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View Full Version : 04's Attempt: OU vs. The Black Bears of Maine Recap



Sooner04
12/11/2008, 12:23 AM
I have been to Maine!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/KingpinPadre/n9611721_37938448_2569.jpg

I must say, they've got some mighty fine lobster up there. But tasty lobster does not a successful recruiting visit make. With that knowledge on my brain, I entered the Lloyd Noble Center tonight knowing I'd see a team VASTLY outnumbered athletically. Knowing that, I knew I'd see a team try their darndest to muck up the game and throw everything but the box and none toward Blake Griffin. Imagine my shock when, after an early three put us down 3-0, we started a dunk-a-thon that found us up 11-3. I try not to nitpick over things when you're hammering somebody, but our opening runs over the last two games have combined to show a tally of 24-3. That's Bradford-esque right there.

Do we have problems? Of course. We are the Law Firm of Clang, Clunk and Brick when it comes to long range shooting. We've yet to find adequate help for the brothers Griffin down low, although I will say I thought Kyle Cannon asserted himself as the leader for the slot of Post Man #3. We still miss way too many free throws, but we've made them in the games where we needed them.

I think you take a drumming of Maine and move on, but I don't think Capel will. The effort seemed to wane at times, as shown by us being outrebounded for much of the game by a team that would probably have trouble boxing out the "clowns in a volkswagen" frontcourt that is the Oklahoma State Cowboys of 2009. I bet practice is brisk tomorrow.


SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 16 [hacking wildebeast]
2nd - 22 [She's a woman who understands!]
3rd - 23 [She's a woman who knows her man!]
4th - 17 [Paris Hilton, barfing up a veggie burger]


LEADING SCORERS:
22 - Blake Griffin [As fine an athlete as I've ever seen on the BBall court.]
19 - Willie Warren [Ferocious dunks tonight. NASTY!]
13 - "Gamma" Ray Willis [Welcome back, friend]
10 - Tony Crocker

[b]LEADING REBOUNDERS:
10 - Blake Griffin [Couldn't have looked more disinterested.]
5 - Taylor Griffin
5 - "Gamma" Ray Willis


PLUSES:
1. "Gamma" Ray Willis: I'm not a real journalist, so I'm allowed to be biased. I'm a big fan of Ray. I've always had a soft spot in my black heart for guys who know how to score. My man, Ray, lacks that voice in his head that sparks the tiny flame of concern over what will happen if he misses that 15-foot floater. There's no conscience in there. Ray subscribes to that theory of shoot now, shoot some more and, when in doubt, shoot again. Was he out of control? A little, but I like guys who WANT to score. Nothing timid about the "Gamma" Ray. 13 points, five rebounds and one dime. Very nice.

2. Willie Warren: I have to keep telling myself he's a true freshman. He doesn't look like one, and he doesn't play like one. The kid is ferocious out there. 19 points in 20 minutes. Sheesh.

3. Passing: We were whipping the ball all over the place against that zone. If I'd been any more delirious I would've required smelling salts. 21 assists against nine turnovers. Beautiful.

4. Kyle Cannon: A little unlucky on a number of shots, but he showed me some strength and effort. He's the 3rd post now, in my opinion. Wright's struggling with strength and Orlando appears to be oafing around out there. I didn't get that vibe with Kyle.

5. Jeff Capel: 11 guys played at least 11 minutes. We needed that.


MINUSES:
1. Taylor Griffin: Did he play? I know he did, but the box score suggests otherwise. He's been there in the big games so far, so I shant harp on it.

2. Outside Shooting: Oh, the humanity! 7 of 28 is as dreadful as dreadful can be. It's uglier than waking up next to Joan Rivers. That crap has got to cease.

3. Rebounding: Effort, that's what it's about, and we appear to be laissez-faire about it most of the time. It's like we're shocked when Blake doesn't come down with the ball. That's what impressed me about Cannon. He seemed to attack the glass when he was in there. The rest of the guys? Meh.


In closing, and I still don't think we've played all that well except for the first half up in Tulsa on Sunday. One of these days, we're going to fire on all cylinders and absolutely bludgeon whatever poor squad lines up against us. Hopefully it's the Texas Longhorns and that greasy turncoat, Damion James. Maybe it'll be against Bill Self and that thing on top of his head. When it happens, though, you'll know it, and it'll be glorious.

