OU Men's Basketball | Sooners Cannot Get It Done In Lawrence

It's rare that a team goes into Lawrence and pulls off the upset. It's even rarer when you shoot 35% from the field and your two stars, Romero Osby and Amath M'Baye, combine to go 8-27 from the floor. Despite Oklahoma's struggles shooting the ball, they managed to hang around for virtually the entire game before falling to Kanas, 67-54.

While both Osby and M'Baye, as well as Steven Pledger, would finish with double digit point totals, neither were truly factors in the game. Or at least nowhere near the level they needed to be in order for the Sooners have earned the victory. Pledger finished with 10 points, but continues to be too passive on offense only taking eight shots in the game. Buddy Hield had nine points in the game, but went 0-5 from three point range and looked like a freshman at times.

After that, it was pretty much Kansas doing what Kansas does. Ben McLemore played like the star he's so quickly become, finishing with a game high 18 points. Jeff Withey was the ever present defensive presence he's been for the last two years, finishing with just four blocks but altering any number of other shots.

The Sooners played fairly well defensively for the most part, but gave up too many easy baskets which a team like Kansas doesn't really need to beat you.

Whose to say whether or not Kansas' inability to put away this Oklahoma team, despite a number of chances to do so throughout the game, says more about how good this Jayhawks team may or may not be. If there is any kind of silver lining to be found, it lies in the the fact Oklahoma shot as poorly as they did in this one and didn't get blown out. But that's dangerously close to taking solace in things like 'moral victories' which we'll have no part of around here.

Oklahoma needed to play an almost perfect game to come away with a win and that didn't happen. Hard to really fault them for that. While they did not play exceptionally well, there were positives to take out of the game ignoring the final score. They may be few and far between, but Oklahoma isn't likely to be the last team coming off a game against the Jayhawks saying something similar.