Was Capel back today

[OKUman]

Stalling out until 8 seconds left trying to win the game, same crap, same out come. Drive the freeking ball to the basket and shoot your free throws, even if time left on the clock at least they have the pressure to score.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Stalling out until 8 seconds left trying to win the game, same crap, same out come. Drive the freeking ball to the basket and shoot your free throws, even if time left on the clock at least they have the pressure to score.

Bad habits are hard to stop.

 

[SoopaSooner]

I don't like how stagnant the offense becomes late in games but it's the defense that is the real killer. All of sudden the A&M guards could get into the lane and had wide open threes. You gotta question whether this team can win a road game in the conference.

 

[bgrch1350]

Why in the world does our offense not run thru Osby and Fitzgerald. Other than Pledger, our guards are horrible and yet we go on such long spurts of not getting them the ball. Its every game.

 

[DenverSooner]

My biggest complaint was not using the timeouts better down the stretch. I think it was the two minute mark when OU had a lead and the ball and did not call timeout only to get a bad shot. OU ended the game with two timeouts. They could have used one then.

I also felt like OU did a good job on defense for most of the clock but then gave up some wide open 3 point shots. You just can't do that down the stretch on the road.

OU played well on the road. This team is really close. Don't give up on them. They will make you happy next season.

 

[Soonerborn03]

Why in the world does our offense not run thru Osby and Fitzgerald. Other than Pledger, our guards are horrible and yet we go on such long spurts of not getting them the ball. Its every game.

Fitz was not very strong with the ball in the second half. They played up in his face, and he has no ability to get separation when that happens. Osby was getting doubled a lot in the second half. Guards have got to do something to help out when the big boys are getting that kind of attention.

 

[skyvue]

Stalling out until 8 seconds left trying to win the game, same crap, same out come. Drive the freeking ball to the basket and shoot your free throws, even if time left on the clock at least they have the pressure to score.

Free throws? We didn't get into the bonus in either half -- what in the world makes you think we'd get a call on the final play?

There's no way in the world a team like A&M, playing the style of defense they do, legitimately commits just six fouls in each half. And when the officials decide to "let them play" to that degree, they're impacting the game. There's just no way around it.

We played poorly down the stretch and especially in overtime, it's true, but the officials basically gave A&M carte blanche on defense for the entire game.

 

[MsProudSooner]

Free throws? We didn't get into the bonus in either half -- what in the world makes you think we'd get a call on the final play?

There's no way in the world a team like A&M, playing the style of defense they do, fouls just twice six times in each half. And when the officials decide to "let them play" to that degree, they're impacting the game. There's just no way around it.

We played poorly down the stretch and especially in overtime, it's true, but the officials basically gave A&M carte blanche on defense for the entire game.

And when the officials are calling (or not calling) a game like that against you, it takes great confidence in yourself and your team to overcome it. We don't have that confidence in ourselves on the road yet.

 

[KCRuf/Nek]

My biggest complaint was not using the timeouts better down the stretch. I think it was the two minute mark when OU had a lead and the ball and did not call timeout only to get a bad shot. OU ended the game with two timeouts. They could have used one then.

I also felt like OU did a good job on defense for most of the clock but then gave up some wide open 3 point shots. You just can't do that down the stretch on the road.

OU played well on the road. This team is really close. Don't give up on them. They will make you happy next season.

We play like this in Columbia and you see what happens. We play like this in Lawrence and KU is still scoring. I love our effort and all but until we get better players(and I'm not putting down the guys we have) we're going to have these sort of problems. You can't hope Pledger makes all his shots and hope that the guards don't screw us up. I want us to do well this year but I'm not going to get all inside out over what is happening. It didn't get this way all at once and it won't change that way either.

 

[bgrch1350]

Fitz was not very strong with the ball in the second half. They played up in his face, and he has no ability to get separation when that happens. Osby was getting doubled a lot in the second half. Guards have got to do something to help out when the big boys are getting that kind of attention.

Osby and Fitz are our 2nd and 3rd best jump shooters so them catching the ball away from the basket is still better than Blair and Grooms shooting the ball.

 

[Krugerfan52]

If you will remember, a year ago today with Capel as our coach we had just won a thriller on the road at ISU behind Pledgers 38 to go to 3-3 instead of crumbling down the stretch and going to 2-4. Capel actually never lost a game in OT at OU. I believe he was 6-0. (Correction 7-0)

The difference between last year's 0-3 start and this years 0-3 start was last year we rebounded and won 4 straight including a 4th against Baylor in Norman. Hopefully we can pull the upset again this year and at least salvage 3-4. Otherwise we are staring at 2-5.