We're 9-0, and our best ball is still way ahead of us. Good things are on the horizon. Stay healthy, get the win, and move on to the next stop.


Thank you for your time.

8timechamps
12/11/2008, 12:39 AM
Finally!

This is the first game I didn't get to watch (or follow online). Needless to say, I wasn't going to sleep if I didn't at least check to see if you had posted your recap.

First, I had forgotten your love of the Padres. Maybe a Rockies hat could help sway your faith? Probably not.

Not seeing any of the game, I can only go off of the box score and your recap, but three things are starting to become clear to me:

1. Blake may just be all that.

2. We probably should really try and enjoy Willie while he's here. I don't think he'll be around until 2011.

3. Unlike years past, we seem to be a pretty versatile team. Once the fine tuning is done, that will pay big dividends in March.

Again, well done.

tommieharris91
12/11/2008, 01:00 AM
I thought Purcell could have beaten Maine tonight. They look like a 3A team from around here, and they play like a bad 3A team from around here.

Soonerborn03
12/11/2008, 04:19 AM
First, I had forgotten your love of the Padres. Maybe a Rockies hat could help sway you ur faith?Not after what happened at the end of our 2007 season :mad:

OUSKINS
12/11/2008, 08:26 AM
A few thoughts from the LNC....

1. This was one of those games where the turnout wasn't too bad and the fans "tried" to get into the game, but Maine just wouldn't let them. Easily could have taken a nap in the 2nd half.

2. Totally agree with 04 about Kyle Cannon......really liked what I saw from him.

3. Orlando Allen is BEYOND a project. He is ridiculously raw and looked lost out there. My hope is that OU is becoming a program where we don't NEED to develop projects like Allen. If the recruits keep coming, it's going to be difficult for Orlando to see the floor unless he makes some drastic improvements. I don't see him contributing this year at all.

4. Kind of lazy on offense tonight, which explains why we took so many three's. Taylor Griffin attempted two for crying out loud. Also gave up some easy drives around the basket--- looked rather disinterested at times.

5. Our press embarrassed them. They had about a 50/50 chance of getting the ball past halfcourt in time. Had we pressed all night, we could have forced an NCAA record for turnovers.

6. The "Dunkathon" portion of the game was fun. Blake had seven of them, and Willie threw down a few nices ones as well.

7. It will be interesting to see if Capel trusts Ray Willis enough to give him minutes in games that matter.

8. Utah comes to town on Saturday....a decent squad....probably an NIT quality team. They have a few nice wins and a couple of bad losses. They do have a true center who leads the team in scoring and rebounding...should be a decent test for Blake and his soft post defense.

sooner518
12/11/2008, 10:58 AM
Agree with the rebounding effort. Maine doesnt have a player taller than 6'7. It looked like we got beat for alot of rebounds. I onyl watched the second half when the game was out of reach though.

Willis looked out of control to me from what I saw. He looks like he's about 6'8 and watching him dribble down the court is not the most beautiful thing I ever saw

Sooner04
12/11/2008, 11:18 AM
Willis looked out of control to me from what I saw. He looks like he's about 6'8 and watching him dribble down the court is not the most beautiful thing I ever saw
I'll agree with that. He's not a point guard. He's a guard who scores points.

:)

King Crimson
12/11/2008, 12:05 PM
i'm in the Willis fan club. he is unafraid to hoist the rock. he reminds me of someone, though i can't get it. maybe Henry, but i'm not sure. he's not as polished as Skeeter was as a senior (when for about 3 weeks he was the best player in the NCAA)...obviously.

8timechamps
12/11/2008, 01:43 PM
he's not as polished as Skeeter was as a senior (when for about 3 weeks he was the best player in the NCAA)...obviously.

Not in a row though, right?

Sooner04
12/11/2008, 01:53 PM
Not in a row though, right?
From the game against #1 Missouri (2/25/1990) through the end of the Big 8 Tournament (3/11/1990) you could make the claim that Herman "Skeeter" Henry was the best player in the country. We played teams ranked in the top 2 in the country three times (Missouri once, Kansas twice) in that span and none of them stayed within 17 points of us.

One of my OU BBall holy grail videotapes is the Big 8 semifinal where we torched Kansas. Asskicking deluxe in front of a pro-KU crowd.

