What do we know about Tulsa?

[huskiesNhoos]

I've never seen them play, and I'll be honest, I had to look up what state it was in (OK for those who won't admit they don't know either)

Looking at their roster they seem like a very guard heavy team, which could play into our hands especially if we can establish facey and brimah in the post. They don't shoot the 3 particularly well (only 2 guys at 35%), and they don't seem to rebound all that well either. Only two guys average in double figures so they seem to get a little bit of production from a lot of guys. They only have two bigs that look to get a lot of minutes, one is 6'9 245 and the other is 6'9 205 so on paper I feel like this matchup favors us heavily.

However, in reality i know we're doomed

 

[BoatShow]

Real-time RPI says they beat us by 9.

 

[chapwilvaug72]

I think I saw somewhere recently that temple fell to tulsa. Probably the sledteam defense will frustrate the heck out of them to key a UCONN victory.

 

[Gurleyman]

I've never seen them play, and I'll be honest, I had to look up what state it was in (OK for those who won't admit they don't know either) Looking at their roster they seem like a very guard heavy team, which could play into our hands especially if we can establish facey and brimah in the post. They don't shoot the 3 particularly well (only 2 guys at 35%), and they don't seem to rebound all that well either. Only two guys average in double figures so they seem to get a little bit of production from a lot of guys. They only have two bigs that look to get a lot of minutes, one is 6'9 245 and the other is 6'9 205 so on paper I feel like this matchup favors us heavily. However, in reality i know we're doomed

Gotta go to Tulsa
First train we can ride
Gotta settle one old score
One small point of pride

(Well, they will probably charter a plane, and there isn't really any old scores with them, we just need a win).

They have a good history of success and being a breeding ground for coaches who move on to better things (Nolan Richardson, Bill Self, Tubby Smith, Eddie Sutton). They've had some deep tourney runs too (Elite Eight one year).

I only saw a few minutes of an earlier game this year but it looked like they had a lot of 6-4 to 6-6 interchangeable athletes at the 2-3-4 who could switch screens and turn games into rock fights. But that was only a brief observation. I wasn't intrigued enough to keep watching.

 

[CAHUSKY]

I've never seen them play, and I'll be honest, I had to look up what state it was in (OK for those who won't admit they don't know either)d

Seriously? Do people really not know where Tulsa is ? It's not NYC but it is the 47th largest city in America and roughly the size of Cleveland and Minneapolis.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Not a very deep team; only 7 average more than 15 minutes a game. 8th guy averages 7.

Not a great 3 ball team either; collective 32%. Three best shooters at 38, 36, 35% clips. As a team shoots 65% from the line.

Every one of those aforementioned 7 are juniors, so they are experienced playing together. As has been mentioned, very guard-heavy; front court averages about 16 ppg.

Front court isn't very big. They have 6'9 248 Wright but other than him nobody playing significant minutes weighs more than 210.

So when you step back, Tulsa is actually quite similar to UConn as far as size, depth, strengths and weaknesses. This could be a good game.

 

[Gurleyman]

Seriously? Do people really not know where Tulsa is ? It's not NYC but it is the 47th largest city in America

If not high school geography, music and hoops have given that one away. They've been good in hoops, and you've got Jack Straw (above), an old song called Tulsa Time that Clapton did a version of, Huey Lewis "Tulsa, Austin, Oklahoma City..." , Last Trip To Tulsa by Neil Young. Among others.

 

[imno1]

Gotta go to Tulsa
First train we can ride
Gotta settle one old score
One small point of pride

(Well, they will probably charter a plane, and there isn't really any old scores with them, we just need a win).

They have a good history of success and being a breeding ground for coaches who move on to better things (Nolan Richardson, Bill Self, Tubby Smith, Eddie Sutton). They've had some deep tourney runs too (Elite Eight one year).

I only saw a few minutes of an earlier game this year but it looked like they had a lot of 6-4 to 6-6 interchangeable athletes at the 2-3-4 who could switch screens and turn games into rock fights. But that was only a brief observation. I wasn't intrigued enough to keep watching.

One of my fav GD songs
We do know that Tulsa just beat Temple at Temple so they must be able to play a little.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

Seriously? Do people really not know where Tulsa is ? It's not NYC but it is the 47th largest city in America and roughly the size of Cleveland and Minneapolis.

two other cities i only know about because one is well known to be a dump and the other I've seen a lot of videos of stuff freezing before it hits the ground there

 

[huskiesNhoos]

One of my fav GD songs
We do know that Tulsa just beat Temple at Temple so they must be able to play a little.

