Tyler Neal

The combination of Neal, Cousins and Grooms all playing at the same time is what bothers me the most. When you have those three, then all of the scoring will come inside. While I'm aware Coach Kruger knows more about basketball than I do, bringing those three in so early in the game sucked the life right out of the crowd. That's the time when Texas turned a 4 point deficit into a 4-5 point lead.

If Coach Kruger wants to give him some minutes in hopes he discovers some confidence, I just wish he would do it when there is at least an outside shooting threat in the game.

With that said, hey, we beat Texas!
 
The combination of Neal, Cousins and Grooms all playing at the same time is what bothers me the most. When you have those three, then all of the scoring will come inside. While I'm aware Coach Kruger knows more about basketball than I do, bringing those three in so early in the game sucked the life right out of the crowd. That's the time when Texas turned a 4 point deficit into a 4-5 point lead.

If Coach Kruger wants to give him some minutes in hopes he discovers some confidence, I just wish he would do it when there is at least an outside shooting threat in the game.

With that said, hey, we beat Texas!

Agree those 3 should never be on the floor together.
 
I remember when he played. In three trips down the floor he had two turnovers and a missed shot. The first one was a drive to the basket and he got clubbed and lost the ball. The second he was going for a loose ball and was pushed out of bounds. Looked like he was playing hard to me. This was also the first half where we should have been up double digits and were behind. Seems to me a lot of guys were stinking it up. I haven't any problems putting him out there. We have no idea why someone was still on the bench or why the rotation is how it is. Cousins came in at the same time as Neal and didn't impress me one bit.

Neal was playing out of control. Cousins at least plays great defense
 
The combination of Neal, Cousins and Grooms all playing at the same time is what bothers me the most. When you have those three, then all of the scoring will come inside. While I'm aware Coach Kruger knows more about basketball than I do, bringing those three in so early in the game sucked the life right out of the crowd. That's the time when Texas turned a 4 point deficit into a 4-5 point lead.

If Coach Kruger wants to give him some minutes in hopes he discovers some confidence, I just wish he would do it when there is at least an outside shooting threat in the game.

With that said, hey, we beat Texas!

I second everything you just said!
 
It was a weird, sloppy game. Cousins took some terrible shots (though he contributed in other ways, as others have noted). Fitzgerald played twice as many minutes as Neal, but scored just as many points (zero). Pledger got outscored by Grooms. We got out-rebounded badly, especially down the stretch (if we'd rebounded well in the final five minutes, the game wouldn't have ever gotten close).

Neal was the least of it, seemed to me.
 
Kruger is just trying to steal some minutes early on in order to have some fresher legs down the stretch. Coach isn't going to be too concerned about a small run in the first half with T. Neal in the game if it saves Osby/etc. down the stretch. You have to remember, this team DIED during the second half in multiple games last year and I believe this is a step to alleviate that problem.

I agree though, his development has been disappointing.
 
I wouldn't have a problem with Neal getting in the game if he played good defense.
I don't expect him to contribute offensively. It's his bad defense that upsets me.
 
I wouldn't have a problem with Neal getting in the game if he played good defense.
I don't expect him to contribute offensively. It's his bad defense that upsets me.

That should be the other way around.

He simply doesn't have the athleticism to defend on the wing like we are asking him to.

He can, however, move the ball on offense and knock down open shots.

I'm not going to knock Tyler. LK is the one that keeps running him out there. I think Tyler is doing what he can. While I agree that LK is trying to keep guys fresh, these are 18-22 year old kids. One or two of them splitting Tyler's 3-5 minutes shouldn't really affect their play.
 
That should be the other way around.

He simply doesn't have the athleticism to defend on the wing like we are asking him to.

He can, however, move the ball on offense and knock down open shots.

I'm not going to knock Tyler. LK is the one that keeps running him out there. I think Tyler is doing what he can. While I agree that LK is trying to keep guys fresh, these are 18-22 year old kids. One or two of them splitting Tyler's 3-5 minutes shouldn't really affect their play.

While I tend to agree, but last night's pace was frantic and new bodies were needed in the first half. Could Kruger have used a TO here or there to slow it down? Sure, but I believe he was much more confident in UT wearing down than his. He wanted Ridley/Ibeh/etc to run as much as possible that first 20 minutes...their advantage was inside. That strategy became more important when Holmes went out, and it worked. Without McClellan's outburst, UT gets beat by 20+.

Now on a normal night with a slower pace, I can see why people might be skeptical of the tiring issue. My only response would be, Kruger knows he will need Neal for a few minutes at some point, getting some competitive minutes in a first half isn't going to kill this team and keeps him "sharper".
 
