Vandy Game

[61sooner]

With Hand out, has the fan base on OUHoops dropped off the map?
No thread on the game, no comments, pro or con.
Can this season be salvaged at all? Is an NCAA bid gone with all the injuries? I saw 2 players had 4 fouls. Imagine a game where with a lot of fouling OU might end up with 4 players on the court ala the "Hoosiers?

 

[sybarite]

I usually have a game thread. Right now, I'm more interested in watching to see how this all develops. Sometimes, silence seems appropriate.

 

[Boomer]

It's going to be a tough season with so many injuries.

 

[jerry]

I just hope we can be .500 in league play.

 

[SoonerNorm]

I just hope we can be .500 in league play.

I doubt we can win more than one or two on the road in the Big 12. The key will be, how many we lose in Norman. I will not be surprised if we lose 4 or more at home, leaving us below 500.

 

[jerry]

I doubt we can win more than one or two on the road in the Big 12. The key will be, how many we lose in Norman. I will not be surprised if we lose 4 or more at home, leaving us below 500.

I was trying to be an optimist, but you are probably right.

 

[SoonerNorm]

I was trying to be an optimist, but you are probably right.

I hope I'm wrong.

 

[rocjunkie]

Yesterday was about as painful of a game I have watched at home since becoming a season ticket holder 11 years ago.

Vandy doesn't have any "better" kids than we have, but they do have a coach who understands her talent and is able to teach what she wants from her kids. Their offensive spacing was excellent, their movement without the ball was very good, and they showed extreme toughness and ability to go after rebounds on both sides of the floor.

Three glaring problems I saw on the Sooner end, first we don't follow shots, except Jo, and still have a tough time blocking out opponents, to which we have talked about til my head hurts. Second, without Whitney or Maddie in the line-up, we have absoutely no one who understands the concept of moving without the basketball. There were so many instances that it took 17 seconds of our 30 to even get into our offense, and still didn't get a quality shot or threw the ball away. That comes to turnovers, sure I have reserved the fact that Sherri's teams are never going to be a ball control team, or avg. 12 or less a game. I can live with it. However, to haphazardly throw the ball around to forced situations is ridiculous. At the moment we have 6 kids who can play fairly solid basketball. One who plays good defense, but wouldn't shoot the ball if you paid her, and another who just isn't ready for D-1 basketball.

Right now, if yesterday is any indication how the season is going to progress, I have to agree with Norm on this. We will be very lucky to finish at .500 in conference play, which will put us at about 17 to 19 wins. This could be the end of our Tournament streak and have to settle for the WNIT. I like to keep my glass half full, but unless these kids can put it together, it just doesn't look good. One game does not a season make, but hopefully we can make some improvement.

 

[SoonerNorm]

Yesterday was about as painful of a game I have watched at home since becoming a season ticket holder 11 years ago.

Vandy doesn't have any "better" kids than we have, but they do have a coach who understands her talent and is able to teach what she wants from her kids. Their offensive spacing was excellent, their movement without the ball was very good, and they showed extreme toughness and ability to go after rebounds on both sides of the floor.

Three glaring problems I saw on the Sooner end, first we don't follow shots, except Jo, and still have a tough time blocking out opponents, to which we have talked about til my head hurts. Second, without Whitney or Maddie in the line-up, we have absoutely no one who understands the concept of moving without the basketball. There were so many instances that it took 17 seconds of our 30 to even get into our offense, and still didn't get a quality shot or threw the ball away. That comes to turnovers, sure I have reserved the fact that Sherri's teams are never going to be a ball control team, or avg. 12 or less a game. I can live with it. However, to haphazardly throw the ball around to forced situations is ridiculous. At the moment we have 6 kids who can play fairly solid basketball. One who plays good defense, but wouldn't shoot the ball if you paid her, and another who just isn't ready for D-1 basketball.

Right now, if yesterday is any indication how the season is going to progress, I have to agree with Norm on this. We will be very lucky to finish at .500 in conference play, which will put us at about 17 to 19 wins. This could be the end of our Tournament streak and have to settle for the WNIT. I like to keep my glass half full, but unless these kids can put it together, it just doesn't look good. One game does not a season make, but hopefully we can make some improvement.

Good post as usual from you, Roc. I noticed a Vandy player who shot a 3 from the corner, followed the shot, got the rebound, and scored a 2. That proved to me that following a shot is possible.

 

[Oliver Hardy]

Given the recruiting class we have coming in and the fact that almost no kid in the top 50 has us on their interested list, I'd say with Whitney's loss this is the beginning of the end of OU being in the top 25 until some changes are made with personnel and the way we recruit (because whatever it is, it isn't working).

It just my opinion, but I think Sherri's going to put in her time, retire when she reaches 20, if not before, and the program will have to do some really serious rebuilding all over again.

I know that is a very pesimistic view, but IMHO Sherri has lost her edge and it shows almost every time our team gets on the floor and in who we have on our team.

It's going to be a long, tough, disappointing season. I'm still going to root for the girls and hope they can pull it together for the rest of this year.

I think things aren't going to get any better next year with the class we have coming in -- in fact I think they will get worse. Wish I felt differently. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[Vinny78]

Well, having followed the women's team for 15+ years, I am very sad to where things have gone. I agree somewhat with Hardy that Sherri has lost some of her edge. For many years we were bringing in top 30 type players and it showed in the win column. Sherri is a good (not great) floor coach BUT without top line talent that doesn't do you much good. Goes back to Switzer's quote "It's not the X's and O's, it's the Jimmy's and Joe's". When Billy got to the end of his OU stint as good of a coach as he was he didn't recruit the top line talent which landed him in the NIT which caused him to move on.

