Okie's vs. UW in Vegas Game Thread

Many of your eyes aren't as good as mine or Grandpa Sankey's ...

Those that think that Oklahoma isn't a good team are full of BS ... they have warts. However, they can really shoot the ball, Hield is one of the better players in the nation, Spangler creates matchup problems as a big that has range to play the screen/roll game, and general length. That being said, their defense can wane a bit depending on how their offense goes. When they aren't hitting their shots their defense suffers ... when they are their energy level goes up.

I saw a lot of people be critical of NWG ... I didn't see that. Oklahoma did a good job of switching most screens and clogging the paint to take away his floaters. I thought he played a reasonable floor game. It's a fair critique of the team to say that if we're not getting a lot of point production from NWG that that could be a problem for us. Good to see us get a win tonight without it - although he made a few key shots down the stretch.

Here's the thing with Upshaw and those saying that he didn't play a good/great game tonight. He was reasonably ok on offense tonight - could have finished a few of his touches around the rim with more emphasis. He altered some shots and got a few blocks - but defensively he wasn't the presence that we've seen in other games. He's great playing the center of a zone. He has issues though moving his feet and having to defend other bigs that have ball skills and mobility (like Spangler). Not the worst thing in the world - but something that we need to work against.

We saw the bad Andrews tonight. It's part of the give/take that you have with him.

JJ had a really nice game tonight in hitting the 17 foot jumper (was given to him most of the night) as well as standing up Thomas on his drives to the basket. We don't win tonight without JJ.

There's nothing with this team that will ever be easy. The guys that can shoot (Dorsey) tend to be guys that can't play the defense that we need. Even tonight, with everything going against us, we made stops coming down the stretch to find a way to pull out the win.

Gladstone said:

Just noticed Tulane is 10-1, not necessarily the super pushover we may have thought.

I heard that Phil Bleenor reported that before you did ... perhaps you should invest in better sources?

The chemistry is definitely there ... even the guys on the bench are plugged into the game and into hard work by their teammates (particularly on the defensive end).