OU Men's Basketball Host #2 Alabama in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners host the #2 Alabama Crimson Tide in Men's Basketball on Saturday at 1 PM. Saturday's game against the Crimson Tide will be broadcast on ESPN with Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes on the call. Fans may also listen 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 or ESPN Radio with Chris Carlin and Bob Valvano announcing.

Here is the staff writers article about the matchup with Alabama.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/1/27 ... -challenge

Miller (Forward) for Alabama is likely a lottery-pick in the next NBA draft. He is very good. Alabama has size and is very good. They pound the boards offensively and play great defense with their length. The Sooners will have their work cut out for them to matchup with Alabama in their man defense, especially inside. OU will be outsized by a good margin if they play 3 guards with Hill and a Sooner big in the game. OU's 3rd forward in the game (J Groves, Oweh and maybe others) will have to play very well tomorrow as well as the other Sooner Starters.

The one piece of good news is that from watching Alabama a couple of nights ago, I do not think that Bama is a particularly quick team. Certainly not like TCU. With OU playing Iowa State, Kansas and Baylor very tough, maybe OU can play well on Saturday and stay in the ballgame for 40 minutes with a chance for an upset at the end as they did against those 3 top Big 12 teams.

OU does have to score consistently in the game to have a chance at the end of the ballgame. Making the 'tweener' jump shots will be important for the Sooners as well as handling the ball on offense. Alabama looks to steal the jump passes on offense and they are very good at it. If the Sooners get inside the 3-point line and get open, they should shoot the ball. If they go to the rim, the Bama bigs will make a team pay with misses and blocks. Trying to pass cross-court will lead to turnovers.

Good luck to the Sooners in the SEC challenge game.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Men's Basketball Team figured out the keys to victory on Saturday afternoon. It is simple. You just have to shoot lights out from the field for the entire 40 minutes, rebound well and minimize turnovers while playing pretty good defense. So what if the opposing team is ranked #2 in the country! It certainly won't hurt that a couple of your best players have a game where their offense is both at the top of their game. And when Jalen Hill hits a step back THREE with a second left on the shot clock over a defender and then brings the LNC crowd to their feet when he throws in a slam dunk around a Bama players arm you get instant noise in the LNC. BTW, the turnout for the game by the Sooners crowd and especially student body added the element of something being important for the fan base. And they did celebrate when the game was over with the 93-69 score showing on the scoreboard.

I imagine Saturday afternoon was what Coach Moser and AD Joe C dreamed about when the hire of Coach Moser was made. Maybe a good part of the fan base had a similar thought as well.

The Sooners shot 57.6% in the game from the floor. From behind the arc they shot 69.2% as they were 9 for 13. Five Sooners made a THREE. the Sooners shot 54.3% from inside the arc. Including several crowd pleasing dunks. Godwin had a couple with one or maybe two coming on alley-oops from guards. Tanner Groves got on or two and then there was that ONE big time highlight reel dunk by Jalen Hill. By now, I should have mentioned Grant Sherfield. He was really terrific on Saturday. He was 11 of 20 from the field with a defender in his face almost every possession. He was 4 of 5 from downtown and totalled 30 points. Hill added 26. T Groves added 14. Godwin had 8, The Sooners, the Oklahoma Sooners, scored 93 points in a basketball game. Somewhere Billy Tubbs is smiling with that offense.

The Sooner took care of the basketball also. Yes, they had 13 turnovers but that is really not a bad amount in this game. Bama had the same number. Yes, Bama had 13 offensive rebounds. they only scored 15 second-chance points. The Sooners did score more from the opponents turnovers than Bama did, 17-11.

The Sooner defense was effective in most every way. They held Miller to 11 points and kept him from being a player to watch in the game. #3 and #5 did play well for Alabama but their effort only 'kept' the Crimson Tide in the game. Well sorta, 'kept' them in the game.

Simply, put.......this was the best played basketball game by the Oklahoma Sooners Men's Basketball team in, well, a long time. I will leave it to others to figure out when that was.

The Big 12 went and played in the Big 12-SEC challenge and man did they challenge the SEC. (BTW, I did like the mock, SEC chant in the LNC in the second half.) To bad it is hard to chant, "It just matters more!" I think someone said the Big 12 was 7-3 in the 'challenge' on Saturday. A win in Big 12 play DOES MATTER in 2022-2023. It is a very good basketball conference. Only Texas, TCU (with Miller being injured) and Iowa State lost. All three lost on the road. Anytime the Big 12 can be highlighted and the team from Austin get beaten, it is a very good thing in my mind.

Okay, the Sooners have played THAT game. What is expected from here? Well, the players are the same. Some of you will say that the coaching is the same. It is unrealistic to believe that the team will shot this well again. Yeah, they shot the ball very well. But they can rebound well. They can handle the ball well. And they can get strong effort from 9 players. They will still be in most every game. (I am still concerned about playing TCU again due to their quickness. It is just a bad matchup.) Maybe this game gets the Sooners over the hump and they are able to pick up some valuable wins in the last five minutes. They can not just say, "I think I can", they can know that "they did!".

Celebrate and applaud the effort by the Sooners on Saturday!

It is back to the Big 12 on Wednesday, however. It is Bedlam in the LNC on Wednesday night. Then it is off to West Virginia on Saturday for the Sooners. Two games that maybe can end up in the WIN column for the Sooners. Can they play their way into the big dance by March. We will see. But the win over #2 Bama is a 'gold star' that will stand out when the committee selects the final 4 to 8 teams.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the staff writers article about the very big win for the Sooners.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/1/28 ... -2-alabama

Boomer Sooner!

[RussC]

Thanks for your write up!