OU - Mizzou

[cdlbdd]

I'm tired of Fitzgerald fouling this early.

[Boomer.....]

Shooting very well early.

[oumartin]

Two early fouls on Fitz

[sooner518]

that second foul was pure garbage. Fitz had inside position. really weak call. Cam Clark is playin real well so far. And 1!

[soonerbub]

18-14 Sooners 10:56

[cdlbdd]

My most encouraging observation of the first 5 minutes: none of the guys look uncomfortable or like they are forcing things (save the akward shot by fitz).

[sooner518]

WOW what a block by Cade!!!

[soonerbub]

Wwwhhhhoooooo Cade!!!!

[sooner518]

Newell didnt look good out there. glad to see Blair back in to run point.

and Cade airballs a wide open 3.....

having Fitz on the bench is killing us.....

[Boomer.....]

Turnovers :(

[sooner518]

Cade airballs a wide open 3. Pledger barely gets iron on a wide open 3. Then Neal barely hits iron on a wide open 3. so irritating.

[soonerbub]

Just when I was about to brag on our D we go soft...

LET'S GO!!!

[sooner518]

Neal badly misses 2 FTs.... we just cant buy a freakin bucket.

[Boomer.....]

Look at Neal!!!

[soonerbub]

Tyler for 3!!!!!

and the answer ****

[soonerbub]

Athleticism...they has it :(

[sooner518]

Neal is just a rollercoaster. hits a couple buckets, then turns the ball over twice.

[bigfatjerk]

Sooners down 9. Mizzou is doing a good job of setting the tone and we can't stop it.

[sooner518]

and Cade airballs another 3 with CJ sitting wide open in the lane with no one within 10 feet of him!

we go into half down by 6. I feel if we can get Fitz into the mix in the 2nd half, we have a chance. we've got to tighten up our defense too. way too mayn easy buckets and letdowns.

[cdlbdd]

Cade's shot looks like trash today.

[soonerbub]

Well all things considered not too bad--still in it

37-31 tigers half




Oh and D UP plzkthx

[SoonerInFortSmith]

Cade's shot looks like trash for the 4th straight year..

FIFY. I love Cade but he never has figured out how to be the shooter we all hoped for.

[Sooner95]

Well so much for it being on Sirius Channel 91, i felt like I was stuck in Juarez..

[soonerbub]

56-41 tigers 11:06

[SoonerInFortSmith]

The matchup zone is killing us. They are getting anything they want against it.

[AlboSooner]

At the risk of being Cat. Obvious, we need to improve our decision making. I hope the mistakes are due to youth. Also it's very telling when you have guys like Neal and Cade playing so much: talent is no where near where it needs to be.

[Boomer.....]

Once again, the other teams size is killing us.

[bigfatjerk]

Actually it isn't their size. It's our own bad play giving up fast breaks killing us.

[Boomer.....]

Allowing more layups. :mad:

[soonerbub]

Let's nut up this last 6 minutes C'MON make an effort on D

[Sooner95]

This is **** poor..I didn't expect to go into Mizzou and win, but damn guys..

[Boomer.....]

84-61 final

[Sooner95]

Well, we better get nebbish on weds or this losing streak could hit 7 straight..

[LoveDemSooners]

I wish we could just skip to bedlam in Norman

[Ardmore_Sooner]

I'm done with college basketball. The officiating and "home court" advantage crap is such a joke. I know we aren't any good, but they don't even get a chance.

[Rock Hard Corn Frog]

Even some of our better teams would have a tough time winning in Columbia. We just don't have enough depth to hang for 40 minutes short of shooting lights out.

At the end of a day a loss is a loss I guess but I am disappointed that we faded so much down the stretch.

[sperry]

Even some of our better teams would have a tough time winning in Columbia. We just don't have enough depth to hang for 40 minutes short of shooting lights out.

At the end of a day a loss is a loss I guess but I am disappointed that we faded so much down the stretch.


Agreed. Missouri has built a very good program, and they are a flat out better team than us. The frustrating thing is how bad we played.


That being said, the future is looking a little brighter, IF, and it's a big if, we can keep guys from leaving. Pledger, Fitzgerald, Clark, Blair, and Neal look like they could form the core of a pretty good team the next couple of years.

[Red Ada]

That being said, the future is looking a little brighter, IF, and it's a big if, we can keep guys from leaving. Pledger, Fitzgerald, Clark, Blair, and Neal look like they could form the core of a pretty good team the next couple of years.[/QUOTE]

They do not have the talent for D1 basketball. You do not teach talent.
You are born with it. Or in this case without it. In a couple of years they
will still be loosing to TALENTED freshmen.

Talent is not taught, it is recruited. Something Capel has not been able
to do.

[Rock Hard Corn Frog]

That being said, the future is looking a little brighter, IF, and it's a big if, we can keep guys from leaving. Pledger, Fitzgerald, Clark, Blair, and Neal look like they could form the core of a pretty good team the next couple of years.

They do not have the talent for D1 basketball. You do not teach talent.
You are born with it. Or in this case without it. In a couple of years they
will still be loosing to TALENTED freshmen.

Talent is not taught, it is recruited. Something Capel has not been able
to do.[/QUOTE]

Pledger scored 38 points in a Big 12 road game and you think he doesn't have D-I talent? If that is the case then I would like to see how good a D-I caliber player would do. Clark and Fitzgerald are definitely solid D-I caliber players.

I do think Blair would be a back-up PG on most of OU's teams and Neal wouldn't be in the rotation at least as a freshman. We have a whole thread discussing how Thompson is overmatched.

The team isn't devoid of talent. There just isn't enough of it right now.

[OULenexaman]

Not even competitive.....and Misery has not built that good of a program...they haven't won a conference road game all year.

