OU @ Lamar

[swok34]

Sooners' long road swing rolls on with trip to Lamar

The third-ranked Oklahoma women's basketball team will put an 18-game regular season win streak on the line today at Lamar, as the Sooners' long road trip continues in Beaumont, Texas.

OU hasn't played a home game since Nov. 12. and doesn't return to Norman until Dec. 10.

The Sooners also have 10-game regular-season road winning streak on the line.

OU hooks up with a 2-3 Lamar team that may have some matchup problems. Lamar has just one player at 6-foot in their starting lineup, which will have to go up against Leah Rush (6-foot-1), Ashley Paris (6-3) and Courtney Paris (6-4) for the Sooners.

Lamar was 7-20 in 2005-06. The Lady Cardinals defeated LSU-Shreveport 59-53 last Saturday. That win was preceded by consecutive road losses at Denver and Northern Colorado.

I think OU has a rather soft schedule this season, but they are on the road SOLID.

Live stats link:

http://lamarcardinals.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/sched/lama-w-baskbl-sched.html

[YCN]

This stretch of five games from tonight through 12/17 is by far the easiest stretch of the schedule, and in a way the most dangerous. Only Tulsa is in the RPI top 100 (barely), and the Sooners should sweep these games with ease. But we cannot afford to take a day off against any of the teams. A bad game coupled with a lights-out effort by our opponent could put an indelible stain on the season, and drop us right out of the top 10 in a big hurry. I remember too well how painful the loss to Illinois was last year, as well the home court beating from Michigan State.

After 12/17, there are no really easy stretches the rest of the season. The worst of the 18 opponents remaining on the schedule after that date is just barely outside the RPI top 100 right now, and it's conceivable that the Sooners could play 18 straight top 100 opponents prior to the conference tournament. Eight of those games are against top 50 teams, and four of those are against RPI top 25 teams right now, possible several more than that by the end of the regular season.

This is the time to put many of the final touches on the playbook for the season, to straighten out all those little things which we aren't doing well. If we hit the start of conference play on a surge of good games, that may carry us the rest of the way through the season in high style. If we see more games like EKU and UCLA, then we know that this team still hasn't reached it's stride.

This season will be a contest of desire and effort to reach the level of play that is necessary for a championship contender. Taking days off will be a bad sign. Let's hope that we play hard and intelligently well the rest of the season. You can't just suddenly start playing over your heads at the end of the season, that will never last. It's the repetition of strong play throughout the course of the season that molds champions.

Last year a similarly young Maryland team played six overtime games and won every one. One of those overtime games was against a Wake Forest team that won only 12 games last year, finishing 10th in the ACC with a 3-11 record. To be at a pace that exceeds the progress that Maryland had last year, we need to avoid those dangers as much as possible, to cloak an air of invincibility around the team. If you leave the door open even a crack to question your fitness to beat top teams, your risk of losing has just gone up exponentially.

Winning these next five is important, but beating Ohio State and New Mexico, and then beginning Big 12 play on a winning roll is even more important. As unimaginable as it was for OU to sweep the Big 12 last year, it will be much more difficult to complete that task this year, and I frankly don't think it's likely at all to happen. But I also don't think that anyone else is likely to emerge unscathed this year, either.

Last year's Final Four teams lost 13 games prior to the NCAA tournament, I think it's likely that this year the loss number will be smaller, but not by a lot. Competition isn't clear as to who will dominate anymore, and a good team can beat a great team on any night. I see as many as 15-17 games ahead that could possibly provide an upset loss for Oklahoma, so getting through such a large minefield without getting blown up is unlikely.

I hope that other teams will prove even more vulnerable than the Sooners this year. Did anyone really think that Stanford and Rutgers would combine for at least 5 losses prior to December? Let's hope a few perceived favorites get their noses bloodied along the way. Purdue plays at UConn tomorrow, Tennessee plays at North Carolina on Sunday, Ohio State seeks payback at LSU pretty soon, Duke has three good tests in a row coming up against Rutgers, Vandy and Texas. I expect that there will be fewer than 20 teams remaining unbeaten by Monday, and most of those can be immediately discounted as highly unlikely to remain unbeaten for long.

If OU wins this game by ANY amount tonight, I won't be surprised. If OU wins by less than 30-40 points, I WILL be surprised. Sherri hates really lopsided scores, but with our depth we may be incapable of slowing the scoring pace too much against an outmanned Lamar. This game should resemble the ugly blowouts we've seen repeatedly from North Carolina and Duke (both unbeaten and yet currently 50 and 45 in the RPI). Thankfully we don't have too many of those on the schedule.

[swok34]

OU leads 32-18....my live stats have gotten stuck with 3:14 left in the first half.

[YCN]

35-20 OU at the half. OU is shooting something like 31% from the field and 33% on threes, and is 4 of 13 at the FT line.

That's pretty awful against a team like Lamar. I've been looking at top 25 games, and one after another they are mostly blowouts. OU needs to pick things up dramatically in the second half. From what Tara and Brian are saying, the team is playing very sluggishly, and letting Lamar, a team averaging a little over 50 points a game, control the pace.

If I were Sherri I think I would be pretty upset in the locker room right now. A team that plays down to the competition is a team that doesn't care enough about being better to have any reasonable expectation of winning a national championship. Saying you are going for a title and DOING what needs to be done to get there are two entirely separate things.

Lately I'm wondering what gotten in the water in Norman, because this isn't the team I think they should be, and things are getting more off course game by game.

