Sooner04
12/23/2008, 11:45 AM
I've been around enough coaches to know that one thing horrifies them more than any other: playing down to your competition. The trait in your team is the boogie man in a coach's closet. When your team shows a tendency to be pushed to the limits by the likes of Gardner-Webb and Rice, then you know Capel is worried about his team. By some sort of Festivus Miracle, I had killer seats last night: front row, right behind the Sooner bench, and you can take it from me; Capel was distraught.
Numerous times I heard him tell his bench to notice how much harder Rice was playing. Numerous times he mumbled to himself like Donald Duck used to do just prior to a Vesuvius-like blowup. He was peeved going into the half, and he was peeved coming out. God knows what kind of ***-chewing our guys were subjected to. Whatever was said at halftime, it appeared to be for naught as our effort sagged for a good chunk of the second half as well. It took two plays, "The Cut" and "The Flop", to steel our resolve.
"The Cut" was, of course, the pugilist-like gash Blake suffered underneath his right eye from an errant elbow. No whistle, of course. Right after that, Taylor Griffin got inside position underneath our basket, but was whistled for a charge after "The Flop". At that point, it "seemed" like Rice had the momentum, but it took those two officiating miscues to awake us from our funk and, in turn, allowed us to bring our own funk. If memory serves, I believe the score was tied at 44 during this crucial interchange. In the following eight minutes, we ran away from the Owls and finished the game on a 26-14 run. Dunks, blocks, three points the hard way and it was checketh mateth.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 16 [owl turds.]
2nd - 13 [hacking hyena choking on a dead dog's eye.]
3rd - 13 [where's the defibrillator?]
4th - 28 [GLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORIA!]
LEADING SCORERS:
31 - Willie Warren [First true freshman to go for 30+ since Drew Lavender against eATMe in '04.]
21 - Blake Griffin [Should probably check for his wallet. Dude got mugged all night.]
LEADING REBOUNDERS:
11 - Blake Griffin
9 - Taylor Griffin
8 - Austin Johnson <---5 of these were offensive.
PLUSES:
1. Willie Warren: We've had guards like Willie before, but we've rarely had them to offset a monster in the middle. What do you do when your teammates are heaving bricks and your stud center is getting bludgeoned? Take the game over, and that's what Willie did. Kid's got the frame of an upper classmen and the skills of a superstar. Just a drop of consistency, and he may not be long for Norman.
2. Blake Griffin: I hate to drop this fact again, but I had REALLY good seats. That point being made, I was appalled at the beating Blake took last night. That gash was particularly gruesome up close. It was wide open pretty quick, and I knew it would require stiches. I guess that's why they pay Alex Brown the big bucks. Blake may have looked like Chuck Wepner out there, but he finished the game like Cassius Clay. Big time effort, especially when you factor in that goop getting into his eyes.
3. Houston Sooner fans: WHOA! We had the bench side full up top. We had the area behind the goal 3/4 full, and we had the opposite side 2/3 full. The place was crawling with Sooner fans, and they were friggin' rowdy. When we made our run at the end of the game, the OU chant raining down was deafening. Some rube in a Rice shirt brought a sign that had something to do with 45-35, and he was rewarded by a raucous "We're #1" chant. Truly a wild scene. We took the place over. I don't know if I've ever seen a Sooner BBall crowd do that. I left VERY proud of the Houston Sooner fans. They did a great job.
MINUSES:
1. Shot Clock: It was almost dirty. Seemed like when we had numbers and had a chance to get Blake isolated the shot clock would stop. Anyone notice that it didn't malfunction during our run? Think we may have had a few more runs in us if we could've turned up the pace just a bit? It was bush league, and I wouldn't be shocked if we never bother playing Rice again. There are other schools in Houston to play.
2. Everbody but Willie and Blake: Where were they? Are they still in Norman waiting to catch the wrong bus? Are they in the lounge at Will Rogers throwing back Crown and Coke? Two guys showed up, and it took a superhuman effort from both of them to keep from getting beat by a bunch of hoot Owls. Pitiful performance.
3. Free Throw Shooting: 17 of 34? That lady who juggles the plates on a unicycle could shoot 17 of 34! It hasn't cost us a game.......yet.
4. Outside Shooting: 5 of 20. Sheesh. A bunch of Sir-Clangs-a-Lot, we are.
5. 4 AM Wake-Up Calls and 6:15 AM Flights: Oof. I'm a zombie today at work. Driving through the ice didn't help. Sitting next to a lady who sang for the last half of the flight to Dallas didn't help either. The guy behind me who kept asking if I'd watched the Patriots game should've been heaved into the propellors. Dreadful, DREADFUL travel day.
