What would it take for Lon to stay?

[TheGimper]

For those of you wanting Lon to retire or OU to move on from him, what is the bare minimum it would take for you to be happy with Lon staying?

Sweet 16? Conference tournament title? Home win against Iowa St for Lattin’s senior night?

 

[sooner8]

First,I don't want Lon to go unless he feels it is time to move on or retire.We are lucky in this respect that the University of Oklahoma is clean of all FBI investigations & there are some blue bloods who should be punished severally.(which remains to be seen)That is one of the reasons it is not an even playing field.For whatever reasons unknown to us Lon & staff have lost this teams attention & ability to do anything correctly on a consistent basis.No combination seems to play well together at this point.It is the head coaches job to figure things out & Lon hasn't done that.Next year doesn't look promising either.Personally I think Lon's desire & fire may be dwindling but none of us really knows the answer

 

[hoopsaustin]

Nothing. I've seen enough of total disregard for coaching basketball to these kids and keeping them accountable..

 

[AdaSooner]

Evidence that our players and coaching staff are committed again. It starts with a vastly improved defense and a work ethic that seems to be missing with this team. It ends with rah, rah speeches and coach speak in interviews that mean very little, and result in even less.

If nothing changes this season, what do we have to look forward to next year?

 

[chuckb]

This is still the guy who took the team to the Final 4 a couple of years ago, and recruited all those players to the school. He recruited McGusty -- a top 50 recruit -- and Young -- a top 15 recruit -- to the school and has a signings/commitments from Bieniemy and Harmon -- 2 more top 50 recruits.

This season is ending poorly but too many here have lost perspective.

 

[chuckb]

Evidence that our players and coaching staff are committed again. It starts with a vastly improved defense and a work ethic that seems to be missing with this team. It ends with rah, rah speeches and coach speak in interviews that mean very little, and result in even less.

If nothing changes this season, what do we have to look forward to next year?

A core that returns most of its players? An NCAA tournament appearance?

Look, this team is going to be anywhere from a 7-10 seed in the tournament. It's lower than I expected. I expected somewhere from 4-6 going into the season but others had OU in the 7-10 range. Any assessment of this season needs to accurately assess the whole season, not just the last 10 games or so. This team will end the season slightly worse than what most of us thought going into the season. People need to get a grip. This wasn't a final 4 team and never was going to be one. They need to stop basing their expectations on where AP voters had this team 6 weeks ago.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

This is still the guy who took the team to the Final 4 a couple of years ago, and recruited all those players to the school. He recruited McGusty -- a top 50 recruit -- and Young -- a top 15 recruit -- to the school and has a signings/commitments from Bieniemy and Harmon -- 2 more top 50 recruits.

This season is ending poorly but too many here have lost perspective.

HE is great at turning teams around.
He does get some highly recruited kids....but they never develop. at least not lately. And it is starting to look like Hield and Cousins developement had more to do with the assisstants or their own hard work.

And this season isn't just ending poorly. It has been poor for half a season.

 

[Max Power]

This is still the guy who took the team to the Final 4 a couple of years ago, and recruited all those players to the school. He recruited McGusty -- a top 50 recruit -- and Young -- a top 15 recruit -- to the school and has a signings/commitments from Bieniemy and Harmon -- 2 more top 50 recruits.

This season is ending poorly but too many here have lost perspective.

Capel took us to an Elite 8. the only difference is there he lost to the eventual champ by 12 while in the final four we lost to the eventual champ by 44. and he had #10 Tiny Gallon and #32 Tommy Mason Griffin. Then next year he had #33 Cam Clark. We fired him for the same results we are getting right now. Capel at least never lost 20 in 1 year.

 

[WichitaSooner]

Capel took us to an Elite 8. the only difference is there he lost to the eventual champ by 12 while in the final four we lost to the eventual champ by 44. and he had #10 Tiny Gallon and #32 Tommy Mason Griffin. Then next year he had #33 Cam Clark. We fired him for the same results we are getting right now. Capel at least never lost 20 in 1 year.

Not quite. Capel's last two seasons were both complete disasters. And in five seasons, he never made the tourney other than the two years he had Blake. On the other hand, Lon has us on track to make the tourney for the 5th time in 7 years. Plus, he hasn't gotten the program in NCAA trouble. 5 tourneys in 7 years, one Final Four, no NCAA issues, and one truly awful season (last year) for Lon, vs. 2 tourneys in 5 years, no Final Fours, NCAA sanctions, and two brutal years for Capel. Not "similar results" by a long shot.

 

[vbdad]

No chance Joe C. does something. Have you guys not seen all of the FBI reports? Almost every school except OU is mentioned. That is LK. Yes it hurts us in talent acquisition. Some of the guys haven't developed and it probably is on the change of assistant coaches. Some of it is the players. It is embarrassing how weak Khadeem is with the ball.

 

[hoopsaustin]

Not quite. Capel's last two seasons were both complete disasters. And in five seasons, he never made the tourney other than the two years he had Blake. On the other hand, Lon has us on track to make the tourney for the 5th time in 7 years. Plus, he hasn't gotten the program in NCAA trouble. 5 tourneys in 7 years, one Final Four, no NCAA issues, and one truly awful season (last year) for Lon, vs. 2 tourneys in 5 years, no Final Fours, NCAA sanctions, and two brutal years for Capel. Not "similar results" by a long shot.

