What on earth happened last year?

[stormspencer]

There’s no doubt that the team chemistry went into the ****ter about midway through. People blaming a true freshman for that have no effin idea what they are talking about. The coaches lost the team, plain and simple. There was no senior leadership to help out the coaches either.

As experienced and as wise as Lon is, I do think he learned a lesson from last year. And we are now reaping the benefits this year from the total 180 this team has undergone from an attitude, leadership, and toughness standpoint.

 

[coolm]

There’s no doubt that the team chemistry went into the ****ter about midway through. People blaming a true freshman for that have no effin idea what they are talking about. The coaches lost the team, plain and simple. There was no senior leadership to help out the coaches either.

I am sorry Tiny, but Trae's negative impact on the teams' chemistry is a fact. It wasn't because he's a bad kid ... just a matter of the style of play that coaching let happen with him at the helm.

Now whether the coaches should have nipped that in the bud quickly is a good question. I believe everyone in Norman, myself included, got wrapped up in the hype and we suffered the wrath of it all.

IMO they should have put the programs' needs first and harped on defense from the beginning. Trae included. If that ended up costing a game or two so be it. Making them ALL work together harder on team defense would have brought the group closer together. They really needed one a-hole coach to be the heavy and then the guys could all grow together in their disgust with his methods.

 

[Soonerinkc]

I am sorry Tiny, but Trae's negative impact on the teams' chemistry is a fact. It wasn't because he's a bad kid ... just a matter of the style of play that coaching let happen with him at the helm.

I'm sure we've all played with "that" guy...who makes 1 difficult shot then all the sudden decides he's Michael Jordan...and continues.

Granted shooters shoot, I get that.....but there were plenty of times last year TY made some very poor decisions. Yes, it was on the coaches to rein him in...they didn't.

As a player it gets on your nerves, at some point it's why come down and play offense and bust your ass when TY is just going to jack up a shot.

When misses start coming with bad timing it affects the players.

Just my 2 cents.

We definitely are more of a team...that's for sure.

 

[hoopsaustin]

Geez.. not again. Same people that hate Trae young, hates Landry Jones in football... morons

 

[oudna]

It’s pretty obvious his teammates weren’t overly fond of him

 

[coolm]

Geez.. not again. Same people that hate Trae young, hates Landry Jones in football... morons

the day you wish to challenge my IQ then you name the time and place. I am way out of your league junior.

 

[inoref]

I think OU was fine last year until other teams figured out how to play TY..then OU just wasn't good enough to overcome that....New year move on

 

[SoonerBounce13]

Geez.. not again. Same people that hate Trae young, hates Landry Jones in football... morons

bad comparison

 

[skyvue]

I'm sure we've all played with "that" guy...who makes 1 difficult shot then all the sudden decides he's Michael Jordan...and continues.

He had a record-setting number of assists, and if his teammates had hit even a reasonable number of the open shots he set them up with, he'd have had even more.

Was there a chemistry problem on the team last year? Absolutely. But laying the blame for that on one freshman player is absurd. Everyone loved TY when it was going well last season, but a certain faction of our fans turned on him and him alone when things went south. That's cockeyed thinking. There was plenty of blame to go around.

I don't know why some fans need to have one person to blame when things go wrong, but it's a phenomenon one sees over and over. OU football fans are the same way. It's a team game and there are always coaches involved. Blaming any one player (especially when two other players were shown the door in the offseason) is simplistic at best.

 

[Sooner04]

the day you wish to challenge my IQ then you name the time and place. I am way out of your league junior.

Mods, why is this allowed? It gets really old.

 

[schoonerdriver]

I wouldnt go that far. I just prefer our current dynamic over the one with him leading the team.

For sure, the team approach is a more effective way to winning basketball. Looking back at all the great OU players, the teams around them were great as well. Buddy, Blake, Hollis, Najera, Wayman, etc..., all played on good to great teams.

 

[uberjamb]

Well, I did not mean for this to become an argument, but a lot of you have offered really enlightening things. I think Trae should have been given the offense, like he was. He is just a special talent. I can see how that could have messed with chemistry, though. It’s just such a disappointment that it didn’t really work out. Last year’s team had enough talent to be much better.

 

[coolm]

Mods, why is this allowed? It gets really old.

