A night of bleary-eyed basketball
Wednesday was one of those basketball nights when you just couldn’t take it all in. Only the OSU men had the night off, having taken the previous night off down in Austin. Anyway, Wednesday night, the OU women hosted Iowa State, the OU men were at Baylor, the OSU women hosted Baylor and the Thunder was in the Pacific Northwest, three hours south of Seattle.
Thankfully, the OSU-Baylor women’s game wasn’t televised, or my DVR would have exploded. But the other three games, I recorded and watched from opening tip to final buzzer. A few thoughts:
SOONER MEN
* For all the excitement over Jeff Capel, he’s got one question to answer that could make or break his sanity status. What was he thinking, letting Juan Pattillo sit out more than half the season? Pattillo has NBA ability, and the Sooners might not have won without him at Baylor.
Pattillo had 14 points and 10 rebounds in 28 minutes. He blocks shots and makes his foul shots, which is a rare combination in a ballplayer.
I saw Steve Richardson the other night at the Thorpe Banquet. Richardson once was the college basketball writer for the Dallas Morning News but now is executive director of the Football Writers Association of America. Richardson told me years ago that the teams that do well in March have great forwards. Big, rangy, talented guys. It’s a theory with a certain amount of sense, since everyone has good guards. Well, with Pattillo and Blake Griffin, OU has a frontcourt perhaps second to none.
* I’m afraid Taylor Griffin is going to be the odd man out. He’ll probably keep starting, but Taylor only played 19 minutes at Baylor. As the competition gets better, Pattillo will play more and more.
* I don’t like the OU lineup of both Griffins with Pattillo. I think it hurts the Sooners defensively (Pattillo on the perimeter doesn’t thrill me) and offensively (Taylor Griffin on the perimeter doesn’t thrill me). The strength of this OU team is it usually has three 3-point shooters on the outside, and Super Ox down low.
* If Blake Griffin wants me to get really excited, with now or as an NBA rookie, he’ll start making foul shots. He was 6-of-12 in Waco and is hovering at less than 60 percent. That could drive the whole state crazy for the next decade.
SOONER WOMEN
* Strange game. The Paris sisters combined to make 14 of 19 shots, score 38 points and grab 24 rebounds. Point guard Danielle Robinson was excellent, too, with 14 points and four assists. And yet this was a two-point game with 4:31 left, before OU pulled away for a 58-49 victory.
I blame Iowa State. They slowed the game and didn’t let OU get any 3-pointers (only three attempted). So that meant both teams were milking clock, since the Sooners were working for a shot.
* Bill Fennelly is a heck of a coach.
* Amanda Thompson has lost the ability to disappoint me. She had zero points and three rebounds in 22 minutes against Iowa State. For three years, I’ve waited for her to blossom, and now I know it’s not going to happen. She’ll occasionally have a good game in which she displays amazing athletic ability, but for the most part, she’s a role player who you hope won’t beat you.
* I assume everyone realizes that Sherri Coale’s bench isn’t much. Past Nyeshia Stevenson, the Sooners don’t really have anyone you want to put in the game against a good foe. Carlee Roethlisberger? Jasmine Hartman? Jenny Vining? The versatility of Stevenson and Thompson (there I go again) means Coale can generally get by with just six. Which is a good thing. She’s going to have to.
THUNDER
* Fabulous road trip. Two tough games. Two solid performances. And who cares that it’s two defeats, since that means better lottery standing? OKC played the Lakers tough, then were toe-to-toe with Portland, trailing 80-76 late in the third quarter before the wheels came off.
* Chris Wilcox is amazing. He doesn’t play for two weeks, a practice which I do not condemn. Then he’s called on because it’s the back end of a back-to-back and Old Joe Smith can’t play forever. And what does Wilcox do? Produce, of course: 11 points, five rebounds in 17:04 minutes. Wilcox plays no defense, but somebody surely could use Wilcox. Just not the Thunder.
* Bad shooting road trip for Jeff Green: 13 of 34. But the guy still plays solid even when he’s not playing well. Does that make sense? He had 13 rebounds in the two games, eight assists, one turnover and 33 points.
My boss, Mike Sherman, said the other day he wouldn’t trade Jeff Green even up for Amare Stoudemire. And I agree. Green does little things, has a big upside and doesn’t seem to mind playing second chair to Kevin Durant. Green plays versatile defense, he doesn’t command a huge salary and he’s four years younger than Stoudemire, who becomes a free agent in 2010 and will want the vault open. Stoudemire averages 21.0 points a game, Green 16.7. You’re going to trade all of Green’s advantages for 4.3 points a game?
* Russell Westbrook has hit the wall. His last three games, Westbrook is 13 of 45 shooting. He’s committing turnovers, nine in the three games. But you know what? He’s still a quality player. He’s got 18 assists and 28 rebounds in three games, providing priceless energy and getting to the foul line, which is how he’s scored 21, 17 and 11 in the trio of games this week. Westbrook is 21 of 25 from the foul line in that stretch. Getting to the foul line is the most underrated trait in the NBA.
* When Kevin Durant is human, the Thunder isn’t very good. Durant was 6-of-15 for just 20 points against the Trail Blazers. Oklahoma City won’t win many games with Durant scoring 20 points.
* Welcome back to Earth, Nick Collison. Two points and four rebounds against the Lakers. Four points and two rebounds against the Blazers.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Big 12 and the ACC, if you wanted to watch something you should have watched the Duke/NC game. Just switching back and forth, you can see that Blake is not the best player in the Country and OU not the 2nd best team. How would Blake stand up to NC or Connecticut’s big man or even the guy from ND? I don’t think he would fare well against Syracuse.
My feelings exactly on Amanda Thompson.