Pretty sad that this is such actually a surprise these days lol

 

[BoulderSooner]

Not quite. Capel's last two seasons were both complete disasters. And in five seasons, he never made the tourney other than the two years he had Blake. On the other hand, Lon has us on track to make the tourney for the 5th time in 7 years. Plus, he hasn't gotten the program in NCAA trouble. 5 tourneys in 7 years, one Final Four, no NCAA issues, and one truly awful season (last year) for Lon, vs. 2 tourneys in 5 years, no Final Fours, NCAA sanctions, and two brutal years for Capel. Not "similar results" by a long shot.

yep

 

[Sweetest OU Girl]

When things get frustrating, it is easy to overlook the real reason for losing.

Yesterday it was almost entirely because we had players - players not named Trey - who missed easy, easy buckets, time after time.

That is not in any way the coaches fault. Or TY's. It is because those players are not very good. They may do some things well, but they cannot shoot - even close, easy shots. They are coached to get them into position for make-able shots - then they miss them time after time.

That is why we lost so many games last year - and this year.

And even recruiting is partly due to outside issues. Some (apparently many of the ones some call "great" coaches) win because they are cheaters. The NCAA supports and in reality encourages it by not penalizing them for blatant cheating. A coach who tries to play by the rules is in a huge disadvantage in recruiting.

 

[Crimson King]

We are a long ways from Lon being fired, though perhaps Joe C sitting at the table last night hinted that his radar is at least up--no doubt it should be.

But his more likely perspective may well be that it was a "steal" when he got Lon to leave UNLV, even though he had to overpay (which also may weigh against any thought of making a change).

Objectively, however, he has to be able to see the lack of motivation, effort, chemistry, refusal to play defense...and the inability to fix that over the course of entire month is on the HC.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

When things get frustrating, it is easy to overlook the real reason for losing.

Yesterday it was almost entirely because we had players - players not named Trey - who missed easy, easy buckets, time after time.

That is not in any way the coaches fault. Or TY's. It is because those players are not very good. They may do some things well, but they cannot shoot - even close, easy shots. They are coached to get them into position for make-able shots - then they miss them time after time.

That is why we lost so many games last year - and this year.

And even recruiting is partly due to outside issues. Some (apparently many of the ones some call "great" coaches) win because they are cheaters. The NCAA supports and in reality encourages it by not penalizing them for blatant cheating. A coach who tries to play by the rules is in a huge disadvantage in recruiting.

why does Trae always seem to get a pass for his piss poor shooting percentages? He is terribly inefficient

 

[coolm]

the finish result isn't my issue. it's the fact that players aren't developing and he's not resolving issues that the team faces every single game.

I dont generally base my opinion of a season on NCAA results. I want the team to be better than it started. Improvement. I dont see that improvement this season. And we had so much room for it.

the only improvement we've had was trae being on the team and he's gone after this season. so what are we left with then? relying on the off-season work of shep and the hopes that manek will find his shot again after he hits the weight room.

I do agree about the integrity part. I appreciate the fact he's playing fair. But he has lost this group and I dont see light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[stormspencer]

I really like Lon and his results here have earned him at least another year to try and stabilize the situation. Having said that, I don't have much confidence in him to turn this around and get the program headed back in the right direction. I have noticed too many red flags this year....both from a player development/effort standpoint and from a lack of schematic/strategic adjustments that needed to be made in order to better hide weaknesses. And to be candid, when you see players making the same mistakes over and over in virtually every game, it lends me to believe that a portion of our team is tuning him out.

I hope he proves me wrong, but if I was a betting man, I would take the other side with respect to him "righting" the ship.

 

[tmeyer3307]

umm Trae played pretty well last night other than shooting it! He legitimately should of had 15 assists maybe more. I think Lon should give it one more year and if we miss the tournament next year he should step down. James, Odomes, Doolittle, Manek, McNeace, Mcgusty are good enough, plus the new guys coming in to be competitive.

 

[allday92]

why does Trae always seem to get a pass for his piss poor shooting percentages? He is terribly inefficient

Because he generates so many clean looks for everyone else that are bricked 3s, fumbled layups/dunks or just block shots. And after a while, I'm sure he gets tired of seeing it so he resorts to his stepback contested 3s. And as long as everyone else continues to miss their clean looks, I'm sure everyone is okay with it.

Trae has an eFG% of 52.7 while being doubled team almost every possession. That's pretty good.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

Because he generates so many clean looks for everyone else that are bricked 3s, fumbled layups/dunks or just block shots. And after a while, I'm sure he gets tired of seeing it so he resorts to his stepback contested 3s. And as long as everyone else continues to miss their clean looks, I'm sure everyone is okay with it.

Trae has an eFG% of 52.7 while being doubled team almost every possession. That's pretty good.

He was very efficient early in the season.

In Feb, his effective FG percentage has dropped to 43%. I don't know how well this compares to other top players but he seems very inefficient lately