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View Full Version : 04's Attempt: OU vs. Rice Recap



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.

King Crimson
12/23/2008, 11:49 AM
we had an electric stretch from the line where we went like 7 for 9...other than that hovered (or Hoovered, let's say) around or below .500 all night.

btw, i hate those prop driven/commuter flights out of Dallas. American?

Boomer.....
12/23/2008, 11:51 AM
Great write-up. On the mark, as usual.

Sooner04
12/23/2008, 11:55 AM
btw, i hate those prop driven/commuter flights out of Dallas. American?
Love Field - SWA.

Sooner04
12/23/2008, 12:05 PM
If Sooner BBall is being played, you can bet Sooner04 will be watching.

Just look for the Padres cap.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/KingpinPadre/260xStory.jpg

King Crimson
12/23/2008, 12:20 PM
those are good seats. i, for one, wouldn't cry too hard if we lose one before conference play.....we seem like we are slipping in the mental game some. i saw enough unforced turnovers and bad FT shooting last year and 2 years ago. if we are a legit top 10 team, we need to tighten the ship a little.

i'd rather do that OOC than lose a couple on the road in conference play.

Sooner24
12/23/2008, 12:49 PM
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.



Big Time Jones was suppose to give them a wake up call. Did he over sleep too?

You did have killer seats. I saw you three or four times last night.

King Crimson
12/23/2008, 01:49 PM
Bed Time Jones spek for 24

Rhino
12/23/2008, 01:52 PM
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. http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/1536/rice08bgriffin01yf8.jpg
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/4449/rice08bgriffin02cy4.jpg
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/7789/rice08bgriffin03iu6.jpg

BoomerJack
12/23/2008, 01:53 PM
"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."

My party was above 04 in the upper level about 6 rows from the top. Every time that fat f#$k on the other side of the arena started waving that chicken s$%t sign, I shot the one-fingered salute. I even suggested out loud that all the Sooner fans in that section stand-up en masse, drop trouw and moon the other side.

OUSKINS
12/23/2008, 02:22 PM
No mention of the lack of "product" in Cade's hair? I thought that was the key to the game :)

Boomer.....
12/23/2008, 02:41 PM
No wonder he had an off night.

:D

8timechamps
12/23/2008, 03:17 PM
we had an electric stretch from the line where we went like 7 for 9...other than that hovered (or Hoovered, let's say) around or below .500 all night.

btw, i hate those prop driven/commuter flights out of Dallas. American?

Did you watch the game? Where, how?

King Crimson
12/23/2008, 03:20 PM
Did you watch the game? Where, how?

naw, i bailed after i couldn't find a audio stream link to watch a samurai flick (wtf, we used to have like 3 audio links....thanks Joe C and yahoo?)....and while it was staying close in the 2nd half i kept checking the box score updates on yahoo! website

8timechamps
12/23/2008, 03:24 PM
naw, i bailed after i couldn't find a audio stream link to watch a samurai flick (wtf, we used to have like 3 audio links....thanks Joe C and yahoo?)....and while it was staying close in the 2nd half i kept checking the box score updates on yahoo! website

Yeah, I was angry I couldn't find it either. Thought maybe you found it on TV.

Sometimes I find a live radio station link, but didn't have time to look for it last night.

Ended up watching Burn after reading.

badger
12/23/2008, 03:25 PM
Blood? Pbttttth. He is obviously faking it and is just trying to get a phantom elbow-to-face call a la Duke. We've all seen the Dookie flop and now the refs won't believe any protests (unless they come directly from Coach K's mouth).

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f108/atrav34/hansborough.jpg
Blood is just part of the game and does not merit an immediate ref whistle!

http://www.collegehoopsgazette.com/blog/archives/Coach-K.jpg
Unless Coach K says so.

http://images.usatoday.com/sports/_photos/2006/11/02/capel.jpg
Sorry Jeff, your point-at-ref maneuver is not as potent as your mentor's yet.

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/7789/rice08bgriffin03iu6.jpg
Who is to say that it isn't a ketchup packet? Ketchup would blend in so well with a crimson uniform and could be easily hidden the entire game until the opportune moment to deceive the referee!

:rolleyes: Poor Blake. He needs to start wearing armor... and not under armor, mind you

josh09
12/23/2008, 06:27 PM
Houston Sooner fans, WOOOOOOOOT!!! Haha overall a very nerve-racking game, but hey, a W's a W.

Boomer_Sooner_sax
12/23/2008, 08:54 PM
I have to admit, the Houston Sooners were rocking the joint!! Props to everyone at the game!

tommieharris91
12/26/2008, 07:56 PM
http://ouhoops.com/showthread.php?t=1545

Bruiser53
12/27/2008, 08:03 PM
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.



Yes 50% FT is unacceptable, but overall this year, I feel like the free throw shooting has not been bad...perhaps even pretty good. We are 7th in the Big 12 right now at right around 67%. Blake has shown real improvement from the charity stripe, which is something important to monitor as conference play starts, seeing that teams are turning the paint into a UFC ring. Blake is defiantly no Shaq when it come to free throws.

We have been streaky from 3 all year. Hopefully we find some more consistency from Tony and Austin. Everyone was saying how Tony had a break out game against VCU, but then turns around and does nothing against Rice. Consistency from our guards will be the key, because we know we are alright up front ;)