This Oklahoma team is not a very deep team when it comes to the bench and that was evident when looking back on the OK-State game this past weekend as well as most of the other games thus far. Teams have tried all season to get OU in quick foul trouble to make Capel dip into his reserves with some teams able to have done so far easier than others. Capel had played all of his starters an average of 35+ minutes a game coming into Saturday. In fact Oklahoma's starting five all rank in the top 15 in minutes played per game in the conference. All it takes is for opposing players to recognize this with direction from their coach and Oklahoma becomes quite an easy team to frustrate and eventually beat. With Oklahoma quickly finding itself in foul trouble early, the bench stepped in, showed some promise, and was essentially what kept OU in the game in Stillwater.
OU is a team that relies on it's starting line-up more than any other team in the Big XII and possibly in the nation. During the 4 game winning streak OU's starting five scored 94% of the points and part of this is due to Capel playing a six man rotation (CJ Washington is the only other player getting regular minutes). This strategy is nothing new to OU and Capel as this is a similar situation to the Blake Griffin years and specifically the year they made it to the Elite 8. With early and continuing foul trouble, Capel was forced to empty the bench. The Cowboys shot a total 44 FT (25 in the first half) while making 36 of them and OU shot a mere 26 total FT for the entire game. Capel had every right to be mad at the officiating in such a lopsided foul called game. This game was very winnable and should have been won by the Sooners assuming the number of fouls called was virtually around the same number.
| Oklahoma Sooners | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STARTERS | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS |
| Andrew Fitzgerald, F | 39 | 7-12 | 0-0 | 4-5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 18 |
| Cade Davis, G | 32 | 6-15 | 2-7 | 4-4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 18 |
| Steven Pledger, G | 23 | 2-8 | 1-6 | 4-4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
| Carl Blair, G | 25 | 2-9 | 0-2 | 9-9 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 13 |
| Cameron Clark, G-F | 29 | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| BENCH | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS |
| Barry Honore', F | 13 | 3-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Tyler Neal, F | 12 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 |
| Calvin Newell Jr, NA | 15 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| C.J. Washington, F | 12 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | |
| 24-55 | 3-15 | 24-26 | 8 | 26 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 26 | 75 | ||
| 43.6% | 20.0% | 92.3% | ||||||||||