Championship Friday!

A new coach, new recruits, and a new attitude,
Post Reply
TN Sooner
Posts: 679
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2021 10:02 am
2
Location: Franklin TN
Has thanked: 399 times
Been thanked: 317 times

Championship Friday!

Post by TN Sooner »

With the advent of softball and the gymnastics competition, I’ve lost my focus in the basketball team.

But today is game day. KU somehow lost to TCU, so we get the horny frogs tonight. We had easier times with TCU than with KU during the regular season, but I expect a fired up tcu today.

The big question - How is Madi? If her injury is a “rest for recovery” situation, I’d be inclined to rest her, maybe even for the entire tournament. I’d rather have a healthier Madi for the big tournament.

Boomer Sooner. LETS GO!
OUBeliever56A
Posts: 4504
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2021 6:44 am
2
Location: Norman
Has thanked: 607 times
Been thanked: 2561 times

Post by OUBeliever56A »

Same here for me and Women's BB with softball starting up.

Yes, it is a 'gift' that TCU defeated Kansas last night. Kansas shot terrible in the 3Q and 4Q to enable TCU to come from behind and win the game in the 3Q on into the 4Q.

What this means is that the Sooner Women play TCU tonight. The Sooners defeated TCU twice 93-66 in Ft. Worth and 101-78 in Norman. In both games OU 'doubled' the rebound total for TCU. In both games OU shot well. The Sooners shot over 53% from the field and over 37% from long distance. The Sooner bench also scored well in both games with 29 and 40 points in the two games.

The strong rebounding by the Sooners allowed the Sooners to control the tempo of the game and basically 'outrun' TCU in the two games. OU did have a more turnovers than they needed in the two games as they had 23 and 15 giveaways in the two games.

I will say Madi Williams led the Sooners in scoring in both games with 26 and 19 points. Llanusa also scored well with 14 and 17. Robertson added 18 and 10 as well.

If Madi plays, she should be able to limit her minutes in an effort to keep her fresh and enable her to be ready for Saturday's game. I would think that maybe Vann, Tucker and even perhaps Reyna Scott could fill in minutes for Williams if needed.

Oklahoma should win this game tonight if they continue their dominance on the boards and if they play uptempo with minimal turnovers in the game.

Good luck to the Sooner Women in tonight's game at 5 PM.

Boomer Sooner!
OUBeliever56A
Posts: 4504
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2021 6:44 am
2
Location: Norman
Has thanked: 607 times
Been thanked: 2561 times

Post by OUBeliever56A »

Here is the staff writers article about the Sooner Women's BB opening game in the Big 12 Tourney.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/3/9/ ... gainst-tcu

Boomer Sooner!
TN Sooner
Posts: 679
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2021 10:02 am
2
Location: Franklin TN
Has thanked: 399 times
Been thanked: 317 times

Post by TN Sooner »

In pregame radio interview, Jennie says “we’ll see how Madi feels during pregame warmup. If she plays she’ll be limited”.
User avatar
White River
Posts: 3820
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2021 9:38 am
2
Location: Lakeview Arkansas
Has thanked: 1088 times
Been thanked: 824 times

Post by White River »

I missed the second half due to the softball game but it was a thriller!

https://soonersports.com/watch?Archive= ... pe=Archive
OUBeliever56A
Posts: 4504
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2021 6:44 am
2
Location: Norman
Has thanked: 607 times
Been thanked: 2561 times

Post by OUBeliever56A »

The Oklahoma Sooners scored the final bucket of the game with 2 seconds left to lift themselves to victory over TCU yesterday afternoon 77-76. Skylar Vann running left-handed shot in the middle of the lane received a kind bounce off the back of the rim before falling through the net for the winning bucket. Vann, the best sixth-player in the conference for two seasons, proved why she has won that title with her play yesterday. Vann scored 21 points on 9 of 13 shooting from the floor and 5 rebounds.

Here is the staff wrtiers article about the close-than-expected win over TCU.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/3/10 ... g-12-semis

Taylor Robertson added 17 points to the effort by Vann as T-Rob made 5 of 6 from downtown and was 2-2 from the free throw line. Aubrey Joens scored 15 on her own good shooting of 4 of 6 from the field (three 3's) and 4 of 4 from the free throw line. Culliton also was a bit of a bright spot as she lead the team in rebounds with 7 while scoring 9 points with 4 assists.