[Aggieland]

I grew up around Beaumont and have a lot of friends and family that went to Lamar. I still follow their programs fairly closely and their women's bbal team is TERRIBLE. I really felt bad for them when I saw they were playing OU. I am a little surprised by the halftime score. I expected this to be 100-30 type game.

[YCN]

Background information for my previous post. Lamar is currently #300 in the RPI. Their one win in four games against I-A competition was over #309 Alcorn State. RPI #177 Denver beat Lamar by 54 points. #248 Northern Colorado beat them by 28.

Maryland beat #108 George Mason by 56 points and #170 Gardner-Webb by 42. Duke beat #183 Northeastern by 53, #189 Houston by 46, #125 Michigan by 45. North Carolina beat #151 East Tennessee by 61, #251 Winston-Salem by 51, #220 Elon by 54.

THIS is what I'm talking about.

[35TangoTango]

I grew up around Beaumont and have a lot of friends and family that went to Lamar. I still follow their programs fairly closely and their women's bbal team is TERRIBLE. I really felt bad for them when I saw they were playing OU. I am a little surprised by the halftime score. I expected this to be 100-30 type game.

It sounds like the OU players thought all they had to do was show up for that to happen.

[MsProudSooner]

45-21 OU 15:32 in 2nd.

[Aggieland]

Background information for my previous post. Lamar is currently #300 in the RPI. Their one win in four games against I-A competition was over #309 Alcorn State. RPI #177 Denver beat Lamar by 54 points. #248 Northern Colorado beat them by 28.

Maryland beat #108 George Mason by 56 points and #170 Gardner-Webb by 42. Duke beat #183 Northeastern by 53, #189 Houston by 46, #125 Michigan by 45. North Carolina beat #151 East Tennessee by 61, #251 Winston-Salem by 51, #220 Elon by 54.

THIS is what I'm talking about.

Also, A&M beat McNeese State (who is in the Southland conference with Lamar) 109-26. But I think these comparisons mean very little.

Also sounds like the Sooners are picking it up.

[MsProudSooner]

47-24 OU. 13:30 in 2nd half.

[MsProudSooner]

51-27 OU. 11:07 in 2nd.

[MsProudSooner]

69-42 3:02 in 2nd.

[YCN]

Sooners have reached and surpassed my "minimum" effort score, leading Lamar 77-42 with with 1:39 remaining.

Sooners win their 19th straight non-conference game. OU holds the Big 12 record in 2001-2002 of 25 straight.

[MsProudSooner]

Final Score:

OU 79
Lamar 44

[YCN]

"We were horrible."

That's Sherri's words, not mine. She said that she couldn't think of a single phase of the game where we were not subpar.

Sounds about right...

[swok34]

I suspect it will not be a pleasant couple of days of practice. Sherri also mentioned that we've got to get more production out of the PG position. That may be a reason that we've seen Kendra Moore in the starting lineup before. Jenna Plumley came into the game earlier than I've seen.

The Sooners led 77-42 when Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale finally pulled her starters

A blurb out of the AP article that is a little misleading in that Sherri seemed to be subbing in very frequently early in the game and throughout. It's interesting that there is a lot of hubbub made about "running" up the score when none of us typically have any idea what the coach is trying to accomplish.

Courtney Paris scored 21 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, her 33rd consecutive double-double, as third-ranked Oklahoma routed Lamar 79-44 on Wednesday night.

Nyeshia Stevenson scored 13 and Leah Rush added 11 for the Sooners (5-0), who've won 19 consecutive regular-season games and 11 straight on the road.

Sherri also made the comment that if Nyeshia were playing better defense, she would stay on the floor more. Typical freshman stuff, the defense is usually the toughest to master.

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20061130/capt.c0fa564e856f462f8eb57e4f3df8f060.oklahoma_lam ar_basketball_txan104.jpg

Typical night for Courtney.......whapped upside the head.

[swok34]

and Leah says.......that's OK, CP....I'll hold the Mustard for you:

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20061130/capt.144d372f3fc44be5ade42411518dcfda.oklahoma_lam ar_basketball_txan106.jpg
Lamar's Jana Mustard (52) fights to keep possession against Oklahoma's Leah Rush

[YCN]

I laughed when Brian and Tara started to talk about the board game Clue when the PA announcer called out Jana Mustard's foul in the second half.

And then they talked about how it dated them. I was entirely unaware that Clue was a game reserved for my slightly aged generation...

Actually, Clue is too good to be just for any generation, it's great for inciting creativity in anyone who plays the game.

[tycat947]

Well, this is the best time to be working out problems so hopefully that's what we are doing. We're going to get everyone's best shot so we have to be prepared. I just hope we're not heading into another Illinois in Columbia, South Carolina. But if so, maybe that will be the wake up call we need.

[35TangoTango]

I laughed when Brian and Tara started to talk about the board game Clue when the PA announcer called out Jana Mustard's foul in the second half.

Yes, it was Mustard in the Paint with the Elbow! :cool:

[YCN]

soonerman.priceless :)

[swok34]

ah, the bright side of tonite's game:

11 turnovers

That's why I think I've never thought a whole lot about OU always being a turnover prone team....most of the time they are able to overcome in some fashion or another a high turnover game.

[35TangoTango]

soonerman.priceless :)

As much as I'd like to claim credit, I was quoting Brian Brinkley! What he said on the air when the foul was called, was "OK, we've been waiting 3 years to say this, ever since the game in Norman. It was Mustard in the Paint with the Elbow"!! :)