Oklahoma Scouting Report | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Oklahoma Scouting Report

HuskyHawk said:
High hedge is designed to disrupt those drives more so than drop. Drop against OU is a recipe to foul Johnson and Reed out of the game and hand OU FTs. Blitzing the screens will frustrate OU more. We can still block shots. Even Alex and Stewart. Reed might be in drop some. Should be interesting to see what Dan rolls out with the extra prep time.
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You are probably correct. Thanks for changing my mind. Especially since they appear to not have a pick and roll option
 
ucp990411 said:
You are probably correct. Thanks for changing my mind. Especially since they appear to not have a pick and roll option
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Will be interesting to see if Hurley rolls out more Samson in the HH for defense or to take advantage of their interior on offense with Reed. Can likely go either way.

To also be considered is that OUs go to guy is a freshman. And there are rumors swirling of their coach on the look out to get out of dodge.
 
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uconn_jack said:
I just want to know which of their role players is going to go off for 30 pts against us.
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Jalon Moore isn't a role player, but he'll probably hit 3 corner threes plus a bunch of drives against Karaban.
 
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The best advice I can give to the Sooners:

Afr-01.jpg
 
While the FT/3PT rates provided by the OP and others ITT do accurately portray OU's personnel, I want to emphasize, having watched this team a few times, that some of it is a function of play style. This team is fiercely committed to playing a four or five out type game and rarely deviates from it even when things start to spiral. All five guys on the floor, save for maybe the center depending on who's out there, can put the ball on the floor, pass, and finish. The level of skill and shot making offered by the likes of Kobe Elvis and Brycen Goodine is hardly on par with the Celtics, but it is enough to worry a team like UConn that's struggled guarding in space. I actually think the Fears kid might be a tad overrated given how much he benefits from that system.

I also can't be the only one wondering if the injury to Godwin might've paved the way for a better player - or maybe better fit - to get some minutes. Wague's at 19 MPG in his last four, which happens to coincide with their best stretch of play since December. He's a surprisingly adept passer who offers more playmaking on the short roll than their other bigs, and defensively he at least appears to move more crisply than Godwin. But coaches usually know more with these things, and I'd imagine their rebounding craters when he's on the floor.

What a weird team though. Four of the guys in their top nine have played for at least three different schools, and seven of their top eight are in their final year of eligibility. Save for Fears, their best six players have played in a combined 29 college seasons. That's insane. It's such a weird mish mosh of castoffs that you kind of want to root for them despite being horrified at what's happened to the sport you grew up with.

You'd think with that much experience it would be a grizzled, blue collar team that wants to muscle you and drag younger teams around in their chamber of hell, but they really don't play that way. It's more a finesse group of slightly undersized, slightly lacking athletically 3 & D wannabes that lacks in bulk and occasionally discipline. I think putting them through the meat grinder that is UConn's web of backscreens split actions could leave them exposed on the backline and outnumbered on the boards.

On paper, this is a game UConn would have been favored to win by double digits, at least, prior to the season, and in some ways, it seems like they still should now. It's a friendly draw, IMO, for UConn. This team is probably slightly overseeded and might not be in the tournament at all in a year with a stronger bubble. They have almost certainly overachieved by making the dance at all, and you have to trust that the coach knows that. Has he been spending his week crunching UConn film or filling out job applications? Because I can assure you his job at OU isn't going to get any easier next year when his top eight players are gone.

But is it a friendly draw for OU as well? Hurley's UConn teams have bowed out to weak opponents in the first round in both tournament appearances that didn't end with a title. They've lost this season to Colorado, Dayton, and Seton Hall among others.

You have to wonder, about where these teams are psychologically. Oklahoma blitzed through the nonconference schedule to a 13-0 record, defeating teams like Arizona, Louisville, and Michigan in the process (by the way, if you're doubting whether the SEC really is that good this season, do yourself a favor and look at OU's results - it is) and climbing as high as 12th in the polls. The NCAA Tournament was supposed to be a breath of fresh air, a liberation from the gauntlet of SEC play.

Instead, it's staring at Florida, a team that dominated them in their lone match-up this season and capped a five game stretch that saw the Sooners outscored by an astounding 95 points, even if it can survive the 2x defending champs. Do they have the bandwidth for that? Does UConn?

All I can say is nothing would surprise me about this one.
 
