Something we discussed at the end of Sunday night's Sooner Nation was who would be the starters when Oklahoma hit the hardwood Tuesday night in their one and only exhibition game of the season. That question has been answered and while these may not be the same starting five we see when the Sooners play for real next Friday night we at least have an idea of what Jeff Capel is thinking.
G - Cade Davis
G - Cameron Clark
G - Carl Blair
F - Nick Thompson
As suspected, this team struggled out of the gate but they did finish strong and most importantly they got the win. It was a win powered by strong starting efforts from starters Cade Davis and Andrew Fitzgerald and then a super performance by Steven Pledger off the bench. Davis struggled from the floor, shooting only 4-13, but he also added four free-throws to bump his scoring total to 14. Fitzgerald provided the only double-double for the Sooners with 13 points and 10 board (he also blocked two shots) but the game's leading scorer was Steven Pledger. He sparked Oklahoma's offense by scoring 23 points.
With three new players in Oklahoma's starting five it was the first visualization of a Jeff Capel team that has been completely overhauled. The result early on wasn't pretty as the Sooners shot just 33% from the floor in the first half and trailed Northern State 33-29 at the half. Enter Pledger who scored just five first half points who went off in the second half with 18 points and helped OU close out the game on a 24-9 run over the final seven minutes. OU raised their field goal percentage to 55% to produce a 75-64 win.
With so many new faces on the floor Oklahoma looked to their lone senior to provide leadership. Because of that its no surprise that Davis played the most minutes with a total of 38. New comer Carl dished out 8 assists and committed only two turnovers.