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Mizzou's Bench Proves Too Much To Handle For The Sooners

By Rich DeCray

Missouri came into this game winning by an average margin of 23.8 points a game at home and carrying a 14-0 home record. Oklahoma looked to have no chance at coming out of Columbia with a victory on paper especially since they were sporting a 1-10 record on the road with the only win coming in Ames vs. Iowa St. However, the Sooners gave us fans some hope, building a 7 point lead over the #19 team in country to start the game and by hitting 3 of the first 4 deep range shots.

 

The Sooners' early 18-11 lead, according to Safford, was "fool's gold."
From there, the Tigers would slowly, but surely begin to rip the carpet out from under the Sooners going on a 14-0 run to make the score 18-25. This is where the Sooners began to hover in that dreaded 7-10 point deficit that they seem to never be able to recover from. Oklahoma would head into the half down by 6, a point differential that is not insurmountable by any means with 20 minutes left to play. In the second half, Mizzou would lose their leading scorer in Marcus Denmon when he caught an elbow to the cheek bone from a teammate trying to grab a rebound, slicing him wide open. But, Mizzou did not need him as the bench became the story of the game. The Tigers bench put up a whopping 42 points which was half of their point total (compared to OU's 16 from the bench with Tyler Neal scoring 14 of those) helping them sail to an easy 23 point victory.
Missouri Tigers
STARTERS MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
Ricardo Ratliffe, F 19 4-8 0-1 5-6 1 2 0 0 0 0 3 13
Laurence Bowers, F 27 4-8 0-0 0-0 4 9 2 1 1 0 1 8
Phil Pressey, G 23 2-4 2-3 0-0 1 2 3 3 0 2 0 6
Marcus Denmon, G 14 3-5 1-2 2-2 0 2 1 1 0 1 0 9
Kim English, G 22 2-10 0-3 2-2 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 6
BENCH MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
Ricky Kreklow, G 14 3-4 1-2 0-0 0 1 2 1 0 0 2 7
Matt Pressey, G 22 0-3 0-1 2-2 1 2 5 2 0 1 2 2
Michael Dixon, G 22 4-9 3-6 5-6 0 4 1 1 0 2 1 16
Justin Safford, F 22 5-8 0-0 1-2 4 6 0 0 0 0 1 11
Jarrett Sutton, G 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Steve Moore, C 14 3-4 0-1 0-0 2 3 1 0 1 1 2 6
TOTALS FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
30-63 7-19 17-20 13 34 17 9 2 7 12 84
47.6% 36.8% 85.0%

As mentioned in previous posts, Oklahoma depends on their starting five far more than any other team in the country. With the way Mizzou rotates players in and out, the Sooners' starting five had a hard time keeping up with fresh legs and the level of energy the Tigers continually put out on the floor.
"The pace of the game is very different from what we're accustomed to, but that's no excuse," Capel said. "We have to figure out a way to be tougher."

This energy is one of Mizzou's best attributes as a team and it caused the Sooners to begin to play lazily and at time out of control late in the first half and early in the second half leading to sloppy fouls, a plethora of turnovers, and easy fast break points for the Tigers. Oklahoma once again found it's most consistent player, Andrew Fitzgerald, getting into foul trouble and seeing only 23 minutes of playing time along side Carl Blair Jr. fouling out with a good amount of time still left to be played.

Oklahoma Sooners
STARTERS MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
Andrew Fitzgerald, F 23 3-7 0-0 2-2 2 2 0 0 0 2 4 8
Cameron Clark, G-F 36 7-13 1-1 1-1 1 5 2 0 0 2 3 16
Steven Pledger, G 35 4-12 2-7 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 2 2 10
Carl Blair, G 30 3-7 0-1 0-0 2 9 4 1 0 4 5 6
Cade Davis, G 30 2-8 0-5 1-1 0 5 2 2 1 2 0 5
BENCH MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
T.J. Franklin, G 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
C.J. Washington, F 12 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0
Calvin Newell Jr, NA 9 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 0
Tyler Neal, F 18 4-8 2-3 4-6 3 4 1 0 0 3 0 14
Barry Honore', F 6 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 2
TOTALS FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
24-56 5-17 8-10 9 30 10 3 1 17 17 61
42.9% 29.4% 80.0%

On a positive note Tyler Neal seems to be turning out to be one of the better freshman as well as Cameron Clark. Expect to see Tyler Neal continue to get minutes especially if Andrew Fitzgerald continues getting himself in foul trouble early and often. Neal has gotten 20 minutes (against Texas) and 18 minutes (against Mizzou) in the past two games and could turn into a legitimate threat from almost anywhere on the floor at 6'7 215lbs in the next few seasons if he continues to do what he has been doing. Oklahoma has also seemed to improve its FT shooting % over the past few weeks which will be huge down the stretch and if Oklahoma gets itself into some close games during the rest of the season.

This team is a very young team with 3 sophomores and a freshman in the starting lineup. We should see them continue to get better. But the bad thing about having a young team is that you need star-power (too bad there's a box you can jump into and retrieve the star-power like Mario and even Luigi would do to become invincible) to be successful. Oklahoma clearly is a team that lacks the star-power that most of these one-and-done kids bring to the table. Capel could very likely continue down this road (a road familiar to OU fans who know Kelvin Sampson's recruiting philosophy and what he was able to do down the road with teams built similar to the current OU team) and be successful in later years while toughing out the rough years. Cam Clark is something special but just needs time to develop and surrounded by a team familiar with each other...this team could be near the top of the Big XII in 1 or 2 years and playing in the post-season.

Hopefully this game is that last on the list of the current losing streak and Oklahoma gets a win against a beatable Nebraska team this Wednesday.

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