So, I missed the first half, and most of the second half tonight. I went and saw the women upset #13 ranked Oklahoma at Hilton.
Most of what I'm gathering is from the stats.
People have been blaming some of these poor performances from Iowa State on the depth of the team. Without a doubt a team like Kansas, a team that has a chance to win it all, is going to have more depth than Iowa State... But guess what? We were going to lose to that team regardless.
Against Oklahoma, it was a different case. Oklahoma only played 7 guys (one of which only got 11 minutes). Tommy Mason-Griffin played all 40 minutes of the game, and got a career high 38 points against Iowa State. Cade Davis logged 39 minutes, and picked up 24 points. It looks like we had no way of shutting those two down.
And herein lies the problem. It seems like almost every game, someone has a career night against us. Oklahoma is without Warren and Crocker, and they have a couple of guys pick up the slack, and lead their team to victory.
It's a joke. We shot for a better percentage than OU across the board, out rebounded them, and still lost the game. Not only did we lose the game, but we had to overcome a 21 point deficit just to be in the ball game. 18 turnovers is embarrassing.
You can't go on the road, and get into such a huge hole. We saw it against Texas Tech, and most of you that saw it, saw it tonight against Oklahoma. It's the same crap. We can't continue making up excuses for this team. The fact is, we don't have guys that step up in the moment. there isn't any leadership on the court. We are physically talented to some extent, but mentally one of the weakest teams in the Big 12...
There is absolutely no solution I can propose at this point. This was a huge game. You have to beat middle tier Big 12 teams on the road. This was the perfect night to play Oklahoma, having them short as well as us, and we managed to shoot ourselves in the foot, and were fortunate for making it a ball game.
I can give our team props for continuing to battle and even making it a game. They need to figure out a way to play better earlier in the game, so they don't allow the big run (or runs).
When I'm looking at the stats, most of the supporting cast played well. From what I saw, I thought DG played a good game. He finished with 17 points, 8 assists, and 3 turnovers. He shot 70% from the floor. I liked what I saw from Dendy as well. He finished with 10 points, 5 boards, and 3 assists. I continue to scratch my head as to how he played well (shot 100% from the floor), but plays only 17 minutes. He wasn't in any foul trouble or anything like that. Christopherson ended up with 14 points, went 4 of 5 from beyond the arc. Gilstrap had a little bit of an off night, battling injuries, but still managed to be 1 board shy of a double-double. Actually, if Brackins could have avoided foul trouble, and stepped it up a little more, we probably win this game.
Again it goes back to leadership. This team desperately needs a guy to say "ok guys, this one is on me. Get on my back, and let's get this". It doesn't seem like anybody does this.
Last year, we saw Brackins step up big time and time again, but the supporting cast falter. But a lot of this year has been the opposite. We're having guys play slightly over their heads during stretches, but a guy who we need to have big games, does not have one.
I hate to say it, but it's true. We're going to be lucky just to make the NIT with the way this team is playing. I really hope the guys can take what they did in the 2nd half and carry over the positives to the next game. Colorado is scrappy, and we will need to have a good effort to win the game.
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