Oklahoma 1/20 1:00 ESPN+

[Lobot]

Simas had an easy wide open reverse layup down the stretch and threw it out for 3 to Lakhin who airballed it. I don't understand that play at all. Maybe it's a euroball thing that he needs to unlearn a bit.

[leo from jersey]

Simas had an easy wide open reverse layup down the stretch and threw it out for 3 to Lakhin who airballed it. I don't understand that play at all. Maybe it's a euroball thing that he needs to unlearn a bit.

Maybe the pressure got to both of them. They seemed unnerved throughout the game.

[leo from jersey]

Maybe the pressure got to both of them. They seemed unnerved throughout the game.

After that play I posted about communication. There was little the whole game as the fought each other for rebounds resulting in to s on at least 3 occasions. Floor leadership is needed for glue.

[Bearcat93]

Offense was awful and has been inconsistent across the season. 3rd winnable loss in the last 5 games. Miller needs to be better -there’s effort & focus stuff, along with FT’s (come on, this is ridiculous) that are keeping UC from truly becoming a good team.

[BearKatz]

Simas had an easy wide open reverse layup down the stretch and threw it out for 3 to Lakhin who airballed it. I don't understand that play at all. Maybe it's a euroball thing that he needs to unlearn a bit.

That is the play that killed their momentum with under 5mins to go in the game! Simas should have taken the shot, but tried to get cute and pass the ball to Lakhin.

[Rufus]

I was being facetious, but yea these things should already be visibly progressing and too slow in coming. Your right the season is only so long.

[Lobot]

There's no vocal leader / alpha scorer on this team. No consistency. It's someone different every night. Skillings was a complete no show today. SImas has been a no show. Day Day has been a no show. Lakhin has been reasonably consistent but he doesn't show confidence on the floor a lot of the time. It's puzzling.

I don't want to focus on the negative but I don't feel like anyone wants to step up or tread on their teammates PT.

[longtimefan]

There's no vocal leader / alpha scorer on this team. No consistency. It's someone different every night. Skillings was a complete no show today. SImas has been a no show. Day Day has been a no show. Lakhin has been reasonably consistent but he doesn't show confidence on the floor a lot of the time. It's puzzling.

I don't want to focus on the negative but I don't feel like anyone wants to step up or tread on their teammates PT.

I was at the last OU game played downtown. Cashmere Wright won that game with two great offensive plays down the stretch, and Cash wanted the ball.

[SKell82155]

Haven’t been able to watch games but follow via
CBS sports. Noticed Skillings lack of minutes today, relatively.
Also, what up with Jizzle other than being a Fr ?
His impact hasn’t been as great as I thought it would be after his performance vs X.
Thanks

[swilsonsp4]

Haven’t been able to watch games but follow via
CBS sports. Noticed Skillings lack of minutes today, relatively.
Also, what up with Jizzle other than being a Fr ?
His impact hasn’t been as great as I thought it would be after his performance vs X.
Thanks

As far as Jizzle is concerned, Miller has stated that he plays like a freshman, particularly on defense. Opposing guards know that's not a strength at this point and go at him. In time, if he puts in the work, he'll be a good defender.

[Rufus]

There's no vocal leader / alpha scorer on this team. No consistency. It's someone different every night. Skillings was a complete no show today. SImas has been a no show. Day Day has been a no show. Lakhin has been reasonably consistent but he doesn't show confidence on the floor a lot of the time. It's puzzling.

I don't want to focus on the negative but I don't feel like anyone wants to step up or tread on their teammates PT.

Lahkin is an enigma this season I don't know if it's because he's had to play center his entire career here and now he's needed at the 4, or he's afraid to bang down low but when they do get him the ball in the paint he still moves like he's at the 5. He is just not very effective at forward. He and Aziz had some sort of a discussion during the game. But He is not playing at the level or the confidence he was at previously. Another poster recently made the comment that his bball IQ is under par and that play with Simas just highlighted it. The ball hit him right in the hands and was not even expecting it and fumbled. Looking back at the previous games, Vik has been called for traveling multiple times ( twice against OU ) showing he is unsure of what to do and he's shuffling his feet. Vik had 5 pts. Skillings had 1 pt. When you don't have an Alpha scorer as Lobot recalled you have to nail the free throws your given . 7/17 I believe. We held OU to under 70 pts. Free throws would have won all three of these losses.

[Greg7173]

So many things to work on. The easiest shortcoming and the one with the most payback is to get free throw shooting percentage up to 80%. It is a matter of muscle memory. Every practice should end up with all shooting at least 100 free throws. IMHO.

[leo from jersey]

Lahkin is an enigma this season I don't know if it's because he's had to play center his entire career here and now he's needed at the 4, or he's afraid to bang down low but when they do get him the ball in the paint he still moves like he's at the 5. He is just not very effective at forward. He and Aziz had some sort of a discussion during the game. But He is not playing at the level or the confidence he was at previously. Another poster recently made the comment that his bball IQ is under par and that play with Simas just highlighted it. The ball hit him right in the hands and was not even expecting it and fumbled. Looking back at the previous games, Vik has been called for traveling multiple times ( twice against OU ) showing he is unsure of what to do and he's shuffling his feet. Vik had 5 pts. Skillings had 1 pt. When you don't have an Alpha scorer as Lobot recalled you have to nail the free throws your given . 7/17 I believe. We held OU to under 70 pts. Free throws would have won all three of these losses.

Court awareness. This can be help by instruction. A BB player has to do more than score although that is vital too. Again, no floor leader and no command( or so it seems) from the bench to talk on the floor. We have watching bystanders for rebounds and when others have the ball it seems. The talent is there. I wonder if the lack of fundamental starting with court awareness has been displaced by driving to the basket. If so, those who are doing it now are the next generation of coaches and I suspect they will teach what they know, It is sad to think many will never see the beauty and harmony of 5 players in unison and playing as a team. It seems that team has been relegated to be some slogan on a Big Ten coach's jacket.

Rufus we all remember in grade school and up how the coach would get us to scrimmage. He would then blow a whistle and we all had to come to a complete stop. He said take a picture of what you are seeing. He then would ask questions on what we saw and how we can apply that to our anticipation of the next move. They did that for all aspects of the game. Now they practice drives and 3s. I know CWM knows better. His father was big at Wake Forest and CWM played under great team coaching at NC. It is just like teaching at a university. The students are coming in unprepared even at/from highly academic schools. Say what you want and I want to beat him badly, but Kelvin Sampson is quite the teaching coach. Too much coffee and love for the Cats.

I do believe CWM is toughening up. It is his team now and he is not under probation due to the former coach's difficulty with the players. I am listening to him and I like him. He has the heart. He needs to instill that in the players. Huggs did it by using football players to guard the lane and other drills. I love the putting a lid on the basket as a rebounding drill. I believe that those types of drills will still work.

[DesertFog]

So many things to work on. The easiest shortcoming and the one with the most payback is to get free throw shooting percentage up to 80%. It is a matter of muscle memory. Every practice should end up with all shooting at least 100 free throws. IMHO.

Muscle memory? Popular buzzword, but what exactly is it? In any event, clearly the way they practice FT now is not working, so need to try something else. What about the psychological component? The pressure when on the line is tremendous. What should a player do to calm himself down? And then there is the reality that standing at the line and shooting 100 FT in practice when not out of breath doesn't simulate the game situation when the player is out of breath. Lots of food for thought.

[bearcatjd]

Very exciting game & the crowd was in it. We don't have a consistent go to shooter, we make free throws we win, nobody follows their shot to get a rebound, we take shots when no one is under the basket & we take way toooooooooo many threes! Other than that we played great.