Oklahoma Sooners Severely Missing Calvin Newell

If yesterday was any indicator of how things were going to go down in conference play for the Sooners there is one very large concern...bench scoring. In the game of basketball, star players are going to have their ups and downs, just ask Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, or LeBron James who have all run into a brick wall once or twice. This simply means that someone else is going to have to pick up the slack.

For Oklahoma, their sharp-shooter in Steven Pledger was as cold as ice shooting a dismal 3-10, but it doesn't stop there. Cameron Clark was 2-7 and the only viable scoring option from the larger OU seemed to be Andrew Fitzgerald who finished the game with 18 points on 8-16 shooting.

When the starters aren't rolling, it's time for the bench to step up and give them a break. This is where it all went wrong for the Sooners in Columbia as the Missouri Tigers torched the nets once again. Fans are used to seeing the bench contribute at least a little for this team, however there were no contributions to be made. In total the bench failed to make a field goal attempt while the only two points came from Carl Blair's free throws. It should be safe to say that this team is missing the scoring presence of Calvin Newell who before his departure was averaging 13 points off the bench while shooting 49% from the field and 38.5% from behind the arc.

Oklahoma was not expected to come in and steal this one away from the Tigers but no one expected it to go much like it had. Pledger may be the ace on the squad but he needs supporting cast members outside of just Fitzgerald. Consistency is going to be key down the stretch and the Sooners have lacked significantly in that area.