Sooner04
12/5/2008, 10:07 AM
Remember the old song that was a hit for Dionne Warwick, Message to Michael? Well, I do, even if nobody else does. In the song, Dionne's trying to get a message to her old flame who's left town, changed his name, and moved to New Orleans in search of musical flame. She wants him to come home.
My love is OU Basketball, and I'm trying to get a message to my boys. The message is clear; you're a good basketball team, now start playing like it.
Now, I've heard the rumblings. Guys are sick, guys are hurt. Good points all, but you should still hustle. We looked so lackadaisacal last night. I watched bits and pieces of the game and turned it off during moments of rage. What was incredible is how bad the Sooners looked while I watched and how many points they scored when I was away. I went to take a dump at 7-0 and I come back to 14-14 in only about three minutes of game time. It was like that all night long.
This team lacks that killer instinct for some reason. I can hear you now, "But 04, you rube, we're 7-0! How can we lack killer instinct when we've yet to lose?" In my estimation, we're good enough to get teams backpedaling, but we're not good enough to knock them out. We're Willie Pep when we need to be Marvin Hagler.
It's hard to bitch about 7-0, so I'm not going to do it. I've heard Capel speak several times about how good this team will be when they play up to their capability. We're 7-0, and we're a long way from that point. Look out, Big 12 Conference.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 22 [Overture, curtain, lights. This is it, the night of nights.]
2nd - 20 [And oh what heights we'll hit.]
3rd - 16 [Hacking baboon.]
4th - 15 [Sorority girl, passed out in the bushes at Cate Center.]
LEADING SCORERS:
25 - Blake Griffin: And he had an off night. 25 and 6 for an off night. Tough grader, I am.
17 - Austin Johnson: Welcome to the party.
10 - Taylor Griffin: Gets his ten, one way or another.
LEADING REBOUNDERS:
9 - Taylor Griffin: Keeps Blake from going seven for seven in this category.
6 - Blake Griffin: REALLY off night here. 13 under his nation-leading average.
3 - Cade Davis and Austin Johnson
PLUSES:
1. Cream - I say this with an unblemished record of staunch heterosexuality; those uniforms were fabulous. FABULOUS! An alternative uniform of cream for the school that calls itself the crimson and cream. GORGEOUS! And then, to top it off, they go ahead and put 'Sooners' underneath the number in ode to the fantastic uniforms of '88 and '89. I'll be honest, when I saw the uniforms on the tube I needed oxygen. I was getting vehklempt.
2. Austin Johnson - We ran the risk of being run out of our own building until AJ decided that he was a senior and he shant be the one to allow such a thing. I didn't see it live, as I mentioned earlier, I was a little ticked so I went and took a dump, but this guy saved us. From 9-0 to 14-14 in about three minutes with 11 of those points belonging to Austin. I don't think we win without that stretch. I really don't.
3. The Griffin Brothers - 35 points and 15 points between the two is solid for them. We've seen them do better, but you know what impressed me? 13 of 18 from the line, and it probably would've been better had Blake not had to shoot two after getting fisted in the junk. Oi.
MINUSES:
1. The Men of Troy - Those bastards were dirty.
2. Tony Crocker - His theme song just came on the radio: Nowhere Man. Cade Davis is eating this dude's minutes. Maybe it's those horrid sleeves.
3. Finishing Games - I can't take many more of these nailbiters. My blood pressure's got to be through the roof. We're winning, but we should be winning by more. It seems like we make enough mistakes at the end of games to keep teams around. Missing free throws against Purdue, a boneheaded travel against the TroJANS. That crap gets you beat.
4. Depth - I still don't think we have any. Our top 6 played all but 13 minutes. I'm afraid we're going to be gassed before long. Either that or we're in ridiculously good shape.
5. Outside Shooting - [clang!] [oompf!] [doink!] [clunk!] We're starting to sound like the old Adam West Batman show with the noise our bricks are making from behind the arc. 7-21, and a lot of them were open looks. Several of them could've been the dagger. Must get better, but I'm afraid it's a trend.
6. Willie Warren - Freshman game. He'll be fine.
7. Hustle - Outrebounded by a large margin. Outhustled in our own gym. On the road or at a neutral site, we not only lose, we get hammered.
Got a big game coming up Sunday. Word is the BOK Center is pretty close to sold out, but I don't know how hostile the environment will be. It's a new gym, so the place will be an odd shooting environment for us. You never know how that's going to play out. Tulsa's not bad, but we should drill them. Capel's got me confident of big things down the road, but OU BBall has a history of yakking all over themselves in games like this. Maybe that's the part of me talking that was burned by Kelvin on stuff like this.
