5-0 Sooner's Men's BB vs Arizona 3-2 in Battle-4-Atlantis: Thurs

[OUBeliever56A]

The 5-0 Oklahoma Sooner Men's Basketball team will face Arizona (3-2) on Thursday afternoon at 4 PM in the Bahamas, 'Battle-4-Atlantis' holiday tourney. On Wednesday, the Sooners outlasted Providence to win 79-77 while Arizona defeated Davidson 104-71. My TV Guide shows the game at 4 PM on ESPN.

Arizona (now in the Big 12) is averaging 88.4 Pts/G and allowing 70.2 Pts/G. They have won 3 games against Canasius, Old Dominion and Davidson. They have lost to Wisconsin and Duke, both ranked teams. OU's best win in the 5-0 start is probably yesterday over Providence (unranked).

Arizona can get big up front quickly. They normally start a 6'6" and a 6'8" front line who play a combined 42.5 minutes a game with 3 guards who are 6'3" and 6'4". But they bring in 3 bigs off the bench who are 7'2", 6'8" and 7'0" for another 47.3 minutes a game. In the game against Davidson, the bigs for Arizona scored 43 points. The four main guards scored 52 points.

Arizona takes care of the ball with 12 turnovers a game and 15 assists and 9 steals a game for a solid 2-to-1 ratio. They grab 46 rebounds a game with 16 a game on the offensive boards.

Oklahoma can score as they score 82.8 Pts/G and allow jut 62.8 Pts/G. The Sooners 20-point differential is better than Arizona's 18.2 differential but not by much. Oklahoma pulls down 34 rebounds a game for a 12 board a game disadvantage. Oklahoma is at 11 turnovers per game with 16.2 assists and 11.8 steals a game for a 2.6-to-1 ratio.

Oklahoma shoots a bit better than Arizona in all 3 phases of the game. they shot 4% better from the field, 8% better from "three" and 9% better from the line.

The Sooners will have to play well inside and stay out of foul trouble to stay in the game I think. The pressure will be on Godwin, Moore and Wague along with Glenn Taylor, Jr. to play defense, play around 90 minutes in the game (they played just 67 on Wednesday) and score enough to keep Arizona honest inside. The Sooners will need very goo play from 2 or 3 of th guards for OU. Between Kobe Ellis, Jeremiah Fears, Duke Miles and Byrcen Goodine the Sooners need to generate 60-65+ points. Yesterday they scored 58.

I think Oklahoma will have to play well to pick up a win today against Arizona. I think the court will be crowded with some big bodies for OU to make their way to the bucket on drives. Maybe OU can have a great game with steals and fast breaks and easy buckets. I wish them good luck today as they will work for their 6th win today against 0 losses.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

I was not able to watch the game yesterday due to Thanksgiving at my families place. But I did check the score a few times and did see that OU was having success. This morning, when I looked at the box score and saw that Godwin played just 10 minutes and Wague played just 6 minutes it is a bit surprising the Sooners won. The score was 82 to 77 in favor of the Sooners over the ranked Arizona Wildcats. They led at half time 36-30. If the game was broken down to 8 five-minute periods, the Sooners won 5 of them by 16 points. Arizona won the other 3, by 11. That produced the 5 point win for Oklahoma. I understand that the Sooners did not play well to close the game, but they closed the game and won. They are now 6-0.

But, two things won the game for the Sooners. One, the 3-point shooting was fantastic at 12 for 29 for 41.4%. The quartet of Fears, Moore, Nothweather and Duke were 11 for 18 for 61.1%. Two, the tremendous free-throw shooting by the Sooners as they made 20 of 21 freebies for 95.2%.

I will add a third thing. Jalon Moore rebounded after Wednesday's game to play a "Jalon Moore" type of game. Moore scored 24 points on just about 50% shooting from the field and grabbed 7 rebounds. The Sooners need Moore to do that almost every game or something similar to that. I will also add a fourth thing. Luke Northweather showed up for a second game-in-a-row. Northweather played 20 minutes. He scored 10 points and pulled down 7 rebounds. After a red-shirt season, Northweather played in the 2023-24 season. In 26 games, he played over 15 minutes four times. He never scored more than 7 points or grabbed more than 6 rebounds. In the last two games, Northweather has played 15 and 20 minutes and scored 8 and 10 points and pulled down 7 rebounds against Arizona. Northweather stretches the defense with his potential for outside three's. It is good to see Northweather play well in the last two games. Maybe he becomes a solid backup at a forward or "post" position.

