Where we stand in the Big 12.....

[stormspencer]

This was a really big win for us tonight, but I wanted to look at the bigger picture of where we stand in the conference:

Kansas - it's looking more and more like they are winning their 11th straight....gag.
ISU - I still don't understand how they lost at Tech, but they are the most skilled team in the league and present matchup issues for everyone.
WV - they are a horrible matchup for us with their depth/press. But their schedule is backloaded. There are more losses in their near future.
Baylor - With less talent this year, they are actually playing more as a team. They are a good team.
K-State - When Foster's attitude is right, they are a fairly decent team. We really need to win up there.
OSU - limited offensively. They are going to need a couple of more big upsets in order to get to 9-9 in conference. Bubble team at best.
Texas - they are descending. A dysfunctional team that lacks consistent and quality guard. They are a bubble team and can't afford to finish worse than 8-10 or they would be left out of the tournament.
TCU - improved and playing teams tough. Can't take these guys for granted.
Tech - bad

I think we are in good shape as far as a top-5 finish in conference is concerned. We have the upper hand over Baylor and Texas, but we really need to win at K-State to push them further down the standings. If this team can avoid hiccups to TCU and Tech, we have a good chance at finishing with at least 11 wins. And that would put us in no worse than 4th and likely fighting for 3rd. 2nd isn't out of the question IF we could get to 12 wins.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

Here are the updated standings for the Big-12 Conference:

http://www.big12sports.com/standings/Standings.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10410&SPID=

 

[tycat947]

If we can become consistent, we could pretty easily finish at least 3rd, maybe 2nd. But I've yet to see consistency that we need. The K-State loss at home was terrible and will probably cost a position in the conference by the time it's all over. We could also finish around 6 or 7 too although I don't think we will.

 

[Max Power]

I think we finish 3rd or 4th, win one in the big 12 tourney, get a 6/7 seed, win one in the ncaa.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

Tuesday-7pm .... West Virginia @ OU

The WVU game Tuesday night is huge. I hope a big crowd of Sooner fans shows up at the LNC.

 

[tsou89]

Tuesday-7pm .... West Virginia @ OU

The WVU game Tuesday night is huge. I hope a big crowd of Sooner fans shows up at the LNC.

100%! true. Can't afford to lose another home game.

 

[coolm]

I think we finish 3rd or 4th, win one in the big 12 tourney, get a 6/7 seed, win one in the ncaa.

I think this is a pretty reasonable forecast.

That said ... if our offense is clicking we can make the second weekend in march.

 

[pnkranger]

I think this is a pretty reasonable forecast.

That said ... if our offense is clicking we can make the second weekend in march.

With the strength of the league and the strength of our non conference schedule, I believe a 4th place finish is good enough for a 5 seed. A 4th place finish is probably on the four line.

If we get on a roll and finish with 5 losses in conference, I could see us on the 3 line at 23-8.

 

[MercedeSooner]

Tuesday-7pm .... West Virginia @ OU

The WVU game Tuesday night is huge. I hope a big crowd of Sooner fans shows up at the LNC.

Sure as hell hope we come out mad. WVU's press doesn't work near as well on the road because the refs don't let them play hackaball like they do at home. Definitely owe them some payback in a big way.

 

[j2d2]

I think this is a pretty reasonable forecast.

That said ... if our offense is clicking we can make the second weekend in march.

I would amend this to "If our defense is clicking we can make the second weekend in March".
Our offense seems to to be generated by our defense.

 

[Capel's Mustache]

Sure as hell hope we come out mad. WVU's press doesn't work near as well on the road because the refs don't let them play hackaball like they do at home. Definitely owe them some payback in a big way.

Hackaball = that is the key to me. If they are allowed to play football on a basketball court they will win. Just reminded me - didn't the NCAA make a push at the start of last year to clean up the game. Call more hand checks, etc. Whatever happened to that??

 

[NickZepp]

The schedule is set up pretty good the rest of the way considering. And if you said going in we would be 5-4 at this point in conference play. Looking at the schedule I would agree. We really only had one loss I would call bad in that stretch against KSU.

Do we have problems as a team? Yes our half court offense is horrible. But the defense keeps OU in most every game Buddy gets hot and he's hard to stop. Spangler plays tough. We honestly should finish the year something like 7-2 or 6-3.

This team just hasn't had good enough guard play to make a deep NCAA run overall. Maybe Buddy can get hot and carry us. But honestly Woodard is so inconsistent as a point guard and nobody else really does anything offensively. We really need some help at guard. We really miss a guy like Hornbeak off the bench.

 

[Darwin]

The schedule is set up pretty good the rest of the way considering. And if you said going in we would be 5-4 at this point in conference play. Looking at the schedule I would agree. We really only had one loss I would call bad in that stretch against KSU.

Do we have problems as a team? Yes our half court offense is horrible. But the defense keeps OU in most every game Buddy gets hot and he's hard to stop. Spangler plays tough. We honestly should finish the year something like 7-2 or 6-3.

This team just hasn't had good enough guard play to make a deep NCAA run overall. Maybe Buddy can get hot and carry us. But honestly Woodard is so inconsistent as a point guard and nobody else really does anything offensively. We really need some help at guard. We really miss a guy like Hornbeak off the bench.

Yes

 

[jerry]

The schedule is set up pretty good the rest of the way considering. And if you said going in we would be 5-4 at this point in conference play. Looking at the schedule I would agree. We really only had one loss I would call bad in that stretch against KSU.

Do we have problems as a team? Yes our half court offense is horrible. But the defense keeps OU in most every game Buddy gets hot and he's hard to stop. Spangler plays tough. We honestly should finish the year something like 7-2 or 6-3.

This team just hasn't had good enough guard play to make a deep NCAA run overall. Maybe Buddy can get hot and carry us. But honestly Woodard is so inconsistent as a point guard and nobody else really does anything offensively. We really need some help at guard. We really miss a guy like Hornbeak off the bench.

Agree!

 

[skyvue]

This team just hasn't had good enough guard play to make a deep NCAA run overall. Maybe Buddy can get hot and carry us. But honestly Woodard is so inconsistent as a point guard and nobody else really does anything offensively. We really need some help at guard. We really miss a guy like Hornbeak off the bench.

Cousins had an off game yesterday (I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he was under the weather) but he has certainly contributed offensively. There have been many posts on this board that suggested he was our best player, while you don't even give him a passing mention.

 

[chuckb]

I think we finish 3rd or 4th, win one in the big 12 tourney, get a 6/7 seed, win one in the ncaa.

If we finish 3rd or 4th, we're a 4/5 seed.

 

[WTSooner]

Five teams currently have 4 or 5 conferences losses.

 

[afaSooner]

Were expectations too high or is this playing out as expected?

 

[stormspencer]

When glancing at the RPI this morning, we are up to #24. We also have 6 wins over top-50 RPI teams. Only Kentucky, Kansas, and Duke have more top-50 wins.....that is pretty select company. This is one of the first items that the committee looks at when determining your seed....i.e. how many "quality" wins do you have.

 

[NickZepp]

Were expectations too high or is this playing out as expected?

Probably a little disappointed so far. There hasn't been a bench at all.

Cousins had an off game yesterday (I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he was under the weather) but he has certainly contributed offensively. There have been many posts on this board that suggested he was our best player, while you don't even give him a passing mention.

Cousins is sorta hit or miss. Early this year he was better than he has been recently. Our guard bench play has been awful.

everybody got to deviate from the norm