Kruger not concerned about fatigue
SOONERS BASKETBALL JOURNAL
Among Sooners, and in particular, are well-known for getting an unusual amount of shots up during the week, including early in the mornings on game day.
In postgame remarks after home games, multiple opposing coaches have mentioned seeing Hield and/ or Cousins at Lloyd Noble Center when they arrived. ESPN showed Hield shooting more than four hours before Saturday’s game against Kansas.
But Oklahoma coach said he wasn’t concerned about his players getting worn down by their normal work routines.
“As long as they’re getting good sleep, that’s the key,” Kruger said. “They say they are. They’re in the gym a lot, but I don’t think that’s a fatigue factor. It’s not like they’re beating on bodies in a physical grind. They’re shooting shots.”
Hield said fatigue isn’t an issue late in games, where the Sooners have struggled recently.
“That’s not an excuse,” Hield said. “We’re young. We’re out there having fun. You want to be on the
Ryan Aber
court no matter what. Teams are going to give us their best shot. We’re a good team. … The games we lost, we lost in the last two minutes. We had one two-point game that we lost. There’s no excuse. If you’re tired, you have to fight through that. We’re grown men. We just have to fight through it if we’re tired.”
LATTIN: LOB WAS ‘PERFECT’
Khadeem Lattin
had a chance to send Wednesday’s game at Texas Tech into overtime.
In the closing seconds, the first option was to go to Hield off a flare screen. The second was for Cousins to look to the basket for a lob to Lattin, who hadn’t yet scored in the game.
Hield was covered so Cousins drove and threw the lob, but Lattin couldn’t handle it and follow missed the mark as well as the Red Raiders won 65-63.
“It was a perfect pass,” Lattin said. “We thought that there was more contact, and the refs didn’t call it of course, then both rebounds we thought we had and we thought it was a clear put-back.
“We just have to be strong.”
JAMES LIKELY TO RETURN SATURDAY
Freshman guard is expected to return Saturday when Oklahoma faces West Virginia.
James suffered a sprained left ankle in practice Monday. He went through warmups before Wednesday’s loss but wasn’t able to play on it.
James has only missed one other game all year — the Dec. 23 game at Hawaii. He returned to practice Thursday. “Better today,” Kruger said. “He’s still moving slowly but he should be ready to go by Saturday.”
With James sidelined, point guard Jordan Woodard played 34 minutes, his most since the Jan. 13 Bedlam game.