And, Jeremiah Fears is becoming a force. He scored 26 points on 17 shots with 4 threes and 8 free throws out of 8. He has not scored less than 11 and the last three games, more than 20 points. Fears also had 5 rebounds and 5 assists and lowered those turnovers to 3. The freshman seems to learn quickly.

It was Duke Miles' turn to score on Thursday as he added 11 points on 4 of 5 shooting including 3 threes. Glenn Taylor, Jr was supportive with 7 points and 4 rebounds inside also. Kobe Ellis and Mohamed Wague each added two points.

The Sooner outrebounded the Wildcats 38 to 34, which when you think about Godwin and Wague playing 16 minutes, is surprising. They did have 17 turnovers, with 17 assists and 7 steals and 4 blocks. The only secondary stat the Sooners won was fast break points with 7 to 6. Every other seconday stat, Arizona won. They had more 2nd chance points, more points in the paint, more points off of turnovers and more bench points. But those threes and those free throws won the game for OU.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the win over Arizona on Thursday.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/11/2 ... nship-game

The Sooners play Louisville on Friday afternoon on ESPN in a 4:30 PM game for the "Battle-4-Atlantis" championship. Looking back at April of 2024, not many people would have thought that possible. And, I do not think they have really put a total team game together in the Bahamas yet.

Louisville defeated #15 Indiana 89-61 on Wednesday. Yesterday they defeated West Virginia 79-70 in 1 OT. West Virginia defeated #3 Gonzaga 86-78 in 1 OT on Wednesday. The "Btattle-4-Atlantis" seems to have a theme of the underdog dethroning the ranked teams. Maybe that is a good thing for the Sooners.

Louisville is team of 3 scorers. Hepburn, a 6'2" starting guard, scores 15.0 Pts/G, Pryor, a 6'10" starting forward, scores 13.0 Pts/G and Smith, a reserve 6'2" guard, scores 14.3 Pts/G. If the Sooners control those three players, a win is possible. Edwards, a 6'6" guard/forward scores 11.2 also and has to have some attention. Louisville will have some size on the Sooners, but so far this year, that has not been a "real" issue as OU has outplayed bigger teams so far. But it would be nice if Godwin and Wague do help today. It would help alot. They have to adjust and be able to stay on the court more.

Fears, Miles, Ellis and Moore need to score. Well at least three of them need to score. If Taylor Jr, Goodine and Northweather can add something off the bench, the Sooners have a path to victory. Rebound strong and score points efficiently is what it takes. The matchup of stats between the Sooners and the Wildcats indicate a very evenly matched game. Usually a game like that has one team just outplaying the other or the best player(s) on the team outplaying the other team's best player(s). If it is the later, I like the Sooners chances with Moore, Fears against Hepburn and Pryor. But Hepburn and Pryor did score 32, 13 with Smith adding 15 in their win over West Virginia. Who steps up for Oklahoma as the #3 scorer today may be the key.

Good luck today to the Sooners.

Boomer Sooner!

[EMan]

Arizona led 2-0, and that was it for the Cats the rest of the afternoon. OU took the lead 3-2 two minutes into the game and never trailed again. But it wasn't like there weren't some seat-squirming moments when it looked like Arizona was about to seize the momentum because there were! But the Sooners responded every single time the Cats made a challenge. With Godwin in foul trouble the entire game it looked like OU might be vulnerable on the inside. Fortunately, Moore, Northweather, et al kept the damage to a minimum. (Wague didn't play much. IMO, he hasn't shown to be much of an offensive threat so far.) But perhaps the biggest factor was the clutch shots by several players throughout the game. As 56 mentioned, Fears and Moore both had great all-around games, and Northweather provided some huge shots in the first half. But Miles and Taylor also provided a few very timely buckets to keep the Cats at bay in the second half. It was a solid team effort. There were some frustrating turnovers, and the inability to corral a rebound at times, but the Sooners remained aggressive when the opportunity presented itself and patient when numbers dictated so. And they were pure gold at the FT llne. Bottom line, it was a very good resume-building win.

