manek made a nice read and threw a lob to Lattin, who was on the other side of the rim. Lattin didn't anticipate it, so instead of having an easy dunk, he had to catch it and come down, and then missed a turn-around. Add up a handful of those plays a game, and it changes games. He's far from the only one, but he IS the only senior and is the self-proclaimed leader.

 

[AdaSooner]

Give me some hope. Shed some light. What’s happening?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wish I had an answer to your question, 1baby! When Khadeem said we would see a change in our defense before the UT game, I wanted him to be right. We all know how that turned out. Our defense in the final minutes cost us that game. The loss to WVU was a combination of poor defense, ill-advised shots and mental errors.

I’m at a loss to understand why this team is not playing better. I’m not buying the notion that TY is our only talented player. No doubt he’s by far our best. But he didn’t beat Oregon, USC, WSU in Wichita, a #7 ranked Tech team by 10, and an undefeated TCU at the time on their home floor by himself.

That’s the team I want to see again!

 

[ousooners1baby]

That's what I am struggling with. The excuse that our players aren't any good. What the heck was I watching most of the year? Again, it's not the losses it how and why.

 

[OUSKINS]

That's what I am struggling with. The excuse that our players aren't any good. What the heck was I watching most of the year? Again, it's not the losses it how and why.

At no point this year have they been good defensively.

At no point this year has any other than TY created ANYTHING on offense.

Those two things are the same now as they were when we were hot.

The difference now is twofold, but they play into each other:

1) TY caught people totally off guard to start the year. He is being schemed-for now in a manner he was NOT in the non-conf and early in B12 play. Teams are throwing the kitchen sink at him now. He is incredible so he is still getting his numbers most nights and keeping us in (or winning) games. But he is far less efficient now than he was early. He is being forced to work harder and the offense is less fluid because of it.

2) Guys aren't hitting shots at the rate they were early in the season. Part of this is due to #1 and part of it might just be law of averages. It's all about shooting. No one else actually creates offense. Our offense is nearly 100% predicated on TY breaking down the D or going Superman himself. Early in the season, he had more room to move and we were getting better looks.

The team absolutely overachieved early in the season. They might be struggling a bit more now than they should. "Who they are" is probably somewhere in the middle, but I do think reality is closer to what we see now than what we saw early in the season. I do think it is possible that we will shoot the ball better at some point. I don't think we will see much change in defense or anyone else creating offense-- the talent/size just isn't there.

Here is the question I often ask myself: How many of our guys would be in the rotation for a really good (not great) team? Say a solid Sweet 16-type of team? On this OU squad, I don't think there are many. I see only TY as a guy who would start. Then, the rest of our starting 5 would all potentially be bench-type of rotation players. I don't think anyone that currently comes off our bench would play on a really good team.

I don't think we have "trash" surrounding TY like some like to paint it-- but we don't have a truly quality supporting cast either. I see them as a bunch of guys who would be #5-8 type players in a rotation ideally. Manek has lots of upside. Maybe Kam and Doo can be salvaged, but there is no denying how ineffective they have been this year.

My hope is that shots start to fall again and TY get a bit of second wind closer to March (he looks tired). Maybe we can ride his heroics to a little run. That's how I view this team.

 

[Capel's Mustache]

At no point this year have they been good defensively.

At no point this year has any other than TY created ANYTHING on offense.

Those two things are the same now as they were when we were hot.

The difference now is twofold, but they play into each other:

1) TY caught people totally off guard to start the year. He is being schemed-for now in a manner he was NOT in the non-conf and early in B12 play. Teams are throwing the kitchen sink at him now. He is incredible so he is still getting his numbers most nights and keeping us in (or winning) games. But he is far less efficient now than he was early. He is being forced to work harder and the offense is less fluid because of it.

2) Guys aren't hitting shots at the rate they were early in the season. Part of this is due to #1 and part of it might just be law of averages. It's all about shooting. No one else actually creates offense. Our offense is nearly 100% predicated on TY breaking down the D or going Superman himself. Early in the season, he had more room to move and we were getting better looks.

The team absolutely overachieved early in the season. They might be struggling a bit more now than they should. "Who they are" is probably somewhere in the middle, but I do think reality is closer to what we see now than what we saw early in the season. I do think it is possible that we will shoot the ball better at some point. I don't think we will see much change in defense or anyone else creating offense-- the talent/size just isn't there.

Here is the question I often ask myself: How many of our guys would be in the rotation for a really good (not great) team? Say a solid Sweet 16-type of team? On this OU squad, I don't think there are many. I see only TY as a guy who would start. Then, the rest of our starting 5 would all potentially be bench-type of rotation players. I don't think anyone that currently comes off our bench would play on a really good team.

I don't think we have "trash" surrounding TY like some like to paint it-- but we don't have a truly quality supporting cast either. I see them as a bunch of guys who would be #5-8 type players in a rotation ideally. Manek has lots of upside. Maybe Kam and Doo can be salvaged, but there is no denying how ineffective they have been this year.

My hope is that shots start to fall again and TY get a bit of second wind closer to March (he looks tired). Maybe we can ride his heroics to a little run. That's how I view this team.

This is a great post. Spot on in so many ways. I especially agree with the points you made at the beginning "At no point this year have they been good defensively. At no point this year has any other than TY created ANYTHING on offense."