What This Team Needs

[Ham]

Tons of sports fans in Oklahoma, like anywhere else, are frontrunners.
If Kruger got 3 MAA's and they rolled to 30 wins next year, the LNC would be packed.

It's not about taking entertainment dollars or attention away.
It's about what is considered worth it. There's plenty to go around. People, in large part, from casual to hardcore, from devoted, to frontrunner, don't see it as worth it. It's bad freaking basketball.

Is 2009 that long ago? We didn't have good crowds watching Blake in Norman as
the Thunder played their first season in OKC?

 

[SoonerInJersey]

To me our biggest deficiency is ball handling and passing. The players on the team that seem to have the skills needed to drive or pass in traffic are Grooms and, to a much lesser extent, Blair. Everyone else on the team is pretty much turnover prone. So we need to add a player who will play on the perimeter, be able to drive, and not be a turnover machine.

Is that M'Baye? I saw posts off and on that indicate he has that capability. Also, Hornbeak is supposed to have some capability as well. That could make our whole offense much more fluid and harder to stop.

It was depressing watching the pass to Clark, Clark dribbles erratically, Clark turns ball over or passes backwards sequence of events multiple times per game. Pledger had great scoring ability, so his inability to make others better through the drive or pass was not as big a drawback. But Clark's was a killer because for the minutes played he did not produce enough scoring or rebounding to make up for his turnovers and lack of passing or effective driving. We need at least one more perimeter player that can dribble with effect, hopefully drive, and pass with impact getting some assists. If we can't find that player then our offense will remain very stoppable. If we do find that player the opposing defense will have much more trouble with our rebounding ability as they wont be able to camp inside so much. ANd of course our offensive efficiency will improve.

If Grooms could score from the perimeter efficiently, this would not be as much of a problem as Clark and Pledger would have more space. But I don't see that changing by next year.

Rounded A/game and TO/game to nearest tenth as that was readily available in stats. TOp and bottom of the A/T not so much.ratio ex the team leader seems to make sense. In the middle of the pack

Regular
Season
Finish Team A/T ex Team Leader
2 MU 1.15
1 KU 1.07
3 ISU 1.06
7 OSU 0.90
5 KSU 0.87
3 BU 0.86
6 TU 0.68
8 OU 0.66
8 TAM 0.55
10 TT 0.52

 

[buttermaker1]

OU has always needed a top 10 team to drawl 90 percent capacity for basketball. If football was this bad you would see 70 percent capacity at Owen field. When the Thunder become average will see the same.

We need a new venue as well.

 

[SoonerSpock]

The downturn in basketball fortunes at OU( f osu,I couldn't care less about them) have nothing to do with the Thunder.When Lon gets the Sooners turned around the fans will return.Will Ou sell out? No,but that was NEVER true even before the Thunder.I have followed OU hoops since 1975 and sellouts are the exception and not the rule even in the best of times. There is areason that attendance is done ny estimate based on ticket sales as opposed to turnstile data,because hoops is a filler sport at OU.It fills in time between football and spring football.

further prIf you need oof,look at the ticket policy.Many donors have hoops tickets because it builds their priority points for football.It is well documented that many of these people are the ones who don't actually attend games leaving prime seats empty on a regular basis.The Thunder feeds a statewide hunger for success on the MAJOR LEAGUE level. When the new wears off,if the success level on court drops,so will attendance.I for one hope that time never comes.I love OU hoops but don"t blame the Thunder for waning attendancebecause while it may be a factor,it is NOT the root cause.

If you feel that many donors have hoops tickets to build priority points for football you are ill informed on how the priority points system works for football.

Spend $500 dollars each on 4 season basketball tickets for a total of $2,000 and you earn 1 priority point. Donate $2,000 additional dollars to the Sooner Club and you earn 60 priority points.

Further buy those season tickets for basketball for 5 years and you will continue to earn 1 priority point each season. Donate the $2,000 for five years and you earn 60 current year priority points for the current year and 20 points for each prior year donation dollars for a total of 80 priority points in addition to the current year donation of 60 priority points.

That is 140 priority points for $2,000 annual donation versus 1 priority point for each year with $2,000 spent on season basketball tickets.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

If you feel that many donors have hoops tickets to build priority points for football you are ill informed on how the priority points system works ...

This is correct. For 20+ years through the Billy Tubbs and Kelvin Sampson eras, I did NOT have football tickets at OU, yet I had GREAT basketball season tickets. My donation to the Sooner Club went for basketball priority seating at the LNC.

I am living proof that one can have great seats at the basketball games by donating to ONLY BASKETBALL on the annual Sooner Club donation form.

(NOTE: In recent years, I have added football tickets. This fact has no effect on my basketball tickets.)

:OUbball-logo:

 

[AdaSooner]

Winning will cure a lot of ills when OU puts a better product on the floor in the LNC. Think back to the John Blake era in football when the attendance at football games was on the decline.

It may never be what we saw in the 80s and 90s with OU basketball. People only have so much money to spend in today's economy that includes fuel prices well in excess of $3 per gallon. Families, particularly young famlies with children, have to make a choice sometimes. Do they take the kids to an OU or OSU game, or do they spend their limited resources on a Thunder game, where the entertainment is geared more to the whole family? It's not a matter of being able to do both right now.