Oklahoma Men's BB: Closes with road game at Texas: Sat @ 1 PM

[OUBeliever56A]

The Sooners will travel to Austin to play in their final Big 12 conference game on Saturday in a 1 PM Red River Rivalry game between OU and Texas. Both teams are currently in a tie for 8th Place in the conference while OU has a 20-10 record and Texas has a 19-11 record. The winner of the OU-Texas game could end up in 7th Place in the conference and thus avoid playing again perhaps and then having to play the #1 Seed in the Big 12 Tourney which should be Houston if they can defeat Kansas at home in Houston on Saturday.

How does OU manage to win this game on Saturday? Well, the #1 thing is to get healthier. Hopefully Soares is not sidelined after limping through the final 10 minutes of the game on Tuesday night. Hopefully McCollum is healthy also after he missed the Tuesday night game. Maybe Hugley IV can be cleared to play as well if only for spot duty for 10 minutes or so and he comes back from an injury. I think all three are important pieces for the Sooners against Texas.

For #2, the Sooners have to play well on defense and 'contain' Abmus at guard, Disu at F/C and whoever emerges as the 3rd scorer in the game for Texas. #3, the Sooners have to rebound better than they did in the game earlier this year where Texas outrebounded the Sooners 40 to 24. Mitchell and Discu had 22 rebounds for Texas in the first game. The #4 aspect is that the Sooners have to shot the ball well on the road to have a real chance to pick up a win. The #5 key is '70 points' - Oklahoma is 17-3 this season when scoring 70 or more points and 16-2 when holding its opponents to 70 points or less. The Sooners need to get 3 Sooners to score in double figures and score probably 45 - 50 points among the trio of players.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the game in Austin on Saturday.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/3/8/ ... son-finale

The Big 12 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 Roxy Bernstein (PxP) and Chris Spatola (analyst) on the call.

McCollum needs 15 points to reach 1,000 NCAA DI career points. The Fort Myers, Fla., product scored 590 points in two seasons at Siena and tallied 395 points this season.

Good luck to the Sooners tomorrow in Austin.

Boomer Sooner!

[EMan]

Texas* also has an injury situation with Disu injuring his knee against Baylor on Monday. Last I heard it would be a "game-time decision" on him, although I'll be surprised if he doesn't play. One thing's for certain though, OU will have to play better than they did against Cincinnati if they want to win in Austin. Getting down 18-5 right out of the gate again will be a recipe for trouble. Uzan will need to get back on track with his shot. And it's imperative McCollum be able to play and provide some quality minutes. The Sooners had a hard enough time with Abmas in Norman without having to worry about missing a starting guard.

[SwampSooner]

A win today will go along way to assuring our spot in the NCAA tournament. Yes, we have 20 wins, but I worry about too many conference tournament upsets that still could knock us out. And it would be fun denying UT their 20th win.

[OU Chinaman]

...give the whorns a slight edge with home court but these are pretty evenly matched teams,

WHO WANTS IT MORE?

[SoonerTony]

I had high hopes when Moser was hired.

OU’s regular season conference records under Moser are: 7-11, 5-13, 8-10. A losing conference record every single season. A cumulative conference record of 20-34.

His tenure has been extremely disappointing.

[soonerindallas]

I had high hopes when Moser was hired.

OU’s regular season conference records under Moser are: 7-11, 5-13, 8-10. A losing conference record every single season. A cumulative conference record of 20-34.

His tenure has been extremely disappointing.

Ditto, ditto. This team has been so frustrating to watch. How do you almost beat the #1 team in the country and then come into Austin and lay down. No "difference makers" on this team. Nobody that can take control of a game and take over.

I think we are one and done in the Big 12 tournament, and fail to get a bid to the NCAAs. I just don't see how we will have a resume that will get us in.

Joe C needs to take a hard look at who is leading this team. He made a great hire with the women's team and needs to do so with the men's team.

[OUBeliever56A]

The Sooners were able to get Javian McCollum back for the game yesterday against Texas but with only 6 shots, I wonder if he was truly full speed as he played. The Sooners did get strong play from Rivaldo Soares (21 points and 1 rebound), Jalon Moore (16 points and 9 rebounds), Milos Uzan (12 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists), Le'Tre Darthard (10 points, 2 assists) and Sam Godwin (6 points and 8 rebounds) but they still were defeated by Texas 92-80. Hunter played very well for Texas as he scored 30 points on 9 of 13 shots including 3 three's and 9 of 9 free shots. The Longhorns shot the ball very well.

With the loss, the Sooners fell to a 8-10 record in conference and a 20-11 record over all. The Sooners finished in a tie for 9th place with K-State and get the nod for the 9th spot in the Big 12 tourney as they defeated K-State in Manhattan in their only meeting. The Sooners will play TCU in the main bracket of the Big 12 Tourney on Wednesday at 2 PM. If they win over TCU, the Sooners will play #1 Seed and #1 Team in the country, Houston, at 2 PM on Thursday. In their only game this season, TCU did defeat OU in Ft. Worth in the second game of conference play.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the game against Texas.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/3/9/ ... -in-austin

The Sooners have a few days to heal and to get ready for their first round game in the Big 12 Tourney. TCU won over Oklahoma 80-71 in that only meeting in conference play this season. In that game, Emanuel Miller scored 27 points for TCU. Three other Horned Frogs scored in double figures also. OU will have to come up with a defensive strategy to counter that and figure out a way to shoot better than they did in Ft. Worth.

I wonder if Hugley IV can be ready to play by Wednesday as well. That could help the Sooners quite a bit.

Good luck to the Sooners as they get ready for the Big 12 Tourney.

Boomer Sooner!