Sooner04
1/16/2010, 06:58 PM
I walked to my truck perplexed. I dined on free Raising Cane's in a state of bewilderment. The overpriced yogurt at Passionberri did little to settle my rollicking brain waves. You could describe me as slack-jawed while I waited for my wife to buy a pair of half-priced shoes at Dillard's. Even the 70 minute drive home did not move my cranium any closer to answering the question that's been rolling in my head since a little after two o'clock this afternoon; how in the hell did we win today?
Missouri starts the game on a 10-0 run.
We play at least ten minutes before we have as many field goal attempts as turnovers.
Crocker gets hurt before most find their seats.
Keith Gallon plays as his nickname would indicate: tiny.
Our two lead guards combined to turn the ball over an OU women-like 12 times.
Loose balls were on radar lock back to Missouri hands.
Ryan Wright was needed for 27 minutes.
Only five guys scored.
AND WE WON! You serious, Clark? I'm serious, Eddie, and I couldn't be more shocked if I woke up tomorrow with my head stapled to the carpet.
I'm stunned. Bamboozled. Hoodwinked. As all of you know from reading these attempts at writing over the years I'm no defensive guru. I don't know a 1-2-2 zone from a 2-1-2 or anything else. I deal in appearances, and it seemed like we had to work had for everything we did on offense while Misery could go where they pleased for large stretches of the game. I don't know if our defense made them antsy or not, but it seemed like whenever they made the extra pass a wide open shot would appear. Maybe that's Anderson's system, but all I know is that he kept throwing waves of bodies at us and the five guy who showed up today (I'm not including Gallon in that list) kept turning them back and fighting them off. It was a heroic effort.
For the longest time we couldn't get past them. We'd get right there to down one or two and they'd bump it up to five. I certainly never felt confident. I always thought we were teetering right there on the edge, and a Wile E. Coyote-esque plunge to our death awaited at the next lazy pass or poor shot. But Misery never landed the knockout blow. We finally got a lead at 36-34, but were back down 46-40 within seven minutes. There was 9:41 left in the game by then, but that adversity finally woke us up. We went on a 19-7 run over the next 6 1/2 minutes with great passing filling up our stat sheet. After that we proved we learned from our mistakes in trying to close out the Aggroids: six free throws (two by Pledger, four by Willie), and all found the bottom of the next. Wright missed one with a couple of seconds left, but by then the outcome was decided. 66-61, and home court was once again defended.
I just don't know how.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 9 [That poor yak behind the GLC. He hasn't kept down a meal in days.]
2nd - 18
3rd - 13 [not better]
4th - 26 [HALLELUJAH, HOLY ****! Where's the Tylenol?]
[b]LEADING SCORERS:
21 - Willie Warren [atta kid]
15 - Cade Davis [monster effort amongst the trees]
12 - Ryan Wright
10 - Steven Pledger
[b]LEADING REBOUNDERS:
11 - Cade Davis [WOW!]
8 - Ryan Wright
7 - Keith Gallon
5 - Steven Pledger [surprisingly decent rebounder]
PLUSES:
1. Cade Davis: If you took a team full of guys who were as cerebral as Cade is out there it'd look like some of those vintage Celtics teams. Overstatement central, 04! Yes, I know, but when our offense looked as though it had no clue how to penetrate the Misery defenses it was Cade who harkened back to his Geometry classes and used the angles to attack. Numerous times he would seal his man and find lanes to the glass. He even did it on an under-the-basket inbounds play. He took it to the rack time and time again. When Mrs. 04 leans over and asks, "Is it me, or is Cade the smartest guy on the team?" you KNOW the guy is carving them up out there. 15 and 11 for Cade out there today, and we get SMOKED without it. But no assists and four turnovers? Yeah, I don't care.
2. Willie Warren: Eight trips to the line, eight makes. We saw Willie early on looking like his usual lackadaisacal self, but he too finally figured out that we'd have to go to the rim to have any chance. But he also saved our bacon early on by hitting back-to-back treys when we found ourselves down 27-19 in the first half. Those shots kept us in reach, and then the late free throws kept their reach away.