Apparently they knocked cummings out of the game on a flagrant foul so in my mind they're win there is a lot like temple's win over us

 

[mcs333]

RPi of 32. They play VG defense, effective opp. FG of 44.9, UCONN is at 44.6%.
Made NCAA tourn. last year losing to UCLA. They are on a 5 game winning streak.
They play at Reynolds Col. ,holds 8355. Will be a difficult road game.

 

[Palatine]

I watched Temple pull away from them, destroying Tulsa's man2man defense. Then Tulsa went into a zone and Temple couldn't find the basket. The Tulsa zone is not Syracuse, there are huge holes in it. I think DHam in the middle would take it apart.

They have quick guards which could cause some trouble for our D. But Brimah will cause problems. If we play well, it won't matter what Tulsa does.

BTW, Jim Calhoun broadcast the Temple/Tulsa game. Nice advance scout for Ollie.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Like every other team UConn plays going forward, UConn has to beat them, that's all that matters.

 

[AstarIsBorn31]

another one of those games where uconn can stuggle early but should find a way to win. Beating UCF by 2 is ugly... I watched a little of tulsa vs Oklahoma and oklahoma took care of them with little effort. But of course oklahoma is a top team this season...

 

[azescobar]

I admittedly don't know much, if anything about Tulsa either, but if we are playing against a similar team in terms of strengths and depth, I like our chances. We are susceptible to teams that trap hard, can hit outside shots, and can get our bigs in foul trouble (WV in the first instance, Duke in the second instance - although if we played a little better against Duke we could have won). If they go zone, we will need to knock down some shots. Omar may be big once again. I'm hoping for a nice D-Ham game against the zone. He's been struggling a bit lately, it would be nice to get him back in a bit of a groove.

 

[James]

backcourt is their strength. one guy named shaq who has been scoring the ball extremely well, good efficiency. having just beaten cincy there is no reason we should lose this IMO

 

[BFieldHusky]

I've seen them play 3 or 4 times. Like people have said, they are a good defensive team, they struggle to shoot the 3, and they are not terribly deep. Shaq Harrison is their best player, and he has been on a tear lately, scoring 20+ points 5 or 6 games in a row. They like to score in transition.

I think we matchup nicely with them. I think the key to the game is Brimah. If he can stay out of foul trouble, he will be a load for them defensively because they got a lot of their scoring by driving to the basket with their guards. If they can't do that because of his presence, they really will struggle to score.

 

[UC990411]

two other cities i only know about because one is well known to be a dump and the other I've seen a lot of videos of stuff freezing before it hits the ground there

Out of curiosity, what cities do you know something about?

 

[sledog]

Can't resist:

Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.
Oklahoma, Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk
Makin' lazy circles in the sky.

We know we belong to the land
And the land we belong to is grand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine, Oklahoma!
Oklahoma O.K.

 

[imno1]

Can't resist:

Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.
Oklahoma, Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk
Makin' lazy circles in the sky.

We know we belong to the land
And the land we belong to is grand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine, Oklahoma!
Oklahoma O.K.

Isn't there a show tunes ban in effect on the Bone Yard?

 

[Leebo]

I've never seen them play, and I'll be honest, I had to look up what state it was in (OK for those who won't admit they don't know either)

I know we have some people on the board who are not college age or older, so I'll refrain from giving you a hard time.

 

[nyhusky89]

According to Kenpom, which is a far better predictor than the RPI, which is a terrible statistic and shouldn't even be looked at except out of curiosity until the end of the season, Tulsa is a worse version of Cinci. They play good D-33 in America, but are terrible offensively-155. They have played a decent schedule but have been very lucky. I am not sure how RPI can predict the score differential when RPI doesn't factor scoring margin or pace into their formula, but UConn is an elite defensive team-top 12 in america, Tulsa is not elite on either end. The offense might hurt to watch, but if they play 40 minutes of UConn D, Tulsa might not hit 50 and UConn will win something like 63-49. Unfortunately, UConn has yet to play D for a full 40 minutes, so its more likely that the game is close in the first half until we hunker down and pull away late.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

I know we have some people on the board who are not college age or older, so I'll refrain from giving you a hard time.

i probably deserve it. I'm an engineer so geography isn't my thing, and i've never been to the central and southwest parts of the country (i stick to where there's snow when i travel). In all honesty, i got tulsa confused with tulane and was thinking nola.

 

[Greathusky]

When I hear about Tulsa, I think of this song.

 

[HooperScooper]

I've never seen them play, and I'll be honest, I had to look up what state it was in (OK for those who won't admit they don't know either)

I find it hard to believe that anyone on this board doesn't know that Tulsa is in Oklahoma.