Austin316 said:
Fun fact (scary fact)

Oklahoma has made more FTs (579) then we’ve attempted (578) on the season.
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The real fun fact is the March Madness brain trust, picked Oklahoma over UConn. I don’t know if it’s ignorance, hate, or just plain stupidity.
 
upstater said:
If I'm reading the stats right, a lot of the metrics are even with the exception of:

1. Rebounding (especially offensive rebounding) should favor UConn

2. Oklahoma should win the turnover game.

3. Oklahoma also has the advantage on 3 ptrs, they shoot them decently and guard them decently.

4. UConn has to guard the perimeter and live with drives, while on offense they have to pound the ball inside and drive. Oklahoma looks horrific on guarding the interior.

5. If we can block shots, that will be key.
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As to point 2, OU turns it over a good amount, actually more than UConn does. That said, they do have a pretty high steal percentage.

They have had focus issues throughout the season. They often get lost on defense with simple off ball action, or don't rotate off a quick swing pass, or two. They also lose focus on offense and just throw the ball away.
 
CONN78SEJ said:
The real fun fact is the March Madness brain trust, picked Oklahoma over UConn. I don’t know if it’s ignorance, hate, or just plain stupidity.
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UConn does feel like a trendy pick to go down in this one, the trendiness likely based on the SEC vs a team that has played as flat and inconsistent against expectations as anyone out there this year not named Kansas/Baylor.

If you look at the matchup we should win but we’ve seen that before and lost.
 
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CONN78SEJ said:
The real fun fact is the March Madness brain trust, picked Oklahoma over UConn. I don’t know if it’s ignorance, hate, or just plain stupidity.
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Why does that bother you? It doesn’t matter until the game is over.
 
I think we will smoke them. Did they not lose 12 of their last 18 games or something like that. The story of the game, at least one big part, is rebounding both offensively and defensively, thank you @Hey Adrien! , and we are rebounding well late in the season here. If we limit our turnovers as well, we should be in good shape. Fears may be a one man wrecking crew, and I remember Glen Taylor from St. John's as a good player too. Just the same and I never mess with scores, I think we win by 8+
 
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aburks41 said:
Potentially significant news:



Hopefully Porter is more focused on interviewing than he is with gameplanning
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Any advantage this UConn team can get will be welcomed because they need it.
 
gsmooth said:
Any advantage this UConn team can get will be welcomed because they need it.
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Looks like Moser is Jay Wright's choice, hmmm. So OU is walking in with a coach that may have one foot out, lead by a freshman who is definitely gone - sounds like a favorable combo for us. An interesting twist indeed.
 
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tzznandrew said:
I care less about them calling fouls on us. With rare exception, I think most of the fouls we get whistled for are fouls.

I think the BE DGAF about off-ball stuff, and so a lot of our guys are pulled and held in ways I don't think will be allowed in the tournament. We do also weirdly get clubbed at the rim a lot without a call.
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It's also that, as a consequence, non-BE opponents aren't "socialized," in the same way that BE teams are, to know that they can get away with clutching and grabbing off the ball. So we're not likely to face as much resistance, regardless of the officiating.

(To be clear, this is also a blemish on BE officials, even if not a direct effect.)
 
CONN78SEJ said:
The real fun fact is the March Madness brain trust, picked Oklahoma over UConn. I don’t know if it’s ignorance, hate, or just plain stupidity.
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If I wasn't an UConn homer, I would pick OU too. NCAA's is normally a guard oriented tourney. And it seems that they have the better guards. But I am, so I have UConn winning it all!! LOL
 
HuskyHawk said:
We can probably mock OU for lots of things, but as somebody who shared a conference with them for three years, attractiveness of their fans is probably not one of those things.
View attachment 107894
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These are football players babes, they most likely never saw an OU basketball game.
But they are easy on the eyes yet I think Mississippi State has a much higher percentage of gorgeous women than any other college, except perhaps Pepperdine.
 
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auror said:
Jalon Moore isn't a role player, but he'll probably hit 3 corner threes plus a bunch of drives against Karaban.
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They have several players that are skilled at driving to the hoop which is a weakness of our defense. We are doomed! Doomed for sure!
 
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Iluvsuebird said:
If I wasn't an UConn homer, I would pick OU too. NCAA's is normally a guard oriented tourney. And it seems that they have the better guards. But I am, so I have UConn winning it all!! LOL
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Has nothing to do with guards, has everything to do with Big East refs not being there micromanaging the game.
 
RuffRuff said:
UConn does feel like a trendy pick to go down in this one, the trendiness likely based on the SEC vs a team that has played as flat and inconsistent against expectations as anyone out there this year not named Kansas/Baylor.

If you look at the matchup we should win but we’ve seen that before and lost.
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In the first round? When?
 
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