More of the same getting Porter Moser's Sooners absolutely nowhere
More of the same getting Porter Moser's Sooners absolutely nowhere
Oklahoma can't handle success, can't make shots, can't score, can't win
Maybe a seven-point deficit with four minutes and change remaining is insurmountable against a team like Kansas.
Maybe.
But Jalon Moore had just canned two free-throws and for the first time in 11 possessions the Jayhawks failed to score even a single point in response.
Though their team had once carried an 11-point lead, that got a nearly full-house of fans involved, hoping against hope they might see a different outcome than the one they’ve seen so often this season and the previous two at Lloyd Noble Center.
What happened?
Given the opportunity to cut the deficit to three or four points, Javian McCollum got his pocket picked by Kansas’ Dajuan Harris instead.
Harris missed a jumper at the other end, yet Jayhawk post Hunter Dickinson grabbed the rebound, only to miss a layup himself, only for another Jayhawk, K.J. Adams, to grab another offensive rebound, only to be fouled by Otega Oweh.
The fans booed.
Enough to be heard, Sooner fans booed their own team.
Adams made one free throw.
At the other end, Milos Uzan missed what seemed like his 83rd shot in the paint, Sam Godwin grabbed a rare offensive rebound and Oweh missed a 3.
The clock showed less than four minutes, Kansas had the ball and an eight-point lead.
No boos.
Just resignation.
The whole sequence?
Sooner basketball, baby.
In its purest form.
Kansas prevailed 67-57.
It did it against a Sooner team missing both Rivaldo Soares and John Hugley, who, yes, certainly could have been useful.
Also, we’ve seen this movie before, over and over and over again since Porter Moser came to town.
OU can’t score.
Scene out.
“For me, it was the rebounding and turnovers,” Moser said.
It’s always something.
Yet it was neither of those.
Kansas outrebounded OU 40 to 29 but what do you expect on a day your team shoots 32 percent (16 of 50) overall and an historically horrible 18.2 percent (4 of 22) after the half?
Yes, Kansas grabbed nine offensive rebounds to OU’s five, but we just charted two of them at the top of this thing and all they yielded was a one point.
Both teams turned the ball over 11 times.
It’s the offense.
Almost three seasons later, as it’s always been once the conference season’s at hand, it’s still the offense.
Can’t make shots.
Can’t even get them up.
Can’t score.
Can’t win.
In all of Division I, Norfolk State ranks dead last getting 51.4 field goal attempts off per game. In the Sooners’ last four games, they’ve attempted 51, 46, 45 and 50.
“We lost an opportunity,” Moser said.
Sure.
Confidence, too, and not for the first, second, third, fourth or fifth time.
Indeed, only one guy never seems to lose it and that’s Jalon Moore, who led the Sooners with 17 points, canned half of his 10 attempts, hit two 3-pointers and 5 of 6 free throws.
McCollum toyed with getting his back on Saturday, hitting 3 of 6 from beyond the arc and finishing with 15 points; yet, on a day his shot returned, how does he only get up seven shots, total?
Don’t go looking for a go-to guy to emerge now. This was OU’s 13th conference game and it’s 11th without a 20-point scorer.
If one thing made Saturday a slightly different production from so many other conference losses, it was the start. For a change, OU got off to a good one.
McCollum’s second 3, 8:06 before the half, put OU on top 23-16 and had Kansas coach Bill Self calling timeout, yet it only slowed the Sooners down temporarily.
Not long after, McCollum knocked down his third 3, Moore added one of his own and, when La’Tre Darthard canned one of his own, 2:05 before the half, the edge was 34-23.
Little did anybody know the shoe was already dropping.
Darthard’s 3 was the only one of OU’s last six first-half possessions to produce points and it wouldn’t be long before the Sooners endured a run of 10 second-half possessions that produced only two points.
Maybe if they were even the slightest bit interested in transition buckets the way they were before conference play began.
Maybe if they had a system that amounted to something beyond hoping shots will fall.
In the end, under stress, when it’s difficult, entities return to their most natural state.
This is it for Sooner hoops.
Can’t shoot. Can’t score. Can’t win.
Now 6-7 against Big 12 foes with Bedlam away, No. 10 Iowa State away, No. 3 Houston at home, Cincinnati at home and Texas away still to play, some believe OU needs only one more win to return to the NCAA tournament.
If more’s required, the Sooners could be in real trouble.
More of the same doesn’t figure to take them very far, but it’s all they seem to have.