8timechamps
12/11/2008, 02:39 PM
From the game against #1 Missouri (2/25/1990) through the end of the Big 8 Tournament (3/11/1990) you could make the claim that Herman "Skeeter" Henry was the best player in the country. We played teams ranked in the top 2 in the country three times (Missouri once, Kansas twice) in that span and none of them stayed within 17 points of us.

One of my OU BBall holy grail videotapes is the Big 8 semifinal where we torched Kansas. Asskicking deluxe in front of a pro-KU crowd.

That was me poking fun at KC.

I loved Skeeter. He was the man during that run. It was that year that we suffered the loss to the Heels that I can't erase from my memory.

King Crimson
12/11/2008, 02:51 PM
easy now, 8time...:D...I drove overnight from Colorado with a buddy to that home game against Doug Smith and Mizzou that year. Buddy was from LA and said do you think we could get tickets, and i said probably so...and he said "let's do it". so, we gassed up my ride and made the roadie.

Skeeter's very brief NBA stat-line for the Suns is pretty funny. he plays about a minute or two in 4 or 6 games...but he does manage to get a shot off in each of those opportunities.

8timechamps
12/11/2008, 03:29 PM
easy now, 8time...:D...I drove overnight from Colorado with a buddy to that home game against Doug Smith and Mizzou that year. Buddy was from LA and said do you think we could get tickets, and i said probably so...and he said "let's do it". so, we gassed up my ride and made the roadie.

Skeeter's very brief NBA stat-line for the Suns is pretty funny. he plays about a minute or two in 4 or 6 games...but he does manage to get a shot off in each of those opportunities.

Whenever you're ready for another road trip to Norman...I'm in.

Overtime
12/11/2008, 04:25 PM
I have been to Maine!

4. Kyle Cannon: A little unlucky on a number of shots, but he showed me some strength and effort. He's the 3rd post now, in my opinion. Wright's struggling with strength and Orlando appears to be oafing around out there. I didn't get that vibe with Kyle.

5. Jeff Capel: 11 guys played at least 11 minutes. We needed that.




Speaking of the bench:

I'm a noob here and so I can't start threads, but there is a thread I'd like to see. Could someone gather all the intel and observations they can find about all of our bench players and put it in one place? Like a list from top to bottom in terms of playing time, with an update on the status of each player. We've got the discussion of Patillo's redshirt. And I've seen comments here about a couple other players that they won't be seeing any more playing time or may be done at OU, etc. Could someone in the know gather all of that info into one thread? That would be great =] The consensus seems to be that we're a deeper team than last year, but not quite as deep as we were hoping when the season started.

Sooner24
12/11/2008, 06:50 PM
From the game against #1 Missouri (2/25/1990) through the end of the Big 8 Tournament (3/11/1990) you could make the claim that Herman "Skeeter" Henry was the best player in the country. We played teams ranked in the top 2 in the country three times (Missouri once, Kansas twice) in that span and none of them stayed within 17 points of us.

One of my OU BBall holy grail videotapes is the Big 8 semifinal where we torched Kansas. Asskicking deluxe in front of a pro-KU crowd.

You uncle and I sat amid a bunch of KU fans at that game and I thought we might have to fight our way out of Kemper. :eek: They were not a happy bunch. Thing is we had all sorts of fun, with the very same group, the day before, letting this really drunk Mizzou fan have it when they got beat by the 8 seed Colorado. Funny how they were not as friendly the next day. :confused:

shaun4411
12/11/2008, 07:35 PM
i like willis. dont get me wrong. i think the guy looks like a turkey. or a bird. bird man is a good name for him with that huge eagle-ish wing span.

Hella Sideburns
12/12/2008, 02:40 PM
gamma ray willis is too good of a nickname to pass up

also, i really want to try lobster, but i have no idea how to eat it and i really doubt any of my friends do either, so i have no one to teach me. it's intimidating

Hella Sideburns
12/12/2008, 03:04 PM
i guess i should comment on the actual post, too.

thanks for doing them. i wasnt able to watch the game because i was at the thunder game that night.

anyway, if this board was only jkm posting in the football forum and you posting in here, i'd be ok with that.

oh and rhino posting in the recruiting board, too i guess.

okienole3
12/13/2008, 09:39 AM
Ray lost his headband when he came off the bench in the second half. He didn't know what to do, so I he shot the rock and scored some buckets. I love how he leaves it hanging after every shot.