But yes, we've seen some early season success in these types of tournaments before under Moser that didn't really translate once the Sooners got into the conference season so hopefully this year OU can build off this momentum. I will say this though. I understand it's still very early in the season so this is a limited-data observation, but "at this point in time" OU's guard play looks better than last season. Fears appears to be an upgrade over Uzan, but he is a freshman and subject to the proverbial "wall" as the season progresses so that assessment could easily change. Or any weaknesses he has get exposed as the competition improves game-over-game inside the conference. Only time will tell on those factors. But he's quick, can create his own shot and certainly looks like he wants the ball in his hands in tight games. I like that kind of attitude. The dude can flat-out play. And so far appears to be an excellent FT shooter as well. That's a good combination to have. But again, I'll need to wait to see the Sooners play a few games in the conference before drawing any real concrete opinions on how this season will play out.

[OUBeliever56A]

How do you win a game when you outrebounded by 21 boards? You shoot 8 of 17 from "three" and 19 of 25 from the free throw line.

Boomer Sooner defeats Louisville 69-64.

You also have to play a little defense to win that game. Louisville shoots 38% from the field and 22% from "threes".

More later or in the morning.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners won the "Battle-4-Atlantis" on Friday with a hard fought 69-64 win over the surprising Louisville Cardinals. The Sooners are now 7-0 on the young season looking much better than everyone thought they would be. Do we still think they are the 15th best team in the SEC? The SEC is very tough in 2024-25, but 15th?

What is true is this:

• the Sooners have outshot their opponent by % in 5 of the 7 games. One was tied at 43.1% and once by Northwestern State.

• the Sooners have made more buckets in the game in 5 of 7 games. Yes, Arizona and Louisville made 3 more in each game.

• the Sooners have won the rebound batle in 5 of the 7 games. But, they have been outrebounded in 2 of the last 3 games.

• the Sooners have made more 3's in 6 of 7 games. Stetson and OU both made 9 in their game and their shooting% from 'threes' was better in aeach game but the Stetson game where they tied at 37.5%.

• the Sooners have outshot and made more free throws in every game. Only once did a team shoot a better % from the free throw line (Lindenwood).

• the Sooners have had fewer turnovers in 6 of the 7 gmes also. Only Arizona had less turnovers. The Sooners average 11.7 turnovers. That is fantastic. (If fears was not averging 4+ tunrnovers a game the Sooners rate would be miniscule.

• the Sooners have had more assists and steals in 6 of 7 games. Arizona had more steals and Providence had more assists.

The Sooners do play inspired defense and they work hard for shots on offense. It is a grind most of the time for them. But they have won that grind 7 striaght times. And in 3 days in a row against decent competition in the Bahamas. If you can't give them that, and say that they have played well so far this season, I am not sure you have many positive things in your life.

Their playing rotation is fairly well set. They start three guards, all point guards (Miles, Elvis and Fears). They start Moore and Godwin up front. They use Taylor, Jr and Goodine off the bench for strong relief and then add Northweather (surprisingly helpoing as of late) and then small doses of Forsythe and Fredson-Cole.

Mohamed Wague has dissapeared for the court as of late. When he was signed as a transfer, Wague was thought to be a good backup center who could rebound and play defense. He has not played more than 12 ,minutes in a game and only 9 minutes total in the Bahamas. He does rebound but is erratic elsewhere. He needs to find a way back on the court to give provide some strong minutes of play in relief of Godwin. 10-15 minutes a game.

The Sooners have Georgia Tech (3-3), Alcorn State (0-5), OSU and Bedlam (4-2), and Michigan (6-1) in their next four games in the next 2 and a half weeks. Let's see where the Sooners are then. Could the Sooners arrive for the Jumpman Classic to play Michigan and be 10-0? I can see that. Georgia Tech and OSU are beatable. Alcorn State should be a stat game and a win. But Michigan has been good as of late and could be ranked next Monday, so could Oklahoma, who would have thought that?

