Sooner Men BB hosts Monmouth today @ 2 PM at LNC

[OUBeliever56A]

The Monmouth Hawks will spend their NYEve in Norman, OK after playing the Sooners in 2 PM game in Lloyd Noble Center. The Hawks are located in West Long Branch, NJ. They are 7-5 on the season and currently hold a NET Ranking of #176. Oklahoma comes into the game 11-1 and currently holds a NET Ranking of #30. Oklahoma is also ranked as the #12/#13 Team in the country in the two most referenced polls.

The non-conference contest will air on the Sooner Sports Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM The Franchise in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa; Varsity Radio App) with Toby Rowland and Kevin Henry announcing and be broadcast by ESPN+ with Chad McKee (PxP) and Bryndon Manzer (analyst) on the call.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article on the upcoming game today.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/12/3 ... t-monmouth

Monmouth has started the same five players for each of their 12 games this year. Among their wins, the Hawks have defeated West Virginia Lehigh, Belmont, Lafayette, NIU, Rider and Manhattan. They have lost to George Mason, Princeton, Penn, Cornel and Seton Hall. Most of their games are within a 10-point differential.

They are led in scoring by Xander Rice (#21), a 6'3" 190 Graduate SR. He scores 19.3 points a game and leads the team in shots and three's made. OU will have to have a defender in his face all game as he plays 34 minutes game. He is also second on the team in assists. When you find the ball, Rice will be close to it it looks like. Two other players score in double digits. Collins is 6'5" and scores 11.6 points a game and 6.6 rebounds in 33 minutes a game. He will draw a foul and makes three's. Their big man is Nakita Konstantinovskyi. He is 6'10" 245 and scores 10.1 points and grabs 7.8 rebounds. If he shoots a three-pointer today it will be his first. He plays 22 minutes a game. "Nakita" is from the Ukraine and has played basketball at NE Oklahoma A&M and Tulsa. He might know where to take his team tonight for NYE in Oklahoma. The other two starters are Valencia, a 6'9" forward who plays 26 minutes a game with an all-around game. The point guard will be Spence, a 6'2" guard. He leads the team in assists and shoots 60% from 3 point territory. Two-thirds of his shots are from downtown and plays 28 minutes a game.

Monmouth plays 6 other players most games. Bashir, a 6'7" guard who is on the floor to shoot not rebound and plays 12 minutes. Robinson, Jr. plays 16 minutes a game in the frontcourt and scores a little and rebounds a little. Everyone else plays less than 9 minutes of a game.

Monmouth scores 72.7 and allows 73.7 points a game. They manage turnovers well at about 12 a game. they shoot 39% from downtown and 46% from inside the arc. The team seems to have roles defined well and play about the same game every game. They likely will be ready to pay and little will surprise them.

I do not 'see' any matchup problems for the Sooners in the game and no real points of concern except that the Sooners need to keep a guard close to Rice at all times and to not be too far away from Spence when he is standing 20 feet from the basket. they will have to keep a body on 'Nakita' (I am not typing his last name again) or he will pick up a rebound and foul against a Sooner. I do not think that Monmouth will beat themselves. Oklahoma will have to win the game tonight by playing their game. OU scores 10 more points a game and allows 10 less points a game than Monmouth scores and allows. Surprisingly to me, both teams take 58 or 59 shots a game but OU has made about 50 more of those shots during the season. Oklahoma also goes to the free throw line more than Monmouth.

If the Sooners play their game, the game should be won. The Sooners eight-player rotations is better probably than the 7-player rotation is for Monmouth. Oweh and McCollum are better than Rice and Collins and I think Godwin and Hugley IV are better than 'Nakita' and his backup. As long as OU does not take 6 or 7 minutes off today during the game, the Sooners should end their non-conference season at 12-1. What a difference a year makes. What a difference an athletic, deep 8-player rotation makes. If Coach Moser can keep this 8-for-1 and 1-for-8 mentality going with this bunch, the Sooners have a good Big 12 season in a very good conference.

Good luck today versus the Hawks.

Boomer Sooner!

[EMan]

After Monmouth took a 42-41 lead with about 13 minutes left in the game, the Sooners finally got on track and went on a 22-4 run to blow the game open and put the Hawks away. Jalon Moore had 21 to lead all scorers while Oweh, McCollum and Uzan also contributed double-digit nights. Monmouth proved to be a pretty pesky team, and was hot from beyond the arc to stay in the game until the Sooners put on their second-half run. Now it's on to conference play against Iowa St. next Saturday.

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the Sooner win over Monmouth on Sunday afternoon.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/12/3 ... 56-victory

I listened to the game on radio with Toby Rowland calling the game. The stretch in the2nd half when OU built their 17 point lead was described wonderfully by Mr. Rowland.

After a first half where both teams held serve and OU led by 4 points at 32-28, the game opened up a bit in the second half. After OU built up an 8 point lead early in the 2nd half, Monmouth got their shots to fall and managed to take the lead 42-21 with 13:08 left in the game. Suddenly, OU was hitting on all cylinders and playing exciting basketball in end-to-end action. Six and a half minutes later, OU led by 17 with the score being 63-46 and the game was all but over. Six Sooners scored in that run of 22-4 points for the Sooners. Oweh had a 4-point play, Darthard had a 3 right after the Oweh's 4 points. The Sooners scored quickly on 4 buckets in the lane with 3 dunks in the open court (Oweh 1, Moore 2) followed by a Moore swish from downtown and a McCollum 2.

The Sooners can just overwhelm a team from time-to-time. I have been waiting on a a big game by Moore and it happened on Sunday. He scored 21 on just 10 shots from the field. He added 6 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 steal. Oweh tossed in 13 points, McCollum added 11 with 8 assists and Uzan made it four in double figures with 10 point of his own. Uzan added 8 assists also. Godwin and Hugley IV added 14 points together with 12 rebounds to check the inside play by Monmouth. A final highlight was that OU only had 12 turnovers with 29 steals and assists total in the game while they outrebounded Monmouth by 5 rebounds. The Sooners seem to do it all well over the course of 40 minutes.

The Sooners are 12-1 in the preconference season. They have placed themselves in the middle of the upper half of the Big 12 conference their the preseason. We all know the conference season will likely be 18 dogfights against 18 strong teams. Houston, Kansas, BYU and probably a couple of others all think they have a shot at the Big 12 Title. We will see if the Sooners feel like they have a shot at that title themselves. It will all playout on the court over those 18 games. One or two or three or five games do not matter much now. It is about 18 and who is standing at the end for the next adventure after the Big 12.

The trial of the Big 12 season will prepare the Sooners well for the NCAA's. By winning double-digit games in conference play the Sooners may not win the Big 12 title but it will get them ready for the NCAA tourney, which is the point of it all ultimately. The winner of the Big 12 regular season may have 4 or 5 losses this season. Right now a 25 game winning season would be wonderful for the Sooners. If they can pick up 13 wins between the conference schedule and the Big 12 Tourney, they will be a 4th or 5th seed in the tourney. That would be just fine.

Here is a salute to the Sooner Men and their 12-1 record. Great job keeping things in focus and playing as a team of 8 players all playing for 1 goal.

Boomer Sooner!