With all the same players but adding Romero Osby who was a beast again today, and getting rid of Capel who most think was the cause of our problems, and replacing him with Kruger who we pretty much all agree is as good coach you would think there should be improvement from then to now. But so far in Big 12 play it's not the case.

 

[MsProudSooner]

If you will remember, a year ago today with Capel as our coach we had just won a thriller on the road at ISU behind Pledgers 38 to go to 3-3 instead of crumbling down the stretch and going to 2-4. Capel actually never lost a game in OT at OU. I believe he was 6-0.

The difference between last year's 0-3 start and this years 0-3 start was last year we rebounded and won 4 straight including a 4th against Baylor in Norman. Hopefully we can pull the upset again this year and at least salvage 3-4. Otherwise we are staring at 2-5.

With all the same players but adding Romero Osby who was a beast again today, and getting rid of Capel who most think was the cause of our problems, and replacing him with Kruger who we pretty much all agree is as good coach you would think there should be improvement from then to now. But so far in Big 12 play it's not the case.

I think the top of the Big XII is much better than it was last year.

We don't have the most talented players in the conference but their biggest problem isn't their talent, It's their confidence and focus. It took 2 years for this team's confidence to bottom out. It's not going to be where it needs to be to win tough road games in just two and a half months.

 

[sooner 1234]

I think a big problem is we wear down by the end of the game.Our defense is great until the last 5 mintues of alot of games.
Playing that hard for 40 mintues with this set of unathletic guards is almost impossible.
Our backcourt might lose a trackmeet to some girl teams.

 

[WTSooner]

Offense isn't why we lost today. Nearly 50% from the field, and we only turned it over 9 times. We lost b/c we played bad defense far too often, and gave up some ill-timed offensive rebounds.

 

[WTSooner]

With all the same players but adding Romero Osby who was a beast again today, and getting rid of Capel who most think was the cause of our problems, and replacing him with Kruger who we pretty much all agree is as good coach you would think there should be improvement from then to now. But so far in Big 12 play it's not the case.

Record-wise? Maybe not. But if you can't look on the court and see marked improvement over last year, you aren't looking hard enough. We wouldn't have played nearly as well as we did today under Capel. That's improvement. That's a step in the right direction. I'm guessing you'll see us win games like this later in the season. We've already got 2 wins this season, and we only won 5 all of last year. We still have @TT, we still get aTm and OSU in Norman, and we still have UT and ISU twice each. Those are some winnable games.

 

[MercedeSooner]

god this one hurt. almost as bad as cincy.

 

[MsProudSooner]

Offense isn't why we lost today. Nearly 50% from the field, and we only turned it over 9 times. We lost b/c we played bad defense far too often, and gave up some ill-timed offensive rebounds.

We know they can play better defense than last year because we have seen them do it. Are we not playing good defense in last 5 minutes of a game because we become afraid that if we play good defense, we will be rewarded with fouls being called on us?

With great teams and great players, when the other team steps up their play or officiating calls go against them, they are confident they can answer and they ramp up their effort and intensity. When there is still some doubt in your mind about your ability to answer, you tend to hope someone else steps up because you aren't sure you can. It takes time to unlearn those kind of bad habits.

 

[WTSooner]

If you will remember, a year ago today with Capel as our coach we had just won a thriller on the road at ISU behind Pledgers 38 to go to 3-3 instead of crumbling down the stretch and going to 2-4. Capel actually never lost a game in OT at OU. I believe he was 6-0.

LMAO

Capel won ONE Big 12 road game in two years, if I remember correctly. I bet OU beats that this year alone.

With all the same players but adding Romero Osby who was a beast again today,

Wrong again. Cade Davis would improve this team by leaps and bounds. And I say that as a guy that wasn't a huge Cade Davis fan. Another shooter. Another athletic guard/wing. Another guy that plays hard, and smart. Also, I'm not willing to blame LK for Cam regressing. I guess having both Pledger and Davis on the floor last year kind of hid Cam's flaws. There is nobody other than Pledger to take that pressure off Cam this year. He was expected to be our second best scorer out of the guard spots.

 

[Krugerfan52]

I think the top of the Big XII is much better than it was last year.

We don't have the most talented players in the conference but their biggest problem isn't their talent, It's their confidence and focus. It took 2 years for this team's confidence to bottom out. It's not going to be where it needs to be to win tough road games in just two and a half months.

I agree. Those top 3 are as good as ever. There is major seperation between them and the rest of the Big 12 though. Tech, A&M, OU, OSU are all pretty bad, and Texas/KSU are down as well.

 

[Dr Sleep]

Stalling out until 8 seconds left trying to win the game, same crap, same out come. Drive the freeking ball to the basket and shoot your free throws, even if time left on the clock at least they have the pressure to score.

I thought it was a good call. Gave ourselves a chance to win and no chance to lose.