What't up with Pledger just disappearing in the 2nd half of games?

[OUhoops11]

I thought Pledger played pretty good defense there. That foul was very very questionable IMO. The Texas player definitely "drew" that foul.

You canNOT under any circumstance even make it questionable with 9 seconds left up by 4 with a shooter as poor as McClellan is from outside. Don't leave it up to the refs. It was a horrible decision by Pledger, no way around it.

 

[AdaSooner]

I thought Pledger played pretty good defense there. That foul was very very questionable IMO. The Texas player definitely "drew" that foul.

Sure, he did everything he could to draw the foul, including leaning in on the shot. But as WT said on the game thread, Steven should not have been in that position in the first place, not with a five point lead and mere seconds on the game clock.

That was a huge mistake on his part! And, for the record, he was not straight up with his right hand. He did not maintain the rule of verticality when he reached out with his right hand. It wasn't much of a reach, and he pulled it back almost immediately. But that's why the official made the call.

 

[HOTROD21]

Sure, he did everything he could to draw the foul, including leaning in on the shot. But as WT said on the game thread, Steven should not have been in that position in the first place, not with a five point lead and mere seconds on the game clock.

That was a huge mistake on his part! And, for the record, he was not straight up with his right hand. He did not maintain the rule of verticality when he reached out with his right hand. It wasn't much of a reach, and he pulled it back almost immediately. But that's why the official made the call.

Yeah, it may be a good idea to concede a three point attempt in that situation, but I'm not going to bash Pledger for that one. That call should not have been made IMO. If a player has to lean that far forward to make any kind of "contact" (if you want to call it that) there shouldn't be anything called. I'd say that was a good play by the Mcclellan.

 

[AdaSooner]

Yeah, it may be a good idea to concede a three point attempt in that situation, but I'm not going to bash Pledger for that one. That call should not have been made IMO. If a player has to lean that far forward to make any kind of "contact" (if you want to call it that) there shouldn't be anything called. I'd say that was a good play by the Mcclellan.

You're right, it was a tough call to live with in that situation. But that's one of the reasons it's not easy to win on the road against any Big 12 team. I think there's a chance that call would have been ignored if we had been playing in the LNC. And don't forget the controversial no-call on Monday in the KU-ISU game. You'd better believe that officials everywhere were aware of the bad publicity that officiating crew received. So, don't be surprised if we see more close calls made at the end of games now.

Still, there is no denying that Steven made a mistake. I'm not going to bash him for it. I'm just pointing to a crucial error that was one of the many mistakes the team made to blow a 22 point lead and lose the game.

 

[MsProudSooner]

You're right, it was a tough call to live with in that situation. But that's one of the reasons it's not easy to win on the road against any Big 12 team. I think there's a chance that call would have been ignored if we had been playing in the LNC. And don't forget the controversial no-call on Monday in the KU-ISU game. You'd better believe that officials everywhere were aware of the bad publicity that officiating crew received. So, don't be surprised if we see more close calls made at the end of games now.

Still, there is no denying that Steven made a mistake. I'm not going to bash him for it. I'm just pointing to a crucial error that was one of the many mistakes the team made to blow a 22 point lead and lose the game.

+1

 

[hoopsaustin]

Pledger fouled with 9 seconds left. McLellan made all three free throws to cut the lead to 1. Osby made one FT on the other end to make it a 2 point game. The horrible part of the foul is that McClellan shoots 21% from three in conference play. You have to force him to make that shot, and if he does, you can at least live with that. It's a mistake I wouldn't even expect from a seasoned freshman, much less a senior who has played in as many games as Pledger. He makes poor decisions often, which only makes things worse.

yep., gosh dang senior. cant wait for our freshmen to be seniors and actually be ball players

 

[lmg088]

You're right, it was a tough call to live with in that situation. But that's one of the reasons it's not easy to win on the road against any Big 12 team. I think there's a chance that call would have been ignored if we had been playing in the LNC. And don't forget the controversial no-call on Monday in the KU-ISU game. You'd better believe that officials everywhere were aware of the bad publicity that officiating crew received. So, don't be surprised if we see more close calls made at the end of games now.

