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Halftime Thoughts

Posted by Trips Right on February 21st, 2009 under Basketball

Texas is doing a terrific job on defense forcing the Sooners to take uncomfortable shots. They’ve doubled Griffin in the manner we predicted. Quick when he catches it in the scoring area and slow when he’s facing up. OU guards are getting way too deep when they’re forced to penetrate.

Dogus Balbay has had some nice finds against OU’s sagging M2M and zone. Credit our kids with cutting to the goal and making themselves available.

Dexter Pittman has owned Griffin when they’ve gone toe to toe. If Texas had a couple shooters and could enter the basketball, Dex would have drawn 2 more fouls on Griffin. BG simply can’t handle Dex on the low block. Pittman’s defense has to raise some red flags with respect to BG’s draft stock. Is he a lotto pick? Sure. Is he a surefire all-star in the league. Perhaps not.

Willie Warren is keeping the sooners in the ball game. He would have been a nice addition to this Texas club. He’s exactly what we’re missing. We’ll get his skillset in spades next year. More on this in a later post!

If Blake Griffin is truly hurt, then my apologies. He’s playing like a typical frontrunning bully tonight, however. Get a little physical with him and hold him on offense and he’s mysteriously woozy and light headed. If he had 15 and 10 at this point, there’s little doubt in my mind he’d be back in the ball game.

Tony Crocker and Austin Johnson annoy the crap out of me. Kudos to Capel for developing these kids, because they quite frankly had been JAGS before this season.

Capel whines like Coach K. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

OU’s zone is worse than ours.

Vitale is wearing me out.

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8 Responses

  1. Facebook User said:

    February 21st, 2009 at 7:09 pm

    Sundry thoughts:

    – It makes my eyes bleed watching Doge dribble the ball at the top of the key and his defender is at the foul line. Still, Doge is a player. Which leads to…

    – We just don’t have great players. We have a ton of glue guys and no go to guys. Flashes of that from Gary J. We just don’t have a lot of guys who can score the ball. Looking forward to the crystal ball, Trips.

    - Credit to the kids for playing hard. They lead mostly due to grit. Warren is a killer.

    - I love Dex. The block on BG was epic.

    - Damion James is still a colt. His footwork and instincts are so poor sometimes, That time he got roofed was so predictable. I’d love to see him back next year with a scoring PG or a more versatile 2 and some real thoroughbreds.

    On to half 2.

  2. Jamie Dixon said:

    February 21st, 2009 at 8:02 pm

    Thank you Horns! Love that Abrams!

  3. Congratulations and thank you very much.

  4. Dejuan Blair said:

    February 21st, 2009 at 8:07 pm

    If that’s all it takes to give Blake Griffin a concussion, I’ll kill him.

    Hell, I almost ripped Thabeet’s arm off.

  5. NorthDallasSooner said:

    February 21st, 2009 at 8:19 pm

    soonermarriedtolonghorn (2/21/2009 at 10:17 PM) OU was set up to get run out of the building when Blake went down. But, they played their butts off and had a very good chance to win. I feel GREAT about this game. Now, if and when Blake gets early fouls in the tourney this teams knows it can compete at a very high level without him.

    Abrams was terrific. If he didn’t go nuts, made 5 of 6 down the stretch, I think, OU wins.

    Monday’s iffy if Blake isn’t ok, but I don’t care. This is at minimum a 2 seed and a very real threat to make the Final Four.

  6. RansomStoddard said:

    February 21st, 2009 at 8:30 pm

    I’m pretty sure Griffin was not touched on the alleged ‘concussion’ play. Wimp

    At least we didn’t have to look at his ugly mother all game long.

  7. NorthDallas:

    I think you took the right learning from this game. You absolutely should be pleased with OU’s play down the stretch.

  8. Steve Nebraska said:

    February 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 am

    I did. I sat right behind her the entire game. What a mullet.

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