Why Can't OU Finish 4th in the Big XII

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DenverSooner

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Seriously, why can't OU beat Tech, OSU, ISU, Texas, KSU and A&M on the road?

I know that is a big statement because road wins are difficult but I am not sold on any of these teams. What makes these teams good?
 
I'm with you. I don't think we'll finish that high, but there are definitely a lot of winnable games on our conference schedule.
 
It's possible. I think 5-7 is much more realistic though. I don't think we will be any worse than 8th....
 
It could happen, I dont think we will finish below 6th. We are better then A&M, ISU, OSU and Tech. A&M just lost to Rice.

If we can catch some breaks, and someone in the CJ, Arent, Puma group step up constantly, we could have a shot at it.
 
Crocker's Long Sleeves said:
It could happen, I dont think we will finish below 6th. We are better then A&M, ISU, OSU and Tech. A&M just lost to Rice.

If we can catch some breaks, and someone in the CJ, Arent, Puma group step up constantly, we could have a shot at it.
Click to expand...

I agree. A&M can't score points. Texas is playing a bunch of freshman and a four guard lineup.
 
DenverSooner said:
Seriously, why can't OU beat Tech, OSU, ISU, Texas, KSU and A&M on the road?
Click to expand...

If we won all those road games, we would probably go about 14-4 or 13-5 in the Big 12, finish in the top 10 nationally and be like a 2 or 3 seed in the NCAAs. And that's expecting way too much IMO.
 
I agree the only teams I think our better than us right now are Mizzou, Baylor and Kansas. I think K-State is pretty close to us, but we might edge them out if we keep improving. I haven't been impressed with Texas or Texas A&M, and the rest of the teams are pretty mediocre. So, I think somewhere between 4-6th is pretty realistic and a great accomplishment considering the initial expectations at the start of the year. At the same time, if Pledger cools off, I'd be curious how our offense responds because the other players have been pretty inconsistent offensively.
 
Lon Kruger and the team are catching the Big XII at a good time. A lot of teams are down, OU is coming back. I think the only teams better than OU are Kansas and Baylor. We are on a par with KState and Mizzou. Will have to fight it out for anywhere from 3rd to 6th.
 
They certainly can. This team is legitimately good. We have two above average Big XII post starters, and good depth in the post. Grooms is our best PG since Quannas. Pledger is the best 2 guard we've had since Hollis. We have two guys who can light it up from deep. KU, MU, and Baylor are certainly better than OU, but I'm positive that OU can compete with K-State and Texas for the 4th spot in the conference. I think OU is just better than OSU, Tech, ISU, and aTm.
 
thebigabd said:
OU will finish in the top 5.
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This is what I am thinking too. I think OU is just flat out better than ISU, Tech and OSU. I think OU has more experience than Texas and fairly equivalent talent, especially in the front court. I think OU is playing better than A&M and has more ability to score points than A&M. I think KSU and OU are similar teams but OU might be able to score a little easier while KSU might be a little further along on defense and rebounding.


You really want to get crazy? Why can't OU win this conference? Who is unbeatable? Who has a clearly better top 5 players?
 
DenverSooner said:
Seriously, why can't OU beat Tech, OSU, ISU, Texas, KSU and A&M on the road?

I know that is a big statement because road wins are difficult but I am not sold on any of these teams. What makes these teams good?
Click to expand...

I had the feeling based on your responses that you feel better about this team than you should. OU isn't finishing top 4 in conference. Baylor, Mizzou, Kansas, KSU, and really A&M are better teams than OU. I think Kruger has done a great job, but don't fall into the trap of overhyping a team before conference play begins ... ala Mizzou.
 
5hrenergy said:
I had the feeling based on your responses that you feel better about this team than you should. OU isn't finishing top 4 in conference. Baylor, Mizzou, Kansas, KSU, and really A&M are better teams than OU. I think Kruger has done a great job, but don't fall into the trap of overhyping a team before conference play begins ... ala Mizzou.
Click to expand...

In college basketball, coaching can make a huge difference. Are the 5 teams you listed more talented and deeper than us? Yes. However, I would say Kruger is a better coach than the HC's of all 5 teams, save Self, therefore, we will have opportunities to beat these teams in Norman. @Baylor and @aTm are not tough places to play, so no reason we can't win those games especially @Baylor because I expect Kruger to coach circles around their coach. I don't expect us to win because I think they will eventually out-talent us but that game will be closer than any of us thought 3 months ago. @KSU, @KU, and @Mizzou all 3 I doubt we have much of a chance to win, but you never know.
 
I was going to start a similar thread until I read this one. After the last couple of days, I am starting to think we could finish 4th or 5th. Not that I think differently about us, but I finally got to watch some of the other teams.

JMO, but OSU, TTech, A&M aren't as good as I thought they would be. Texas and K State are beatable. And the class of the league, Mizzouri, Kansas and Baylor are good but not nearly as dominant as I thought they would be ((thus maybe we could or can beat them at our place). In other words, I just don't think the league is as good as I thought it would be.

I may just be buying into the hype and performances against inferior teams, but I am beginning to think this team is better and more talented than I orginally believed. I stand ready to come back down to earth at any time.
 
I think a 6th place finish is more realistic.

Beating KU, Baylor and Mizzou, even at home, will be a big hill to climb...maybe too big for an undersized team. K-State, Texas and ATM won't be easy either, although I see those three as winnable on our own court.

I believe we'll win at least a couple of games on the road we're not picked to win. But putting a W in the win column against what most of us see as the best three teams in the conference would be awfully close to a miracle.

I haven't run the numbers on how that scenario plays out. My 6th place projection is just a guess about where I think we could end up. My hope is that I'll be just as surprised as I have been so far and Denver's top four finish is more accurate.

As far as I'm concerned, anything from 6th place or above will be a major accomplishment. It's will be a lot better than I thought we'd do when the season started, and three spots higher than we were picked to finish in the pre-season.
 
Pledger would have to be on any all-conference team at this point, and Romero and Clark can complete talentwise with most of the players in the conference. Throw in Fitz and Grooms as above-average players [and I'm not sure we've seen the best of Grooms], and overall we're not nearly as devoid of talent as some predicted.

I'm a little skeptical of the opponents that we've played and beaten and our one loss was pretty convincing. I'm also skeptical of comparison scoring as indicating that much with many of our mid-major wins BUT what does have me excited is that we are scoring around 80 per game and what opposing coach's are saying after almost every game: OU plays really tough defensively.

If we can keep this hybrid Tubbs/Sampson style going, and keep improving our bench rotation, I think we can compete with any team in the conference at this point. To me that "should" mean an above .500 finish and I'm almost positive we are going to some type of post-season tournament. Cincy game is huge.
 
I think we will compete in most of the games.

K-State will be really tough inside. If we can rebound with them we have a shot.

the Texas guards are hard to stay in front of. They have limited outside shooting so if we can control the guards we have a shot.

Baylor is Baylor. Talented but with Drew coaching there is always the possibility of them snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Missouri looked pretty bad at home against an Illinois team that is challenged offensively. Mizzou was definitely undisciplined in that game. In other games I have seen they looked dominating.

Kansas will be tough as always.

I think 6th is a pretty good prediction but we could do better if we keep improving. I think Pledger, Osby and Fitz performance against higher quality teams is crucial. If those guys start disappearing against the Kansas and Texas of the world we are in for a tough conference race. And the amount of improvement by Grooms, Clark, Neal and one of the bigs will be a big factor.
 
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