Sooners are similar to Eddie Sutton’s Cowboys
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This OU basketball season is starting to remind me of Eddie Sutton’s basketball season 24 years ago. In 1991-92, Sutton’s second OSU team got off to an 18-0 start. Those Cowboys — led by Byron Houston and a trio of senior guards in Sean Sutton, Corey Williams and Darwyn Alexander — won the Preseason NIT, beating Pitt and Georgia Tech. They beat California and Wichita State and Marquette.
They opened Big Eight play with three wins. And on Feb. 5, topranked Duke lost. Alas, the Cowboys lost 85-69 at Nebraska, so there was no ascension to No. 1.
No matter. The Cowboys returned home to beat third-ranked Kansas 64-58 and stayed No. 2 in the polls.
OSU seemed a likely bet for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But starting with a Feb. 12 game at Colorado, OSU lost four in a row and five of six. The Cowboys played a Big Monday game at Kansas and lost 77-64, dipping to a 20-6 record. The Cowboys fell to 12th in the polls.
On Wednesday night in Lubbock, Texas, OU lost to Texas Tech 65-63. A Sooner team that started the season 12-0 and 15-1, a Sooner team that rose to No. 1 in the polls and remains No. 3, has fallen to 20-5. With a road trip to West Virginia awaiting Saturday. OU could be 20-6. Just like that once-high riding OSU team of a quarter century ago.
What happened to those Cowboys? Well, they finished out the Big Eight season with two straight victories, including a solid road win at K-State. Then OSU went to the Big Eight Tournament, beat KSU and Iowa State, and lost to Kansas 66-57 in the championship game.
OSU still was given a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Cowboys beat Georgia Southern and Tulane, then lost a memorable 75-72 game in the Sweet 16 to Michigan and its Fab Five.
Does the same fate await the Sooners? Well, there’s nothing wrong with a No. 2 seed. And heck, no less than bracket guru Joe Lunardi of ESPN still has the Sooners as a No. 1 seed.
But what was true of OSU in 1992 is true of OU in 2016. The Sooners are not the same team they were a month ago. OU has gone from not shooting well to not playing well. Big difference. Big, big difference.
The season is not lost, though the Big 12 title most certainly is. The Sooners still could finish strong. Still could win the Big 12 Tournament and garner a No. 1 seed. But the idea that OU is the best team in the country? That it could somehow have the space to beat good teams without it’s A game? Gone.
Down the stretch, and in Kansas City, and in the NCAA Tournament, OU will have to play well to win. Starting with the Big 12 quarterfinals and perhaps the NCAA’s second round, OU will be playing virtual tossup games. The problem with tossup games is it’s hard to win several in a row. Some teams do it, but it’s more a crapshoot.
Here’s an example of OU’s problem. The Sooners actually kept it together rather well in Lubbock. But the final minute or two of each half killed the Sooners.
OU led Tech 31-26 with two minutes left in the first half. OU outscored Tech 30-23 the first 17½ minutes of the second half. That’s good basketball. It wasn’t pretty basketball, by Sooner standards, but OU was taking care of a good team on the road.
But the final couple of minutes of each half were dreadful for OU. The Sooners barely made a solitary play — offense, defense, rebounding — in either crunch time.
OU led 61-57 late in the second half, and Devaugntah Williams missed a drive. If the Sooners had corralled the rebound, they would have had the ball and a four-point lead with 2:25 left.
Instead, Tech got Gotcher free for a 3-pointer on an inbounds play, and the OU lead was cut to 61-60. Then a Cousins pass was deflected and Keenan Evans turned the steal into a layup. Tech had the lead by the two-minute mark.
Things didn’t get better for OU. Hield air-balled a baseline jumper, and Tech rebounded with 1:42 left. The Red Raiders twice missed shots after running down the clock but rebounded both, and finally Evans was fouled with 30 seconds left. He made both foul shots, and Tech led 64-61.
Finally, something positive happened for OU — a Jordan Woodard layup — and after Evans made one of two foul shots, the Sooners had chance to tie. But Cousins’ alley-oop pass to Khadeem Lattin was off target, the ball ricocheted to Spangler, who missed a short follow shot in traffic, and that was the ballgame.
In those 4½ fateful minutes, the Sooners made one of five shots, committed two turnovers and had just two rebounds. In eight Tech possessions, OU had zero stops. Tech had twice as many offensive rebounds (four) as OU did defensive rebounds.
In the same way that OU wilted in the final couple of minutes against Kansas, it wilted down the stretch of both halves against Tech. And a special season has started to slide. Just like OSU’s did 24 years ago.