UnGolden Consolation Game Award - Oklahoma

[rollo]

I hate the 'Boomer Sooner'...makes no sense, doesn't rhyme...that and 'Rock Chalk Jay Hawk'...but it really doesn't matter now, does it?

Regardless, so much went right today...but more went wrong. 5 min into the 2nd half I was mesmerized by our play. Everything was going perfectly...then, I royally believe, we lost our legs. Too many Flyers playing too many minutes. Sir Trey with a double-double is exempt from today's vote. Our bench completely failed us this game and needs to improve. Which it will. Grant is on top of our issues and by the time the A10 starts we'll be fine.

With that said, which goose laid the biggest golden egg today? The choices are many.

Go Flyers! My Flyers!!

King Rollo the Optimist...OUT!

[cj]

My vote went to Mikesell. He crumbled like a thin potato chip.
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[San Diego Flyer]

Our tired legs contributed a lot today. Another reason why our band of 8 cannot count on winning the A10 auto bid.

We are going to be ok in League play. Our first bad shooting game today. Josh was probably the most unlike his real self.

[OSU Flyer]

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[T-Bone 84]

I voted Josh for this afternoon, perhaps because he’s spoiled me so far in his career here at UD. True, he corralled 9 rebounds, but we needed more than 2/7 from the field and 1/3 from the line from him to win this one. An “average” game from him, and this would have been a 1-2 possession ballgame, regardless of whether anybody else played better today.
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[OSU Flyer]

They did a good job defensively on Josh. Honestly considering the 3rd game in 3 days I don’t really fault anyone for today
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[T-Bone 84]

Originally Posted by OSU Flyer They did a good job defensively on Josh. Honestly considering the 3rd game in 3 days I don’t really fault anyone for today Posted via Mobile Device

Yeah, I posted in 2 other threads about how playing 3 games in less than 2 days with a roster that only goes 8 deep was a tall order. And it was no one person’s fault that we lost. On the flip side, Trey wins the “outstanding leadership” award for his composed-yet-intense double-double today. And it was good to see Jordan start to play his way out of that funk that had hit him. But overall, our shooting killed us, and that was a symptom of tired leg syndrome.
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[frisco flyer]

Can’t blame it on Josh, they keyed on him and others didn’t step up.

We played tough and competed well in all three games. Good learning experience, and the win against Butler is a good win and will help our resume. We have a couple more shots at good wins in the OOC. Let’s get our legs back and go get them.

[Beatty Town Coach]

difficult choice between bench, Mikesell, and coaching. I went with coaching, and here is why: Oklahoma had six fouls midway through second half, and once they reach five fouls, you have to use that against them, by being more patient and diligent about working into the post, and forcing the officials to get their power five football whistles out of their mouths. When the other team reaches five fouls in the half, you must attack and force the action at the rim, because if foul six is in the act, then you are already by default in the bonus. You have to make Oklahoma pay for that, and UD did not. Josh could have had another six plus points from the charity line; and thus put more foul trouble on OU. That could have been our best offense.

[Alberto Strasse]

With Butler, Virginia and Oklahoma on their resume they enhanced their status as a team this year. They helped themselves and the A-10 with their upset of Butler. Larry described them as having a "great" tournament. With two losses it was not great IMHO. UD had a good tournament and as of now will be considered a factor in the A-10 race. Their game against Mississippi State at the arena is a "must win" non-conference match up. Go Flyers!

[Beatty Town Coach]

Miss. State is a must win. no doubt!

[T-Bone 84]

Agreed. MSU = Must Show Up...and win.
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[shocka43]

Originally Posted by Beatty Town Coach difficult choice between bench, Mikesell, and coaching. I went with coaching, and here is why: Oklahoma had six fouls midway through second half, and once they reach five fouls, you have to use that against them, by being more patient and diligent about working into the post, and forcing the officials to get their power five football whistles out of their mouths. When the other team reaches five fouls in the half, you must attack and force the action at the rim, because if foul six is in the act, then you are already by default in the bonus. You have to make Oklahoma pay for that, and UD did not. Josh could have had another six plus points from the charity line; and thus put more foul trouble on OU. That could have been our best offense.