At the very least, next Tuesday at 8 PM, the game at LNC should have a decent crowd. I am not talking a sellout, but maybe something around 7500 t0 8,000 which would be close to double of their first 4 ome games would be nice. The game is on ESPNU also.

7-0 deserves applause. Coach Moser deserves at least a nod of approval so far. The players deserve some, 'atta-boys'. Jalen Moore and Jeremiah Fears is worth the effort to wath play. Elivis and Miles can take over games at times on the offense. Godwin give effort that anyone can be happy to watch. The same for Taylor, Jr. I think Goodine can shoot and will lite-up a game soon. And then there is a player named Jadon Jones who they say can shoot the ball that has not played yet at 6'5" and can help in the roatation if nothing else.

They are exceeding expectations, the Sooners are, I mean.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the Sooner win in the Finals of the "Battle-4-Atlantis" in the Bahamas on Friday eveining 69-64.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/11/2 ... 4-atlantis

Here are some specifics about the game......

Here are the scores of the game at the five minute breaks;
At 15:00 min of the 1st half --> Louisville 9, OU 8
At 10:00 min of the 1st half --> Louisville 16, OU 15 -- 7-7 in the 5 minutes
At 5:00 min of the 1st half --> OU 26, Louisville 25 -- 11-9 in the 5 minutes for OU
At the half --> OU 39, Louisville 32 -- 13-7 in the 5 minutes for OU

At 15:00 min of the 2nd half --> OU 41, Louisville 38 -- 6-2 for Louisville in the 5 minutes
At 10:00 min of the 2nd half --> OU 50, Louisville 47 -- 9-9 in the 5 minutes
At 5:00 min of the 2nd half --> OU 58, Louisville 58 -- 11-8 for Louisville in the 5 minutes
Final score: OU 69-64. ----- 11-6 in the most inportant 5 minutes

In the three five minute slices of the game that Okahoma won here is who scored for OU:
11-9 --> Moore 7, Fears 3, Taylor, Jr 1
13-7 --> Moore 6, Goodine 7 (these were the only points that Goodine scored)
11-6 --> Taylor Jr 6, Fears 3, Miles 2

Oklahoma had the lead for 31 minutes of the game. Moore scored 24, Taylor Jr scored 12, Fears scored 10, Goodine scored 7, Miles scored 5, Elvis and Godwin scored 4, Northweather scored 3.

OU shot the ball well -> 47.7% from the field, 47.1% from 'threes' and 76.0% from the free throw line. Louisville shot 38.1% from the field, 219% from 'threes' and 56.3% from the free throw line.

About the rebounding. Louisville had 46 misses on their shots. That created lots of rebounds an that end of the floor. Louisville grabbed 22 of those as offensive boards (4 in one trip). OU got 20 of those. that is not good but the volume of misses created the high chances for Louisville. Waterman and Hadley had 5 and 6 of those offensive boards for the Cardinals. they were hard to keep off the boards with who Oklahoma had on the boards. Oklahoma only missed 29 times in the game.

A two keys in the game was this. OU made 8 of 17 from 'threes'. The Cardinals made 7 of 32 from 'threes'. OU made 1 more in 'half' the shots. Well done on offense and on defending the 'three'. The other was the Sooners shooting 19 of 25 free throw shots compared to Louisville who shot 9 of 16. OU is getting to the line and making the shots very well in 2024-2025. That really helps.

The play of the game was the out-of-bounds block/deflection by Sam Godwin with 6 seconds left. His effort and deflecting the ball on the inbounds pass allowed OU to force a held ball with the possession arrow in their favor. The ball was 'probably' out of Hepburn's hands, 'probably'. Godwin was not over the line with his feet. Great effort. Miles stepped up after being fouled to make 2 free throws to make the finish indiffereent.

The Sooners are 7-0 and will play in Lloyd Noble Center on Tuesday night at 8 PM against 3-3 Georgia Tech. They play Central Arkansas today, on Saturday. The game will be on ESPNU.

Boomer Sooner!