Two sets of Sooners, playing the same sport, going two entirely different directions
Porter Moser's men and Jennie Baranczyk's women are both in action Saturday. After that, but for their placements in the polls, they have very little in common
You’re not going to believe this, but coach Porter Moser’s Oklahoma men are right now ranked No. 25 and coach Jennie Baranczyk’s Oklahoma women are right now ranked No. 23.
Wait, that’s not right.
The rankings are correct, yes, but it will only be by the end of this column you may not believe it … because no two teams could be going opposite directions any faster than these two sets of Sooners.
Each is in action Saturday, Moser’s men (18-7, 6-6 Big 12) home at Lloyd Noble Center to face sixth-ranked Kansas (19-6, 7-5) and Baranczyk’s women (18-6, 12-1) at 24th-ranked West Virginia (20-3, 10-3).
Interestingly, though the two squads have little in common, Big 12 men’s and women’s hoops actually have much in common.
Every week presents home games you can’t afford to lose, road games you want to steal and, typically, ranked opponents capable of raising your national and NCAA tournament profile provided you beat them.
Already this week, each set of Sooners met Baylor.
The men were in Waco, falling 79-62 to the 12th-ranked Bears and the women were in Norman, rolling past the 21st-ranked Bears 84-73.
That’s just one game (each), but allow me to begin emptying the barrels, because the Sooner men, unless something big changes, are fast becoming a mirage.
You know how the Big 12’s the toughest men’s conference in the nation, where everybody can beat everybody and every game is close? Well, much of that is true, but Moser’s men are bucking the trend.
In four of their seven conference losses, the Sooners have fallen by double digits, from 11 points at Central Florida to 17 at Baylor, also 15 to Texas and 12 at Kansas. In one of the remaining two, they almost did it, falling by 9 at TCU.
Also, you know how it’s been shouted from the rooftops the greatest indicator of Moser’s Sooners’ failure to hang in the conference has been their inability to get shots off, their penchant for playing slower than slow and how Moser-coached teams have been doing it all the way back to his Final Four season at Loyola-Chicago?
It’s back on the menu.
Though the Sooners rank 252nd of 362 Division I programs at 56.6 field goal attempts per contest, an improvement over the last two seasons (53.3, 330th; 53.1, 341st) if you can believe it, they’ve gotten up just 50 per outing over their last five games, one full attempt less than Cal-Santa Barbara’s dead-last-in-the-nation average of 51.
Not to mention leading scorer Javian McCollum’s shot has died. Though he continues to average 14.2 points per game, he’s made just 32.6 percent (28 of 86) of his field goal attempts over his last eight, including a horrid 15.9 percent (7 of 44) clip from beyond the 3-point arc … and still, with 46, he’s made nine more 3s than his next closest teammate, La’Tre Darthard.
Also, though Moser’s Sooners remain one of six ranked Big 12 programs, only one of their conference victories have come over such a team, an 82-66 dispatch of No. 19 BYU on Feb. 6.
And, though .500 in the conference now, the slate is not remotely favorable going forward.
After Kansas, the Sooners must still travel to 10th-ranked Iowa State, meet No. 3 Houston at home and travel to unranked Texas, which already topped them by 15 points in Norman.
Should OU lose those games and to the Jayhawks, too, yet find a way to beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater and Cincinnati at home, they’ll finish the conference season 8-10, probably good enough to reach March Madness even with a first-round Big 12 tourney bounce, but who knows? All that and what, pray tell, happens should they drop road Bedlam, because that could totally happen, too.
Baranczyk’s women?
If you’re a fan, you’re going to enjoy this, because they’re thriving.
Where the men have a star falling apart, the women have one who’s been ascending the whole season.
Skylar Vann, who can operate both in the post and beyond the 3-point arc, is averaging 15.5 points, 16.6 in the conference and 18.1 over her last nine games.
Vann recently completed a six-game stretch in which she netted 20, 21, 19, 21, 21 and 22 points, making 55.3 percent (52 of 94) of her shots and 37.5 percent (9 of 24) of her 3-point attempts despite a 1-of-7 showing at Oklahoma State.
Vann aside, the Sooners’ most important player may be point guard Nevaeh Tot, precisely because she’s been model of consistency, etching a conference best 3.4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio on a 5 assist average, while committing zero or 1 turnovers in seven of her last 10 games, a stretch in which her ratio has been 3.8-to-1.
