OU: Make shots, and life is good
Sometimes we overcomplicate basketball. Thursday night, OU beat Morgan State 82-54, and truth is, the Sooners would have beaten Morgan State no matter how they played. OU was simply far too superior physically for Morgan State to put up much of a threat.
But not every No. 2 seed sailed. While Duke routed Binghamton 86-62, Cal State-Northridge gave Memphis a great game, leading as late as the final eight minutes, before Memphis survived 81-70. So a No. 2 seed rout is not automatic.
And here’s why OU won big. Blake Griffin: 11-of-12 from the field. Taylor Griffin: 7-of-8 from the field. Willie Warren: 5-of-9 from the field. That’s 23-of-29 shooting from the Sooners’ big three. That’s fantastic.
The Sooners didn’t seem to force the action to their previously-slumping guards. “That’s a good thing about having Blake,” Warren said. “In the first couple of possessions, get a feel for the game. He gets it early, and once you get the feel for the flow of the game, it’s easy for us to step up because the defense is getting down to double him and opening up plays for our guards.”
Here’s a good news/bad news element to the OU victory. Bad news: OU still not making outside shots — 4-of-12 from 3-point range, which isn’t terrible and frankly is better than what the Sooners have been doing.
That’s the good news to OU coach Jeff Capel. “That excited me, crazy as that sounds, because maybe it means we have that coming on Saturday” against Michigan, Capel said.
Here’s an amazing stat. In OU’s two last games, both against NCAA Tournament squads, the Sooners are 47 of 69 from 2-point range. That’s 68 percent shooting. Now, that doesn’t mean the Sooners need to quit shooting 3-pointers; one reason OU has been so deadly from inside the arc is because to some extent, it remains a 3-point threat, particularly with Warren and Austin Johnson, who were a combined 3-of-7 from 3-point range.
-------------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.
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