TCU did push the Sooners though. TCU actually outscored the Sooners from the field 65 to 64, but the Sooners outshot the Horned Frogs from the free throw line 13 of 16 to 11 of 16 for the important 2 points needed to put OU on top 77-76.

Iowa State defeated Baylor last night in the late game 74 to 63. Today, Oklahoma will play Iowa State in their best of three games winner-goes-to-the-finals game today at 2:30 PM. Maybe the best thing about the Sooner victory is that only Tot played more than 30 minute against TCU. Fatigue plays a major role in the back-to-back weekend in the Big 12 Tourney. Getting the rest needed between games and during the games is important. The Big 4 of Iowa State, Ashley Joens and the 3 triplet guards all played 34 minutes with 3 playing all 40 minutes of the game against Baylor. But they seem to do that every game. But back-to-back it is tougher.

Tonight the Sooners need better games from Liz Scott, Ana Llanusa (Llanusa is due to have a good game) and Nevaeh Tot. They need to help a great deal today if OU is going to win. Madi Williams looked a bit tentative or unsure of her leg with that big brace on it in yesterday's game. Williams has always been a critical part of every game against Iowa State and defending Ashley Joens. Today, I think someone is going to have to help Williams on defense.

I think today's game is a toss-up. I hope the best for the Sooners today.

Boomer Sooner!
TN Sooner
Posts: 679
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2021 10:02 am
2
Location: Franklin TN
Has thanked: 399 times
Been thanked: 317 times

Post by TN Sooner »

Oof. Not a fun game to watch. TCU was gritty and tough and really overplayed the passing lanes and we obliged and kept throwing it to them. Scott, Tot and Lanusa were combined 3-24, each making 1 bucket. Ana had 4 assists, but also 5 turnovers (and it seemed like more than that). TRob and Skylar were the only bright spots.

Hopefully, that’s behind us, because we aren’t beating anyone else but a 1-17 team playing like we did yesterday.
OUBeliever56A
Posts: 4504
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2021 6:44 am
2
Location: Norman
Has thanked: 607 times
Been thanked: 2561 times

Post by OUBeliever56A »

I was able to watch the 1Q and part of the 2Q before the OU Softball game started. Through that part of the game, the Sooners played fairly well and was in the game. Ou led 19-18 after the 1Q but had bigger leads early before I-State closed the gap. What I saw of the 2Q was more of the same. I will say that Madi Williams did look much better during the game.

I kept one eye on the game during the softball game but cannot sy I watched it.

It seems that the game was decided in the 3Q. In that quarter I-State outscored OU by 10 points, 24-14. Oklahoma made 5 buckets from the field in the quarter. Looking through the play-by-play, the Sooners had 6 turnovers in the quarter. That had to be the key of the quarter. OU minimized the turnovers in the other 3 quarters as they had 'only' 14 in the game. Meanwhile the Cyclones scored 24 with 10 buckets in the quarter. It seems that was enough to swing the game to I-State.

Iowa State built the lead to 17 points early in the 4th quarter. The Sooners did rally to get back to within six points at 64-70 around the 4 minute mark. But Iowa State closed well to win by 10.

:Looking at stats, I would say that Williams, Tot and Vann played well in the game. Robertson seemed to be in a different role at times handling the ball more with 7 assists but was uncharacteristically 3 of 10 from the field. Liz Scott had 8 rebounds but not much else. LLanusa continues to be on the floor without much production while trying to play strong defense. Culliton played 21 minutes with 8 rebounds but simply needs to shoot better from near the bucket. Tucker always plays good defense but she is just a passer on the other end of the floor. Joens had a tough day against her old team.

The Sooners will now wait to see where they will travel to play in the NCAA Tourney. they should be a favorite in their first game. Hopefully that will go well for the Sooners and they can pick up the second win in the tourney for Coach Baranczyk. I did see the post game huddle for the Sooners with Coach Baranczyk. She seeked to be holding court with the players. She did not look like she was too happy. She seemed to be telling all the players that they have to play much better in the tourney than they have been playing. That is all pure conjecture on my part. I do think that she is right about the team's play.

Here is the staff writers article about the game.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/3/11 ... semifinals

I hope the Sooners get some rest and get ready for play coming up next week in the NCAA Tourney.

Boomer Sooner!
Post Reply

Create an account or sign in to join the discussion

You need to be a member in order to post a reply

Create an account

Not a member? register to join our community
Members can start their own topics & subscribe to topics
It’s free and only takes a minute

Register

Sign in