Meanwhile, another star is emerging in Payton Verhulst, a sophomore transfer from Louisville, who’s literally raising the Sooners’ ceiling in real time.
Averaging 12 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4 assists and shooting 39.9 percent for the season, Verhulst is averaging 14.4 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and shooting 41.4 percent over her last eight games, and 18.3 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and shooting 44.7 percent over her last three.
Also, over her last three games, reserve forward/center, 6-foot-4 Kiersten Johnson, has become a different player, too.
She’s averaging 5.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 11.4 minutes for the season, shooting 43.3 percent. Yet, over her last three, it’s 12.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 15.3 minutes, shooting 51.7 percent.
Perhaps Rivaldo Soares had been surging a bit for the men, though both he and John Hugley, two of Moser’s first three players off the bench, may not be available against the Jayhawks Saturday.
Meanwhile, among Baranczyk’s roster, it’s like everybody’s surging.
On a nine-game winning streak, two of their victories have come against fifth-ranked Texas and seventh-ranked Kansas State, each carrying three league losses to OU’s one.
That and Baranczyk’s always-in-motion offense is only now taking off, the Sooners averaging more than 80 points over their last four games after breaking the barrier just once over their first nine conference outings yet winning nonetheless.
Put it all together and you’ve got one team searching for a floor it can’t fall beneath and another blowing the roof off its ceiling, wondering just how good it can be because it keeps getting better.
The rankings?
Just numbers.
Both play Saturday.
Enjoy.
What a game! The best half of basketball OU has played in three years! But the second half told the real story. Four made baskets in 20 minutes. That's insane! Moore was the only bright spot on the day. Yeah, McCollum made some points, but his over dribbling the ball resulted in half his points being given back. He is not a good ball handler, and his casual approach to it is maddening. Why oh why is he allowed (encouraged?) to do it game after game? Uzan and his inability to hit the wide open layups is also frustrating, and his ball handling is almost as poor as McCollum's. Poor Sam Godwin has to have the weakest hands in the conference. How many times has he been unable to corral rebounds or just have the ball taken from him! In retrospect, the first half was nothing but a fluke. A rare confluence of positive events. It won't happen again, and the Sooners will quite likely go winless the rest of the season.
It's been said plenty of times, but Moser and his sh** show have to go. Please don't allow this man and his lackluster players ruin OU basketball forever more! Send him packing...today!
Clay: It's easy to see why you've avoided writing anything about the dreadful Sooners men over the last month. Early on—when they were beating the cupcakes—their athleticism shone and was responsible for unwarranted hopes. Then it became more and more obvious that they just can't shoot, play three-point defense, or handle the ball. McCollum was the first to go MIA after a hot start. He's just too small and not enough of a ball handler or shooter to succeed in this conference. Oweh became the second casualty: all athlete but zero ball skills or basketball IQ. Milos Uzan is proving to be one of the worst ball handlers in OU history and his errant passes and turnovers have multiplied game by game. If you want a guy constantly dribbling into two or three defenders as he gets stripped or throws it away, then he's your man. No legitimate big man has been the history for OU basketball since Blake Griffin and Stacey King. That's a long time to go without strength at the rim, on offense and defense. Guys like Sam Godwin get kudos for effort but just aren't good enough or big enough. And Hugley has turned into another disaster. The only guys worth mentioning as playing adequately are Soares and Moore, both of whom are mental lightweights just as likely to go off for two techs than sink a three, but better athletes than the rest. Darthard kind of falls in the middle with his occasional threes. All in all it's easy to see why these guys were available thru the portal.
Finally, and it's huge finally, Porter Moser is no basketball coach. He's a screaming lunatic. He wasn't a good or even acceptable hire at the beginning, and it's just become worse. He has to go! Running that ridiculous rotation offense will never result in anything but the fewest shots taken in the nation. You've no doubt noticed that he's tried a more straight ahead approach in the past 2-3 weeks, but he doesn't have the manpower to last against quality team. Heck, against ANY teams! He could barely hang on to a four point ugly as always win over the league's worst team, Okie State. You can count on them getting drubbed at Stoolwater.
Enough is enough. Castiglione is at the center of what ails OU basketball. He refuses to hire a quality HC and treat men's basketball as garbage. As such, it's probably his best job ever of stiffing the basketball community Oklahoma. Without a different person in that position, things will never change for the Sooners.