Washington

[sybarite]

For the second year in a row, we used a strong finish to beat Washington. But, this time, we did it in Seattle. The lead had gone back and forth throughout the game, but Washington took a late lead. Then,

Down 68-63 with 2:10 remaining in the game, the Sooners (7-1) used an 8-0 run to close out the game. Maddie Manning cut the deficit down to 68-67 with 0:49 left and OU picked up a stop defensively to set up the Edwards lay-up in transition to take the lead with 12 seconds to go.

After we got the lead, it wasn't over. The always deadly Kelsey Plum got downcourt on a break immediately after we scored, and she put up a shot, only to have it blocked and stolen out of the air by Maddie, one of those blocks where she just uses her height to steal if from your fingertips. Plum fouled Maddie, and Maddie hit two free throws to provide the final margin.

Washington was a strong team that made it to the Final Four. They had lost to Syracuse, which didn't seem to be a big deal at the time. But, after they beat Penn, Maryland, Kentucky, and Stanford, it was Syracuse that finally beat the Huskies.

The win over Washington indicated what this team could do. At that time, we had looked good since our loss to North Texas, and we would continue to look good until we played A&M. At the time, A&M had the two Courtneys playing at their best.

At the time we played Washington, we did not yet have Gioya. We seemed to flow better. I don't know that we every worked her smoothly into the lineup last year. It seemed to me that her contributions were in her flow, but not in the team flow. They came often when we stalled, except for the Texas game which became a street ball game in the fourth quarter in which she was pretty good.

Finding the flow that we were in when we took out teams like BYU, Boston College, Utah, Washington, and Ark.Little Rock is the key to this year. We can't stall as often.

 

[j2d2]

Our defense has never been good enough to hold serve until the offense could get going except in very rare instances. Getting defensive stops tends to rejuvenate the offense but that doesnt happen often enough for us.

 

[sybarite]

I don't think it is really that simple. There were games in which our defense was outstanding, but collapsed when our offense stalled time after time. There were also some key ways that our defense collapsed, and against specific teams.

If you look at our losses to Baylor (3), Kansas State (1), OSU (2), Texas (1), and Kentucky, the way that we lost was very, very similar. We had one defensive weakness that was very much exploited, as well as a lack of offense.

 

[sybarite]

Losses:

71-87 Kansas State FG% KS 51.9 FG% OU 41.9
57-84 Baylor FG% Bay 55.6 FG% OU 30.3
70-83 Texas FG% Tex 50.0 FG% OU 40.3
58-79 Kentucky FG% Ky 37.9 FG% OU 27.3
68-78 Baylor FG% Bay 47.6 FG% OU 39.7
70-78 Baylor FG% Bay 45.9 FG% OU 35.6
68-74 A&M FG% A&M 44.4 FG% OU 35.2
42-73 OSU FG% OSU 45.8 FG% OU 25,5
69-71 OSU FG% OSU 49.1 FG%OU 41.5
55-63 WV FG% WV 36,4 FG% OU 36,1
57-61 NT FG% NT 42,1 FG% OU 30.8

I don't know if it is a pattern. But, when we lost, we didn't shoot well. Only three times did we shoot 40%. In each of those three cases, the opposition went nuts from behind the three-point line, like Wesemann's 8 of 10. Usually, we lost because we simply weren't shooting well. If you are holding good teams to percentages in the forties, that should be enough, if you shoot that well yourself. We didn't.

 

[Sooner Cal]

One problem was our inability to run a play effectively. As a result, we would often use up the shot clock thus forcing up a poor shot. Aotion offense requires motion. Ball watching and loitering hurt the cause.