It's a new era, and I've got to stop holding onto past heartbreak. I say we give them the TCU treatment from last year and stomp a mudhole through the Golden Bugles.
Onward to Tulsa.
Thank you for your time.
My love is OU Basketball, and I'm trying to get a message to my boys. The message is clear; you're a good basketball team, now start playing like it.
Now, I've heard the rumblings. Guys are sick, guys are hurt. Good points all, but you should still hustle. We looked so lackadaisacal last night. I watched bits and pieces of the game and turned it off during moments of rage. What was incredible is how bad the Sooners looked while I watched and how many points they scored when I was away. I went to take a dump at 7-0 and I come back to 14-14 in only about three minutes of game time. It was like that all night long.
This team lacks that killer instinct for some reason. I can hear you now, "But 04, you rube, we're 7-0! How can we lack killer instinct when we've yet to lose?" In my estimation, we're good enough to get teams backpedaling, but we're not good enough to knock them out. We're Willie Pep when we need to be Marvin Hagler.
It's hard to bitch about 7-0, so I'm not going to do it. I've heard Capel speak several times about how good this team will be when they play up to their capability. We're 7-0, and we're a long way from that point. Look out, Big 12 Conference.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 22 [Overture, curtain, lights. This is it, the night of nights.]
2nd - 20 [And oh what heights we'll hit.]
3rd - 16 [Hacking baboon.]
4th - 15 [Sorority girl, passed out in the bushes at Cate Center.]
LEADING SCORERS:
25 - Blake Griffin: And he had an off night. 25 and 6 for an off night. Tough grader, I am.
17 - Austin Johnson: Welcome to the party.
10 - Taylor Griffin: Gets his ten, one way or another.
LEADING REBOUNDERS:
9 - Taylor Griffin: Keeps Blake from going seven for seven in this category.
6 - Blake Griffin: REALLY off night here. 13 under his nation-leading average.
3 - Cade Davis and Austin Johnson
PLUSES:
1. Cream - I say this with an unblemished record of staunch heterosexuality; those uniforms were fabulous. FABULOUS! An alternative uniform of cream for the school that calls itself the crimson and cream. GORGEOUS! And then, to top it off, they go ahead and put 'Sooners' underneath the number in ode to the fantastic uniforms of '88 and '89. I'll be honest, when I saw the uniforms on the tube I needed oxygen. I was getting vehklempt.
2. Austin Johnson - We ran the risk of being run out of our own building until AJ decided that he was a senior and he shant be the one to allow such a thing. I didn't see it live, as I mentioned earlier, I was a little ticked so I went and took a dump, but this guy saved us. From 9-0 to 14-14 in about three minutes with 11 of those points belonging to Austin. I don't think we win without that stretch. I really don't.
3. The Griffin Brothers - 35 points and 15 points between the two is solid for them. We've seen them do better, but you know what impressed me? 13 of 18 from the line, and it probably would've been better had Blake not had to shoot two after getting fisted in the junk. Oi.
MINUSES:
1. The Men of Troy - Those bastards were dirty.
2. Tony Crocker - His theme song just came on the radio: Nowhere Man. Cade Davis is eating this dude's minutes. Maybe it's those horrid sleeves.
3. Finishing Games - I can't take many more of these nailbiters. My blood pressure's got to be through the roof. We're winning, but we should be winning by more. It seems like we make enough mistakes at the end of games to keep teams around. Missing free throws against Purdue, a boneheaded travel against the TroJANS. That crap gets you beat.
4. Depth - I still don't think we have any. Our top 6 played all but 13 minutes. I'm afraid we're going to be gassed before long. Either that or we're in ridiculously good shape.
5. Outside Shooting - [clang!] [oompf!] [doink!] [clunk!] We're starting to sound like the old Adam West Batman show with the noise our bricks are making from behind the arc. 7-21, and a lot of them were open looks. Several of them could've been the dagger. Must get better, but I'm afraid it's a trend.
6. Willie Warren - Freshman game. He'll be fine.
7. Hustle - Outrebounded by a large margin. Outhustled in our own gym. On the road or at a neutral site, we not only lose, we get hammered.
Got a big game coming up Sunday. Word is the BOK Center is pretty close to sold out, but I don't know how hostile the environment will be. It's a new gym, so the place will be an odd shooting environment for us. You never know how that's going to play out. Tulsa's not bad, but we should drill them. Capel's got me confident of big things down the road, but OU BBall has a history of yakking all over themselves in games like this. Maybe that's the part of me talking that was burned by Kelvin on stuff like this.
It's a new era, and I've got to stop holding onto past heartbreak. I say we give them the TCU treatment from last year and stomp a mudhole through the Golden Bugles.
Onward to Tulsa.
Thank you for your time.