Still, there is no denying that Steven made a mistake. I'm not going to bash him for it. I'm just pointing to a crucial error that was one of the many mistakes the team made to blow a 22 point lead and lose the game.

Please let me know if I didn't see it clearly enough on my ESPN3 viewing, but in my opinion there wasn't even, what you would call, a questionable call even to be made. Even with Mcclellan leaning in a lot, it didn't look like there was any body to body contact with Pledger and, even though Pledger's arm was not vertical, it look like his arm hit nothing but ball. So as through my crimson colored glasses this was a horrible call regardless of Pledger's decision to be in the vicinity of the shooter.

 

[campbest]

Please let me know if I didn't see it clearly enough on my ESPN3 viewing, but in my opinion there wasn't even, what you would call, a questionable call even to be made. Even with Mcclellan leaning in a lot, it didn't look like there was any body to body contact with Pledger and, even though Pledger's arm was not vertical, it look like his arm hit nothing but ball. So as through my crimson colored glasses this was a horrible call regardless of Pledger's decision to be in the vicinity of the shooter.

I thought it was a bad call...the secondary official called it too.

 

[AdaSooner]

Please let me know if I didn't see it clearly enough on my ESPN3 viewing, but in my opinion there wasn't even, what you would call, a questionable call even to be made. Even with Mcclellan leaning in a lot, it didn't look like there was any body to body contact with Pledger and, even though Pledger's arm was not vertical, it look like his arm hit nothing but ball. So as through my crimson colored glasses this was a horrible call regardless of Pledger's decision to be in the vicinity of the shooter.

As I said in my initial post, McClellan leaned in to initiate the contact. That's what good players do in a situation like that. Pledger's mistake was to give the official a reason to blow his whistle by extending his right arm. Given the same circumstances on OU's home floor, it might have been a no call. But, not on the road with the UT crowd in a frenzy and the whorn players drawing ever closer to a come from behind win. He should have backed off. Period. McClellan is a 27% shooter from three. He averages 82% from the free throw line. If he makes the shot, which was not likely, we're still up two with the ball and very little time left on the clock.

Bad call or not, Steven made a mistake by putting himself in that position.

 

[Smash Williams]

No it didnt lose it, but as a senior he needs to take more of a leadership role. He's basically Tony Crocker, but at least Crock helped out when we were getting pressed and occasionally tried to create his own shot. With a lead, you dont need threes, so why have him on the court? put another big in and pound it down low. He was just wasting space out there.

Putting a bunch of bigs on the floor at the same time destroys an offense's spacing and allows the opposing defense to pack the paint. That makes no sense at all.

 

[DenverSooner]

He was EXACTLY where he was suppose to be on the press. You don't think LK would have said something if he was suppose to be somewhere else? Good grief. Just b/c YOU wanted him somewhere else, doesn't mean LK did.

I agree but I would have also liked to see Kruger try something different when it wasn't working. I bet in hindsight Kruger would like to try something different.

Regardless, even with all of the problems with the press, OU was still up 4 with about 16 seconds left. Pledger fouled a 3 point shot, Osby missed a free throw and Kabango made a low percentage shot to take it to OT.

I think OU could do exactly what they did 10 times (other than foul the 3 point shooter and miss the free throw) and OU wins the game 9 times.

 

[WTSooner]

I agree but I would have also liked to see Kruger try something different when it wasn't working. I bet in hindsight Kruger would like to try something different.

Regardless, even with all of the problems with the press, OU was still up 4 with about 16 seconds left. Pledger fouled a 3 point shot, Osby missed a free throw and Kabango made a low percentage shot to take it to OT.

I think OU could do exactly what they did 10 times (other than foul the 3 point shooter and miss the free throw) and OU wins the game 9 times.

We may not have "tried something different" during the game last night, but we certainly have over the course of the season. We've tried several different things, with several different players. Fact of the matter is, when you don't have very good ball handlers on your team, and possibly the ones you do have are hurt, or freshmen, or hurt freshmen, you are going to struggle at times. Grooms doesn't do a terrible job. But his height, or lack thereof, is a problem. He just gets swallowed up sometimes. I was more disappointed in M'Baye. Being the guy throwing the ball in, LK is expecting him to play a major role in the press break. I thought he was pretty average in that role last night.