Agree. Seems like this year players fade in fade out. Sometimes everyone is shooting clunkers. Tied at halftime at OU, then we forget how to score for awhile. Press goes on with six minutes left just like the last two games we lost. Maybe we should press the whole second half to keep our heads in the game.
Last Year Vs. This Year
- Thread starter BryceC
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Agree. Seems like this year players fade in fade out. Sometimes everyone is shooting clunkers. Tied at halftime at OU, then we forget how to score for awhile. Press goes on with six minutes left just like the last two games we lost. Maybe we should press the whole second half to keep our heads in the game.
Yep. Every fan base generally remembers their former players as better players than they were, better leaders than they were and tougher than they were. This isn't a unique situation.
Guys aren't in good enough shape to press that much. Fred could work through that by going deeper into the bench, but I doubt he will.
Last year our conference record was 11-7. We need to win 4 of these last 7 games to match it. Pick up all three home games and a road win (KState? TCU?), all is well.
The sky is not falling.
The sky is not falling.
Ah, that makes sense. Must have come up that way since I googled strength of schedule.
ESPN's RPI is bad, it's always way off the official one. The official RPI had us 15 on Sunday, Realtime has us as 14 as of today with the #28 SOS. CBS has us at 18 today with the #30 SOS. I think it's because they do a daily RPI which sometimes shows up when you google it
11-7 this year would actually be an improvement over 11-7 last year due to the improved conference. I'm still hoping for 12-6 or better though.
Ah, but from non conf you should think about USC (.500 team) and Maryland (decent opponent equivalent to B12) losses that we did not incur last year when it comes to seeds. Plus we would need to sweep the tournament. So we need to win six out of next seven to go 13-5 to match same record in up to the B12 tournament and then need to win the B12 tournament.
This may be true, but there are some significant differences in this team without the leadership of Ejim and Kane. Kane was a 24 y/o man that had experienced a lot in his young life, he had gotten in some prior trouble, but decided it was time to grow up and become a man. When someone takes responsibility for their past transgressions and chooses not to let their past determine their future it's called maturity. That kind of maturity growth helped him develop into a leader.
Ejim, although totally different story, was also a leader. Four year starter, academic all american, blue collar hard worker who never used excuses as a crutch. That is not replaced with a finger snap.
I'm not saying our current group of guys are bad, nor am I saying that we don't have leaders, it's just hard to replace the level of leadership that we lost in Ejim and Kane in one year. Someone will step into those shoes, but two sets of shoes are sometimes hard to fill in a short time of a season. The guys will figure it out. The experiences they are going through now will strengthen someone to become that next man to fill the shoes and lead this team.
Last years team could win on a neutral court. Im hoping this years team can step ut up
Simply terrific post! Kane and Ejim were men among boys and it showed on the court.
And, I will add, so much has been written here lately about how much we miss their presence in late game situations, i.e. being able to take over a game. I submit that is MUCH less of a problem than how much tougher those two were defensively instead! Going through Kane was like trying to move a building; compare that to any of our current guards, or even our bigs for that matter.
And yet I distinctly remember rampant complaints about both of them on the defensive end. Kane allegedly couldn't stay in front of his guy and Ejim couldn't hold his position down low.
Yea, Ejim wasn't a superstar. But what he did provide was consistency. Although he wasn't flashy, he almost always booked a double/double and most fans barely noticed it. It's a luxury to a coaching staff to know that is always there.
Hahaha. It's a case of you don't know what you've got until it's gone! They weren't world beaters, but I'd take both of them defensively in a heartbeat now.