Which team will show up on Saturday?

[AdaSooner]

I took these quotes from the Norman Transcript, "Sooners can't afford to sulk" article. The first quote is from Andrew Fitzgerald after the loss at Missouri:

“I kept my head down the majority of the ride back home,” he said. “I was too embarrassed to look at the coaching staff.”

With 18 points on 8 of 15 shooting and 6 boards, Drew had nothing to be ashamed of. He's the only one on the team who came to play against Mizzou. On the other hand, his teammates had plenty to be embarrassed about. Hopefully, they didn't like the way getting blown out felt and never want to see it happen again. We'll see if that's the case on Saturday.

“You can’t just ignore that it happened,” Kruger said. “We’re not proud of it. We have to respond in a way that it never happens again. We have to take that kind of approach.”

“These guys have been upbeat, they’ve been positive, they’ve been enthusiastic about their play,” he said. “They weren’t Tuesday night, but we’ve got to get back to that and re-establish that mentality.”

Kruger is right, of course. The question is will this team rebound from a humiliating loss and regain their confidence in time to compete against KU? I believe they will. But as the headline of this article says, they "can't afford to sulk." The Jayhawks will not be sympathetic or merciful. If they can win by 40 or more, they will.

Saturday's game will be a huge test for this team's resolve and their mental toughness to finish the season in style. Come out feeling sorry for themselves, and we'll see a repeat of the Missouri game, only not with a 38 points deficit. Come to play hard on defense, scrap for every rebound and loose ball with the mental toughness we've seen in most games this year, and anything can happen.

That's what I'm hoping we will see! Which team do you think will show up on Saturday?

 

[SoMuchDramaInTheLNC]

I think they'll fight hard, but our crowd won't give them much help. Too early in the conference slate for a strong student section at this point, and the Hawks will bring their usual contingent. I see trailing by 4 at half, then scrapping but losing by about 10. That will give us some semblance of momentum heading up to Stillwater.

 

[NMSooner'80]

I hope that the OU fans who can get there will get tickets - and keep those obnoxious sweater-vest wearing boneheads out of the LNC.

It's embarrassing to hear talk about last year, when the Beakers overran the LNC. That should NEVER happen, especially with them.

 

[SoonerSpock]

My concern is not getting blown out at home by the jayhawks. If we lose by 20+ after trailing by double digits for most of the game our confidence we have worked so hard to develop will be devastated.

Lose our confidence and winning in Stoolwater will extremely difficult. Play the hawks tight or win and our confidence will be high with a great chance to win in pukesville. Beat the pukes and we should start the conference 3-2 or 2-3.

Play poorly Saturday, lose in Stoolwater and we likely start 1-4 and finishing the conference 6-12 will be a big task. Start 3-2 and 9-9 is very viable.