3. Ryan Wright: Far and away his best game as a Sooner. 12 points and eight rebounds with some emphatic dunks after great passes from TMG and Willie. He's no longer leading in the clubhouse for the Longar Longar Hands of Stone Award. He played really tough out there today.
4. Steven Pledger: Good luck out there against Missouri, kid. Baptisms by Mizzou are tough on freshmen, just ask TMG about the seven turnovers he had today, but Pledger played a solid game. He scored ten points and grabbed five rebounds while not turning the ball over once. He could've gone meekly into the night, but he was assertive and WANTED to take shots. Hope to see more of him soon.
5. The Sooner Showmen: I've been down on all the bands for some time, but they played Can't Turn You Loose (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnG0JjzF7HY) during one of the timeouts. I've only been yearning to hear it for about ten years now. The smile on my face stretched from Slaughterville to Little Axe.
6. The Crowd: It's not 12,000+ going bananas, but it's been back-to-back games of 10,000 or so being very involved. We've had bigger crowds, but I'll take the interest of these last two over just about anybody. When we needed a stop or a boost to our psyche, they more than obliged. That's really all anybody can ask. Good job, crowd.
7. Free Throws: 14 of 17. Yep yep!
MINUSES:
1. Keith Gallon: I was stunned to see he corralled seven rebounds. I left the arena today thinking that was the most carbon blob-like performance I'd seen since Oleg left. And at least Oleg tried to get in there and mix it up during his limited minutes. Gallon looked intimidated before the barber shop quartet finished the national anthem. Oi.
2. Interior Depth: Fitz? Orlando? Anybody? Is Szendrei the second best post presence on the payroll? Good grief.
3. Turnovers: 20? With only ten assists? Who are we, the OU Women? Good grief.
In closing, they don't pay me enough to figure out the tough problems. If you'd read me the box score and the major contributors for our side I'd have sworn we were on the receiving end of an unholy ***-whipping. I'd have guessed the result to be so ugly that even the nuns in attendance would've slipped out early to beat the traffic. But we won, and I shant ever complain about a win in the Big 12. 2-1 in conference play, now let's see if this train can roll on the road as well.
One other thing: GO VIKINGS!
Thank you for your time.
Missouri starts the game on a 10-0 run.
We play at least ten minutes before we have as many field goal attempts as turnovers.
Crocker gets hurt before most find their seats.
Keith Gallon plays as his nickname would indicate: tiny.
Our two lead guards combined to turn the ball over an OU women-like 12 times.
Loose balls were on radar lock back to Missouri hands.
Ryan Wright was needed for 27 minutes.
Only five guys scored.
AND WE WON! You serious, Clark? I'm serious, Eddie, and I couldn't be more shocked if I woke up tomorrow with my head stapled to the carpet.
I'm stunned. Bamboozled. Hoodwinked. As all of you know from reading these attempts at writing over the years I'm no defensive guru. I don't know a 1-2-2 zone from a 2-1-2 or anything else. I deal in appearances, and it seemed like we had to work had for everything we did on offense while Misery could go where they pleased for large stretches of the game. I don't know if our defense made them antsy or not, but it seemed like whenever they made the extra pass a wide open shot would appear. Maybe that's Anderson's system, but all I know is that he kept throwing waves of bodies at us and the five guy who showed up today (I'm not including Gallon in that list) kept turning them back and fighting them off. It was a heroic effort.
For the longest time we couldn't get past them. We'd get right there to down one or two and they'd bump it up to five. I certainly never felt confident. I always thought we were teetering right there on the edge, and a Wile E. Coyote-esque plunge to our death awaited at the next lazy pass or poor shot. But Misery never landed the knockout blow. We finally got a lead at 36-34, but were back down 46-40 within seven minutes. There was 9:41 left in the game by then, but that adversity finally woke us up. We went on a 19-7 run over the next 6 1/2 minutes with great passing filling up our stat sheet. After that we proved we learned from our mistakes in trying to close out the Aggroids: six free throws (two by Pledger, four by Willie), and all found the bottom of the next. Wright missed one with a couple of seconds left, but by then the outcome was decided. 66-61, and home court was once again defended.