I believe this is the end of the NCAA tourney streak AND possibly the jump down to the 30's as far as ranking. We should be about 37th or so truthfully now. She had better get fired up and rejuvinated - I hate to pay someone top 5 money (a million a year) and get bottom 30 type performance. JMO

 

[badger]

Fan since 2001. Looking at the schedule and seeing TWO non-conference games before our Big 12 gauntlet starts is not encouraging, nor is the fact that we have 8 wins now and will likely need another dozen to make the tourney.

BUT... i don't think that they need to win for me to keep my interest. Just be good ambassadors for OU and we'll be proud of you, win or lose.

I'd rather have a losing season than be embarrassed by the program for off-court reasons a la final Jeff Capel years.

 

[35TangoTango]

I have to laugh a little at how quick some of you are to jump off the bandwagon. If we had the exact same personnel but no injuries, we would probably only be one game better, but we'd have people praising the staff and talking about how we had a real chance at the Final Four.

Not recruiting talent any more? Vegas is arguably the best shooting guard in the history of the program, and by the time she's through, her stats will make that obvious. Morgan is easily the 3rd best point guard (Counting Dales as a point, and DRob). Maddie has already been hailed as the next Dales, Hand is maybe the best all-around player we've ever had, Griffin is better than the average Big 12 center.

I'm with Badger in that they don't need to win to keep my interest, but even crippled as we are, we will finish no lower than 4th in the conference, which will guarantee us a decent seed in the tournament. Somebody bookmark this thread so I can say I told you so.

 

[tycat947]

I have to laugh a little at how quick some of you are to jump off the bandwagon. If we had the exact same personnel but no injuries, we would probably only be one game better, but we'd have people praising the staff and talking about how we had a real chance at the Final Four.

Not recruiting talent any more? Vegas is arguably the best shooting guard in the history of the program, and by the time she's through, her stats will make that obvious. Morgan is easily the 3rd best point guard (Counting Dales as a point, and DRob). Maddie has already been hailed as the next Dales, Hand is maybe the best all-around player we've ever had, Griffin is better than the average Big 12 center.

I'm with Badger in that they don't need to win to keep my interest, but even crippled as we are, we will finish no lower than 4th in the conference, which will guarantee us a decent seed in the tournament. Somebody bookmark this thread so I can say I told you so.

:clap

 

[Vinny78]

I have to laugh a little at how quick some of you are to jump off the bandwagon. If we had the exact same personnel but no injuries, we would probably only be one game better, but we'd have people praising the staff and talking about how we had a real chance at the Final Four.

Not recruiting talent any more? Vegas is arguably the best shooting guard in the history of the program, and by the time she's through, her stats will make that obvious. Morgan is easily the 3rd best point guard (Counting Dales as a point, and DRob). Maddie has already been hailed as the next Dales, Hand is maybe the best all-around player we've ever had, Griffin is better than the average Big 12 center.

I'm with Badger in that they don't need to win to keep my interest, but even crippled as we are, we will finish no lower than 4th in the conference, which will guarantee us a decent seed in the tournament. Somebody bookmark this thread so I can say I told you so.

First Tango, I never said I was "jumping off the bandwagon" and having supported them for 15+ years I don't think I am a Bandwagoner anyhow. I am just stating that as I watch this team they have a LOW ceiling. If they are able to stay healthy with these 8 players I think 6th place is possible. Vandy is nothing to speak of and they handled us fairly easy yesterday. Again, I will always root for the girls BUT I tend to have more reality in me than most posters. Morgan is OK but nothing special like you mentioned above and let's let Mattie play more than 8 or 9 games before we even mention a Stacy Dales comparison. Also, I love Vegas but she dissappears almost every game - you never know when that will happen. She has a long way to go to be an All-Big 12 selection IMO. In fact, we have not one player who should be all Big-12 and maybe not 2nd team.

 

[35TangoTango]

....If they are able to stay healthy with these 8 players I think 6th place is possible.

Just out of curiosity, who are the 5 teams you are sure will be ahead of us?

 

[SoonerNorm]

Aaryn is a terrific offensive player but very mediocre defensive player and her ball handing skills need improvement. To compare Maddie with Dales is ludicrous. She may earn the right to be compared to Dales at some point in the future (I love her potential) but she's got a ways to go before that happens.

 

[Vinny78]

Just out of curiosity, who are the 5 teams you are sure will be ahead of us?

Doesn't matter right now, if a team like Vandy can handle us that easy then several will do so in the Big-12 that normally OU would handle.

 

[badger]

I've felt ill lately, so I didn't think my well being could take Sunday's game, especially when I saw what the score was by the time my Packers finished killing Chicago (HAHAHAHAHAH!).

I think I'll be able to handle our Thursday game... I should be better by then. Antibiotics to the rescue!

Regardless, I think we are going to struggle with every game here on out, even the final two non-conference games.

If we don't make the threes we shoot (and we shoot WAAAAAY too many of them, imho), we are going to struggle heartily against the lower-tier foes.

However, I think that if we have an ON-shooting night, we could even beat the fighting Skeletors. We'd have to replace LNC's hardwood afterward from all of her shoe divots, but it'd be worth it

 

[35TangoTango]

Doesn't matter right now, if a team like Vandy can handle us that easy then several will do so in the Big-12 that normally OU would handle.

In other words, your "no better than 6th" was like 67.5% of all statistics - without basis. My "no worse than 4th" was figuring we would be behind Baylor, maybe Texas, and maybe West Virginia. I don't see us being behind any other Big 12 team. Vandy ain't chopped liver. They were in the top 25 at the start of the season, then dropped 3 in a row to really good teams. They'll be back in the top 25.