I'm tired of his insults. you should go read them before blaming me.

 

[vbdad]

He had a record-setting number of assists, and if his teammates had hit even a reasonable number of the open shots he set them up with, he'd have had even more.

Was there a chemistry problem on the team last year? Absolutely. But laying the blame for that on one freshman player is absurd. Everyone loved TY when it was going well last season, but a certain faction of our fans turned on him and him alone when things went south. That's cockeyed thinking. There was plenty of blame to go around.

I don't know why some fans need to have one person to blame when things go wrong, but it's a phenomenon one sees over and over. OU football fans are the same way. It's a team game and there are always coaches involved. Blaming any one player (especially when two other players were shown the door in the offseason) is simplistic at best.

The players didn't love him even when they were winning.

He is a good kid. Yes he was a major factor in the chemistry issue as was Rayford.

Yes LK should have handled it differently and tried many things but never got it accomplished. Of course was he supposed to bench TY for not doing what he was supposed to and play Shephard? Tough to go that direction.

McGusty was an issue he thought he was an elite scorer and couldn't shoot the ball. He probably played less D than TY.

 

[sooner333]

Seems like the chemistry problem is on everyone. It seems like the coaches may have treated Trae a bit different, some of his teammates had a hard time adjusting to a true freshman being far and away the best player on the team (and in a ball dominant manner), and Trae maybe didn’t endear himself to his teammates well. Although to be fair this was expected to be a multi-year process with Trae and the timeline sped up very quickly in a way where his teammates knew he wouldn’t be back the next year. McGusty also seemed to say “f it” and shot every time he got the ball, which doesn’t help matters.

 

[NickZepp]

If you take Trae off last years team. That team may be the worst team in all of college basketball.

Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

 

[OUSKINS]

I think the disconnect in this thread and when talking about TY in general is that when someone says they “blame” TY for chemistry issues, others interpret that to mean they are saying he is a bad human being.

I absolutely believe TY wound up having an overall negative impact on the team last year and that the chemistry issues revolved largely around him. He obviously went bananas early and we won some games. But we were a horrible basketball team by season’s end. That is NOT the career MO for Kruger and we see the team this year immediately seem to improve so I don’t think connecting the dots to TY is a stretch.

I also think where there is smoke there is fire. It always bugged me a little bit that his HS team didn’t do better and that there were rumblings about tension with teammates. The fact that Lindy Waters clearly states they are not friends is... odd to me. Also had the rumblings about his Dad being overly involved... also had the very odd reaction when the team watched the Selection Show. Just add all that up and I think it’s clear something was just off. It doesn’t mean TY was a bad kid. It just means that perhaps the combo of his style of play and his personality/family just weren’t a great fit. I also absolutely lay blame on the staff for not being able to figure it out. Or at least figure SOMETHING out.

For me, it was just a failed experiment. That team was a disaster by March. It just didn’t work out very well. It happens. Like others, I don’t feel much connection to TY as a Sooner, but I don’t dislike him or root against him either. It’s sort of a shoulder shrug and moving on for me... so far, this year’s team is WAY more enjoyable to watch.

 

[BCSooners]

Ball movement, defense, & player excitement is 100x better. Everyone has improved, grad transfers have been really good, Doolittle back to form. I actually enjoy watching the games this year.

 

[WichitaSooner]

Let's not forget one obvious thing. Last year's team didn't defend. At all. And it was that way from day one. No way all, or even most of that, can be blamed on Trae. The team as a whole made a commitment to change that, which Lon demanded after last season ended. I don't really care who is to blame, I'm just glad the returning players changed their approach, and that the staff identified the perfect players to bring in this season. Bieniemy and the grad transfers are ideal fits.

 

[NickZepp]

Look people are low on our best player from last year but what did he have to work with? The 2nd best scorer was James who was not consistent. He could come out and get close to 20 or come out and not be seen anywhere. James has improved a lot from last year. McGusty only averaged 8 points a game last year. Odomes average 7. And outside of Odomes none of those guys really defended at all last year. As others have pointed out Odomes is relegated lower on the bench. I'm not sure our scoring at the wings will be a lot better. But the defense is there. The guard play last year was abysmal outside of Trae Young last year. Our 2nd and 3rd most effective players last year were Muni and Latin Nobody else was even close.