William & Mary game thread

[mict085]

That last basket by reeves was big time. Difficult shot, just inside the 3 point line, well defended. If that doesn’t go, W&M can tie it up. Excellent job by Reeves.

 

[pnkranger]

80% from the free throw line as a team coming in and 80% again tonight. That's how you win games.

 

[thebigabd]

Knight reminds me of Jason Thompson from Rider many years ago... Played at a small school but was awesome. Played for the Sacramento Kings for a long time and was pretty productive in the NBA.

 

[BCSooners]

Thoughts:

1) knight was the best player, even though he had the game of his life. Abused good D by Doo & atrocious D by Manek & Kur.

2) for those asking for Kur he showed why he’s playing 5 mins a game. Can make a block or dunk, but lateral quickness & fundamental D is really bad. Iwuakor is definitely the best bench big, even without his offense he was the best big tonight. Need Manek’s shot making to spread the floor but Iwuakor is more active & will be better soon.

3) Not worried about Doo, decent shots just couldn’t make much.

4) Bienemy has to get more involved, he’s by far the best pg on the team. Harmon will be really good & makes clutch play, but as of now it’s not close.

5) reaves & the bench won the game.

Overall the team just had a lull game, lucky to get the win. Expect them to be sharper & blow out the next game. Still excited about the D & overall talent. W&M couldn’t of played better (they have a chance at the dance) & OU was lackluster & came away with the win.

 

[tooney]

16.6% from deep...........

 

[mict085]

The casual fan surely had no clue that W&M was actually a pretty darned good team (heck, I didn't until read about them over the past two or three days).

And I get the idea of being "road warriors" in non-conference, but if we don't play at home, attendance will never improve. It sort of smacks of petulance.

Toby just said on the radio that the Sooners had just four turnovers in the game, which tied a school record in the Big 12 era (they also had just four turnovers against Ole Miss in the tourney last season). That was huge. OU ended up taking seven more shots than W&M.

I agree. I knew nothing about W&M. I think they’re pretty darn good. A November game on a Monday night against an opponent with no name recognition was always going to be poorly attended. I don’t think there’s anything else that OU can do with the schedule to improve attendance. Lon has been great at recruiting students and fans to attend games. I personally believe OU needs a new arena or a MAJOR gutting and renovation of LNC, but that’s a pipe dream.

Attendance is a problem everywhere right now. It’s been a problem for OU basketball for 25 years.

 

[coolm]

WnM deserves more credit than they are being given. They're a solid team and they play smart ball. This is a good win for OU.

Iwuakor was all over the court. He needs to be on the floor more playing like jerami grant like that. For a rather long stretch every other word was Iwuakor.

 

[pnkranger]

WnM deserves more credit than they are being given. They're a solid team and they play smart ball. This is a good win for OU.

Iwuakor was all over the court. He needs to be on the floor more playing like jerami grant like that. For a rather long stretch every other word was Iwuakor.

He's an exciting talent. NBA body/athleticism and motor.

 

[oudna]

Stole one there.

Didn’t play smart offense.

Both their big boys were as advertised.

Will look like a good win in March.

Iwuakor. Man!

 

[sheepdogs1]

Iwuakor was all over the court. He needs to be on the floor more playing like jerami grant like that. For a rather long stretch every other word was Iwuakor.

He shoots the 'pebble' pretty well.

 

[scrybe]

OU's issues tonight we're twofold:
1. A guy named Knight and
2. We missed a ton of wide open shots.

It's that simple. But our Sooners still won the game, didn't they?

 

[AdaSooner]

WnM deserves more credit than they are being given. They're a solid team and they play smart ball. This is a good win for OU.

Iwuakor was all over the court. He needs to be on the floor more playing like jerami grant like that. For a rather long stretch every other word was Iwuakor.

I couldn’t agree more! 8 points, 3 rebounds and ten minutes of solid defense deserves more time on the floor.

 

[BCSooners]

I couldn’t agree more! 8 points, 3 rebounds and ten minutes of solid defense deserves more time on the floor.

Absolutely. Needs to learn when to go for a block or block out but he was great tonight.

 

[skyvue]

Their two bigs were 20/36 and the remainder were 8/24.

Six of those eight shots made by non-bigs were threes.

 

[BCSooners]

Six of those eight shots made by non-bigs were threes.

Yes, they played the perfect game for them on the road.

 

[OUReality]

Just got home from the game, and agree with the thoughts already expressed here. W&M were a much better team than expected. The did a great job passing the ball around to get quality open shots. Their offense was fluid and fun to watch. Knight was clearly the best player in the game tonight, but #11 (skinny white kid with mask) was’t too far behind. I think they combined for over 40 points. I was glad their point guard had the ball at the end of the game and not the other 2.

Like many of you, I was frustrated with Manek then then he scores 5 straight to take the lead. Would like to see Dolittle and Reeves more aggressive in the offense as well as finishing better around the rim. That said, this team is still trying to figure out who they are and they are still winning, so their potential is high. After the last 2 years I’ve learned to temper my enthusiasm in the non-conference ... but I think this team has a chance to finish above 500 in the conference this year.

 

[61sooner]

UCLA is at home to So Utah on tv here in CA and it doesn't look there is
a 1,000 people in the seats.

 

[sheepdogs1]

Yes, they played the perfect game for them on the road.

Was not implying they played poorly.

 

[stormspencer]

Just now finished watching the game. Since I didn't get to watch it in real time, but I had a couple of settled thoughts. If I would've had watched this game live, I would have been pretty pissed off:

• The shot selection for the most part....was really bad for a good portion of the game. We settled for jumpers too early in the shot clock far too often.
• Along the same lines, when you are not hitting from the outside....get your ass to the rim.
• Iwaukor needs to be the first big off the bench....not Kuath.
• Manek was not good tonight.....thankfully he hit a few 3s.
• Defense "doubled" too much when they didn't need to....W&M made us pay with the way they were passing and hitting from the outside.
• Doo was inefficient, but played hard.
• The Knight kid from W&M is a helluva player.
• Reaves was money down the stretch.
• Didn't play our best game and still won against a very underrated team.
• I think this win will look a lot better come March....W&M is the best team we've played thus far.

Boomer!

 

[WichitaSooner]

This game went about how I expected when I posted this morning. I hoped it wouldn't be that close all the way to the end, but I definitely am not surprised that we struggled to get in a rhythm. They are a good team and played to their strengths, and they have an absolute stud who was on top of his game.

I know Doo wasn't as good as he was against Oregon State, but when 19 and 8 seems like a mediocre game, that's saying something. I actually thought he played fine, just missed some shots he usually makes. Also, when he grabbed a defensive board in the first half and led the break, then threw the lob to Kur, I had to laugh at all the comments last year from people saying Doo doesn't have good handles. I always found that criticism way off base, he handles the ball far better than most frontcourt college players.

Another good night of production from the bench, and our ability to limit turnovers and make free throws were huge keys. Hopefully we pound a very bad team Thursday and can move onto KC!