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He just brings nothing but negative to the floor. He almost single-handedly killed 4 straight possessions whether it was a turnover, near turnover or bad shot. I wouldn't mind if he brought anything good to the table, but he just doesn't. Frankly, I think he might be the least productive player I have seen continue to get minutes in conference play that I have seen at OU. His shooting percentage is in the teens and he can't guard anyone, cant rebound and turns the ball over.
 
He just brings nothing but negative to the floor. He almost single-handedly killed 4 straight possessions whether it was a turnover, near turnover or bad shot. I wouldn't mind if he brought anything good to the table, but he just doesn't. Frankly, I think he might be the least productive player I have seen continue to get minutes in conference play that I have seen at OU. His shooting percentage is in the teens and he can't guard anyone, cant rebound and turns the ball over.

Obviously, Coach Kruger disagrees with you.
 
He just brings nothing but negative to the floor. He almost single-handedly killed 4 straight possessions whether it was a turnover, near turnover or bad shot. I wouldn't mind if he brought anything good to the table, but he just doesn't. Frankly, I think he might be the least productive player I have seen continue to get minutes in conference play that I have seen at OU. His shooting percentage is in the teens and he can't guard anyone, cant rebound and turns the ball over.

agreed. although that last game was awful for him. lets see if he can shake it off. 3-4 minutes wont kil us but man if he continues his trend, he needs to be on the bench permanently
 
I guess he does, but I just don't understand why. We have plenty of depth without playing Neal.

He has been is a bad slump this year. Perhaps the hope is that he might play himself out of it and contribute more in the limited minutes he gets.
 
He has been is a bad slump this year. Perhaps the hope is that he might play himself out of it and contribute more in the limited minutes he gets.

I understand but I think the time has passed for that. He has obviously lost all confidence and it appears too late to get it back this season. We are 5 games in the Big 12 season and 17 games in. If the light hasn't come on by now, I think he needs to sit the bench until next season unless we are in foul trouble. At this point he is only hurting a rapidly improving team by killing momentum and possessions every time he is in the game.
 
He has been is a bad slump this year. Perhaps the hope is that he might play himself out of it and contribute more in the limited minutes he gets.

his entire career has been a slump.

It's not his fault though that that is the state of the program at the moment.
 
Here is the deal. In games we as fans can see where a player is in his developement and his ability to contibute. In practice, observers can see a players ceiling.

In players like Cousins there is a pretty big gap between those two points right now. And even in Tyler that gap is large enough to see why Kruger keeps giving him abit of a shot.
 
I know that it seems rare. And it certainly did not show its face in last night's game. But there have been times when he has gotten a block, some key rebounds and/or a steal. However, his shooting seems cursed this year and this seems to stick in peoples minds.
 
The combination of Neal, Cousins and Grooms all playing at the same time is what bothers me the most. When you have those three, then all of the scoring will come inside. While I'm aware Coach Kruger knows more about basketball than I do, bringing those three in so early in the game sucked the life right out of the crowd. That's the time when Texas turned a 4 point deficit into a 4-5 point lead.

If Coach Kruger wants to give him some minutes in hopes he discovers some confidence, I just wish he would do it when there is at least an outside shooting threat in the game.

With that said, hey, we beat Texas!

^
This.

Grooms is playing fairly well, and his increased minutes proves that. Cousins is, too, but mainly on defense. He is also making fewer mistakes with the ball in his hands, which may be why he's getting more playing time now. Unforunately, he continues to be a liability on offense. To be perfectly honest, Tyler doesn't offer much on either end.

That brings me back to your observation that playing those three together gives us almost nothing on offense. I don't have a problem with Tyler or any other player on the team logging minutes to give someone in our rotation a breather. But, as you correctly pointed out, there is an inherent risk to bringing them in together and killing any momentum our starters worked hard to build.
 
The combination of Neal, Cousins and Grooms all playing at the same time is what bothers me the most. When you have those three, then all of the scoring will come inside. While I'm aware Coach Kruger knows more about basketball than I do, bringing those three in so early in the game sucked the life right out of the crowd. That's the time when Texas turned a 4 point deficit into a 4-5 point lead.

If Coach Kruger wants to give him some minutes in hopes he discovers some confidence, I just wish he would do it when there is at least an outside shooting threat in the game.

With that said, hey, we beat Texas!

I don't disagree with anything you have said but maybe, just maybe, Kruger is trying to instill some confidence in Cousins and Neal because both would need to try to score when in there together. Both can score but haven't been able to prove it consistently yet this season.

Just a thought.
 
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