[Salt City Sooner]

They're also the only team in the conference who's undefeated at home.

[yankee]

..they haven't won a conference road game all year.

Tell me how that matters in this situation. Did we not play Mizzou in Columbia?

[sperry]

That being said, the future is looking a little brighter, IF, and it's a big if, we can keep guys from leaving. Pledger, Fitzgerald, Clark, Blair, and Neal look like they could form the core of a pretty good team the next couple of years.

They do not have the talent for D1 basketball. You do not teach talent.
You are born with it. Or in this case without it. In a couple of years they
will still be loosing to TALENTED freshmen.

Talent is not taught, it is recruited. Something Capel has not been able
to do.[/QUOTE]



Those guys are talented. Pledger and Fitzgerald are very talented guys, who would be getting major minutes everywhere aside from Texas and Kansas. Neal has a lot of talent. He is just raw. Blair also has talent, he needs to improve his focus. Way too many careless turnovers.

No, they aren't lottery picks, but that doesn't matter. Guys get exponentially better the more they play in college basketball. If we someday have a starting lineup of Sr. Fitzgerald, Sr. Pledger, Sr. Blair, Jr. Clark, Jr. Neal (or some big man not on campus yet), that is a team that is going to be a very strong team, and will finish in the top 3 or 4 teams in the conference. Experience is that important. The problem is we haven't been able to get guys to stick around at all.

[Sooner95]

Most of the top notch hoops programs have this same problem. Good players leaving early, so that does not make us different. We simple have not recruited very good over the past 3 years. We lost a bunch of good players and the incoming replacements have not stood up. Experience is a plus for Mid-major schools who need this to compete with top programs who get superior talent. It's important, yes, but ultimately you need great players as well.

Fritz is a good player, albeit with flaws. He needs to cut down on the silly fouls and improve his FT%. He is our top scorer right now with just over 13ppg.

Pledger has talent as well, though he is inconsistent. 38pts on game, the next 10? Need more consistency out of him, plus his shooting % is horrid. 40% just isn't going to cut it.

After that, I have no faith in any of them. maybe Blair can become a good PG, but he make way to many turnovers, and his decision making has to get better. Davis can't shoot for anything, sure he has a game here and there, but that'd be fine if he was a 7th man off the bench.

We have no size. NONE. This has to be top of the list for next year.

[sperry]

Most of the top notch hoops programs have this same problem. Good players leaving early, so that does not make us different. We simple have not recruited very good over the past 3 years. We lost a bunch of good players and the incoming replacements have not stood up. Experience is a plus for Mid-major schools who need this to compete with top programs who get superior talent. It's important, yes, but ultimately you need great players as well.

Fritz is a good player, albeit with flaws. He needs to cut down on the silly fouls and improve his FT%. He is our top scorer right now with just over 13ppg.

Pledger has talent as well, though he is inconsistent. 38pts on game, the next 10? Need more consistency out of him, plus his shooting % is horrid. 40% just isn't going to cut it.

After that, I have no faith in any of them. maybe Blair can become a good PG, but he make way to many turnovers, and his decision making has to get better. Davis can't shoot for anything, sure he has a game here and there, but that'd be fine if he was a 7th man off the bench.

We have no size. NONE. This has to be top of the list for next year.



You do realize that every player you are talking about is a freshman or sophomore, and that players get exponentially better as they're college careers go on? Silly fouls from Fitz and too many turnovers from Blair are exactly the kind of things that will disappear as players get more experience.

Obviously Davis won't be here in the future, but you're underestimating what he does. He's not a scorer, although he can light it up when he gets hot. He is an excellent defender and rebounder, as well as having good court vision and making nice passes. He comes off looking poorly because this team has no one who can score, so they ask him to do it, and it's not what he's good at.



Finally, I'm not talking about Blake and Willie and Tiny leaving, those are guys you expect to leave. The guys I'm talking about leaving, are the Bobby Maze, Chris Early, T.J. Taylor, TMG, Tony Neysmith, Ray Willis, Keith Clark's who have left early. Those are guys you expected to be around for 4 seasons and to be major contributors later in their career, and it's left a huge void in the program.

[Sooner95]

I do, and I am hopeful they do improve, as I stated in my previous post. Potential is there, but improvement is needed in many areas.

Davis does play well on the defensive side of the ball, unfortunately he is being asked to do far more than he is capable of. This is where size has killed us this year. I just feel Cade was better utilized coming off the bench to provide a spark, which he could provide, as opposed to now being a focal point of the offense.

And you make a good point about whose has left, though I did not give a crap about Tiny leaving, I new he would amount to garbage. And Willie quite frankly was to damn selfish for me.

Again we'll see what next year brings, but I am not sold that we have a "core" with these current players. I'm not seeing it. I think we need a great recruiting class to supplement some of these current players. Then go from there.

[yarddawg]

we did not play well, we just dont have enough talent. It will get better

[OULenexaman]

Tell me how that matters in this situation. Did we not play Mizzou in Columbia?

I was talkin bout Misery the whole time....pay tention. They really aint built ****.....overrated.

[badger]

It will get better

So this is what it feels like to be a "team on the rise" :(

[yankee]

Obviously Davis won't be here in the future, but you're underestimating what he does. He's not a scorer, although he can light it up when he gets hot. He is an excellent defender and rebounder, as well as having good court vision and making nice passes. He comes off looking poorly because this team has no one who can score, so they ask him to do it, and it's not what he's good at.



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm glad someone else gets it. Spot on with this analysis.

[yankee]

I was talkin bout Misery the whole time....pay tention. They really aint built ****.....overrated.

They went to the Elite Eight two years ago and went 2 rounds deep last year. Mike Anderson is building a solid program. Pay 'tention.

And your point about them not winning a road game still doesn't make sense, since we played Mizzou at their home court.