Overall, I was thrilled to get out of there with a win. The shot clock and the bullish conditions underneath the hoop played right into Rice's hands, and I'm glad we were able to snap out of it in time to get the "W". Maybe a loss will do us some good, but what do I know? We may go into Fayetteville and lose a close one or we could drum their pig-worshipping hides into chitlins. I imagine the result will be somewhere in between. Should be fun.
Thank you for your time.
Numerous times I heard him tell his bench to notice how much harder Rice was playing. Numerous times he mumbled to himself like Donald Duck used to do just prior to a Vesuvius-like blowup. He was peeved going into the half, and he was peeved coming out. God knows what kind of ***-chewing our guys were subjected to. Whatever was said at halftime, it appeared to be for naught as our effort sagged for a good chunk of the second half as well. It took two plays, "The Cut" and "The Flop", to steel our resolve.
"The Cut" was, of course, the pugilist-like gash Blake suffered underneath his right eye from an errant elbow. No whistle, of course. Right after that, Taylor Griffin got inside position underneath our basket, but was whistled for a charge after "The Flop". At that point, it "seemed" like Rice had the momentum, but it took those two officiating miscues to awake us from our funk and, in turn, allowed us to bring our own funk. If memory serves, I believe the score was tied at 44 during this crucial interchange. In the following eight minutes, we ran away from the Owls and finished the game on a 26-14 run. Dunks, blocks, three points the hard way and it was checketh mateth.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 16 [owl turds.]
2nd - 13 [hacking hyena choking on a dead dog's eye.]
3rd - 13 [where's the defibrillator?]
4th - 28 [GLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORIA!]
LEADING SCORERS:
31 - Willie Warren [First true freshman to go for 30+ since Drew Lavender against eATMe in '04.]
21 - Blake Griffin [Should probably check for his wallet. Dude got mugged all night.]
LEADING REBOUNDERS:
11 - Blake Griffin
9 - Taylor Griffin
8 - Austin Johnson <---5 of these were offensive.
PLUSES:
1. Willie Warren: We've had guards like Willie before, but we've rarely had them to offset a monster in the middle. What do you do when your teammates are heaving bricks and your stud center is getting bludgeoned? Take the game over, and that's what Willie did. Kid's got the frame of an upper classmen and the skills of a superstar. Just a drop of consistency, and he may not be long for Norman.
2. Blake Griffin: I hate to drop this fact again, but I had REALLY good seats. That point being made, I was appalled at the beating Blake took last night. That gash was particularly gruesome up close. It was wide open pretty quick, and I knew it would require stiches. I guess that's why they pay Alex Brown the big bucks. Blake may have looked like Chuck Wepner out there, but he finished the game like Cassius Clay. Big time effort, especially when you factor in that goop getting into his eyes.
3. Houston Sooner fans: WHOA! We had the bench side full up top. We had the area behind the goal 3/4 full, and we had the opposite side 2/3 full. The place was crawling with Sooner fans, and they were friggin' rowdy. When we made our run at the end of the game, the OU chant raining down was deafening. Some rube in a Rice shirt brought a sign that had something to do with 45-35, and he was rewarded by a raucous "We're #1" chant. Truly a wild scene. We took the place over. I don't know if I've ever seen a Sooner BBall crowd do that. I left VERY proud of the Houston Sooner fans. They did a great job.
MINUSES:
1. Shot Clock: It was almost dirty. Seemed like when we had numbers and had a chance to get Blake isolated the shot clock would stop. Anyone notice that it didn't malfunction during our run? Think we may have had a few more runs in us if we could've turned up the pace just a bit? It was bush league, and I wouldn't be shocked if we never bother playing Rice again. There are other schools in Houston to play.
2. Everbody but Willie and Blake: Where were they? Are they still in Norman waiting to catch the wrong bus? Are they in the lounge at Will Rogers throwing back Crown and Coke? Two guys showed up, and it took a superhuman effort from both of them to keep from getting beat by a bunch of hoot Owls. Pitiful performance.
3. Free Throw Shooting: 17 of 34? That lady who juggles the plates on a unicycle could shoot 17 of 34! It hasn't cost us a game.......yet.
4. Outside Shooting: 5 of 20. Sheesh. A bunch of Sir-Clangs-a-Lot, we are.
5. 4 AM Wake-Up Calls and 6:15 AM Flights: Oof. I'm a zombie today at work. Driving through the ice didn't help. Sitting next to a lady who sang for the last half of the flight to Dallas didn't help either. The guy behind me who kept asking if I'd watched the Patriots game should've been heaved into the propellors. Dreadful, DREADFUL travel day.
Overall, I was thrilled to get out of there with a win. The shot clock and the bullish conditions underneath the hoop played right into Rice's hands, and I'm glad we were able to snap out of it in time to get the "W". Maybe a loss will do us some good, but what do I know? We may go into Fayetteville and lose a close one or we could drum their pig-worshipping hides into chitlins. I imagine the result will be somewhere in between. Should be fun.
Thank you for your time.