I just don't know how.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 9 [That poor yak behind the GLC. He hasn't kept down a meal in days.]
2nd - 18
3rd - 13 [not better]
4th - 26 [HALLELUJAH, HOLY ****! Where's the Tylenol?]
[b]LEADING SCORERS:
21 - Willie Warren [atta kid]
15 - Cade Davis [monster effort amongst the trees]
12 - Ryan Wright
10 - Steven Pledger
[b]LEADING REBOUNDERS:
11 - Cade Davis [WOW!]
8 - Ryan Wright
7 - Keith Gallon
5 - Steven Pledger [surprisingly decent rebounder]
PLUSES:
1. Cade Davis: If you took a team full of guys who were as cerebral as Cade is out there it'd look like some of those vintage Celtics teams. Overstatement central, 04! Yes, I know, but when our offense looked as though it had no clue how to penetrate the Misery defenses it was Cade who harkened back to his Geometry classes and used the angles to attack. Numerous times he would seal his man and find lanes to the glass. He even did it on an under-the-basket inbounds play. He took it to the rack time and time again. When Mrs. 04 leans over and asks, "Is it me, or is Cade the smartest guy on the team?" you KNOW the guy is carving them up out there. 15 and 11 for Cade out there today, and we get SMOKED without it. But no assists and four turnovers? Yeah, I don't care.
2. Willie Warren: Eight trips to the line, eight makes. We saw Willie early on looking like his usual lackadaisacal self, but he too finally figured out that we'd have to go to the rim to have any chance. But he also saved our bacon early on by hitting back-to-back treys when we found ourselves down 27-19 in the first half. Those shots kept us in reach, and then the late free throws kept their reach away.
3. Ryan Wright: Far and away his best game as a Sooner. 12 points and eight rebounds with some emphatic dunks after great passes from TMG and Willie. He's no longer leading in the clubhouse for the Longar Longar Hands of Stone Award. He played really tough out there today.
4. Steven Pledger: Good luck out there against Missouri, kid. Baptisms by Mizzou are tough on freshmen, just ask TMG about the seven turnovers he had today, but Pledger played a solid game. He scored ten points and grabbed five rebounds while not turning the ball over once. He could've gone meekly into the night, but he was assertive and WANTED to take shots. Hope to see more of him soon.
5. The Sooner Showmen: I've been down on all the bands for some time, but they played Can't Turn You Loose (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnG0JjzF7HY) during one of the timeouts. I've only been yearning to hear it for about ten years now. The smile on my face stretched from Slaughterville to Little Axe.
6. The Crowd: It's not 12,000+ going bananas, but it's been back-to-back games of 10,000 or so being very involved. We've had bigger crowds, but I'll take the interest of these last two over just about anybody. When we needed a stop or a boost to our psyche, they more than obliged. That's really all anybody can ask. Good job, crowd.
7. Free Throws: 14 of 17. Yep yep!
MINUSES:
1. Keith Gallon: I was stunned to see he corralled seven rebounds. I left the arena today thinking that was the most carbon blob-like performance I'd seen since Oleg left. And at least Oleg tried to get in there and mix it up during his limited minutes. Gallon looked intimidated before the barber shop quartet finished the national anthem. Oi.
2. Interior Depth: Fitz? Orlando? Anybody? Is Szendrei the second best post presence on the payroll? Good grief.
3. Turnovers: 20? With only ten assists? Who are we, the OU Women? Good grief.
In closing, they don't pay me enough to figure out the tough problems. If you'd read me the box score and the major contributors for our side I'd have sworn we were on the receiving end of an unholy ***-whipping. I'd have guessed the result to be so ugly that even the nuns in attendance would've slipped out early to beat the traffic. But we won, and I shant ever complain about a win in the Big 12. 2-1 in conference play, now let's see if this train can roll on the road as well.
One other thing: GO VIKINGS!
Thank you for your time.