Agree...but when we did draw them...we missed 5 freebies in a row.

I said it yesterday as well...there are strategic changes that Grant is doing well...but there needs to be more. Going to the zone was good today and gave us a chance...then it started to get beat up...switch to something else. Run full court pressure at them until they beat us and force us out.

[Beatty Town Coach]

in addition to the tired legs, and OU had some more depth, etc., we must remember that UD had the disadvantage of moving from the night session on day one, to the second game in the afternoon session on day two, and then finally flyers played an OU team that played in the very first game of the tournament, and they did not have to switch from night bracket to day bracket. Huge advantage for Oklahoma.

[maddog07]

More depth? They played one more guy. We need to stop using our 8 guy as an excuse. Lots of top programs don’t go deep .
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[Flyers98]

I think the proper comparison would be the 61 bench minutes OK had (excluding the two guys who played 1 min), to our 37 minutes.

In any event, not an excuse, more of an observation about our team and the circumstances of three games we played. Frankly I don’t think there is any excuse necessary. They hung tough and played better than any reasonable fan would have expected. The best thing that came out of this weekend is AG can look his guys in the eye and say “if you play defense, you can play with anyone in the country” and the team knows it isn’t coach speak. I think this team comes home very confident.

Are there things they need to improve? Of course there are. You have to make free throws, your point guard especially has to make free throws. So understanding that the team has to get better and if they don’t continue to improve it will be a huge disappointment, I don’t think there is anything wrong with pointing out how far ahead they are (especially on defense) than we thought they would be. This is not a team that is likely to reach the elite 8 but there are some attainable goals that I didn’t really see as attainable 3 weeks ago, like post season play to be frank. To me what this season is really about is solidifying a base for the program that understands the system and knows how to play together so that as things move forward you can plug new guys in and not have the drop off we had last year. That is what building a program is about.

[TommyGola]

Originally Posted by Flyers98 I think the proper comparison would be the 61 bench minutes OK had (excluding the two guys who played 1 min), to our 37 minutes. In any event, not an excuse, more of an observation about our team and the circumstances of three games we played. Frankly I don’t think there is any excuse necessary. They hung tough and played better than any reasonable fan would have expected. The best thing that came out of this weekend is AG can look his guys in the eye and say “if you play defense, you can play with anyone in the country” and the team knows it isn’t coach speak. I think this team comes home very confident. Are there things they need to improve? Of course there are. You have to make free throws, your point guard especially has to make free throws. So understanding that the team has to get better and if they don’t continue to improve it will be a huge disappointment, I don’t think there is anything wrong with pointing out how far ahead they are (especially on defense) than we thought they would be. This is not a team that is likely to reach the elite 8 but there are some attainable goals that I didn’t really see as attainable 3 weeks ago, like post season play to be frank. To me what this season is really about is solidifying a base for the program that understands the system and knows how to play together so that as things move forward you can plug new guys in and not have the drop off we had last year. That is what building a program is about.

You are exactly right - there is evidence that we can defend against some very good teams, especially with the inclusion of a very effective 1-3-1 zone. The clear message must now be on the offensive side of the ball. We need more player movement, more ball movement, and a greater sense of urgency earlier in the time clock.

[San Diego Flyer]

Jordan isn't all the way back, but it looks like he is going to keep shooting until he is. They tell me that's what shooters do. Tired legs may sound like an excuse, but it affects your shot and the last thing I would go to at that point in the third game is a full court press. We needed all the energy we could muster in the half court defense.

[Flyer 86]

Imagine this time with a Siebeft or Robert's right now.

We need Ryan, Davis and or Matos to fill that void.