In our Big XII opener, OSU smoked us by 29.  We tried to get some payback.

First Half 

Apparently we spent the week off doing defensive slides, and it showed with some quality half-court defense, especially during the run when we played the small lineup of Roberson, Tairu, Singletary, Jenkins, and Roberts.  OSU runs a lot of perimeter ball screens, and we did an excellent job of stepping out and disrupting the passing lanes, drives, and cuts.  I thought Jenkins in particular looked more active.  I’m not sure why Travis Ford didn’t make his guys go into the post during this stretch, but it was fun to watch us get deflections and steals.  Ray Penn had missed the last five games, and it showed.  That was lucky for us, but that’s life in the Big XII. 

But the week off took our rhythm in the motion offense, which looked ugly early.  Or maybe it was because we started Darko.  Don’t worry, I’ll have some good things to say about Darko later.  Once we settled down, we did a good job drawing contact, getting to the free throw line, and actually making them.

Second Half

I’m not a fan of this color commentator (Brad Sham is perpetually cursed with the worst.  See Babe Laufenberg), but he noted that Tech’s defense of dribble penetration looked much better.  Defensive slides will do that.  I thought we cut off driving lanes extremely well, and if you’re OSU and your primary offense is drive and kick, that results in 26 first-half points.  Once we got the lead to 16, Ford went with pressure the rest of the way, and it almost cost us the game.  Maybe someone reminded him that pressure was the recipe for running us out the building in Stillwater.  We just don’t have the finishers to really punish a team after we break pressure.  Singletary can’t count on a foul every time he draws contact.  Make the basket.  So the last five minutes were nerve-racking, but we pulled through.  Considering how much stronger and quicker OSU looked a month ago, I think it says something about the coaching job Pat is doing, finding ways to limit the strengths of our opponents.

And the individuals:

John Roberson – Give yourself another MVP, Bro.  He was pesky on Ray Penn, who had six turnovers, and John only had one turnover today.  Steady as a rock from the FT line (13-14), and solid on the intial press-break.

Mike Singletary – Except for some bonehead passes early in the game, Mike played quite well.  He might have benefited the most from Pat’s defensive bootcamp, coming up with numerous pass deflections and five steals.  Better concentration from the FT line.  I wish he’d quit barking at the refs and get back on defense.  Shoulder must be okay.  We’ll need buku Singletary in Norman Tuesday night.  Get some rest, big man.

Darko – I’m going to start calling him Zone-Killer.  Dude is feeling it at the high post, tremendous passing.  Maybe I’m getting fooled against these teams that just play zone for a few possessions.  We’ll find out when we play Baylor.  Darko stayed within himself today, and though I have my issues with his offensive game, he’s our best option right now.

Brad Reese – Here’s my concern with Reese in the last few games; he starts off guarding the other team’s best offensive player, in this case James Anderson.  He draws two quick fouls and never really gets involved offensively.  In the second half he makes a few sparkling plays before getting in more foul trouble.  Either he needs to figure out how to avoid those cheap fouls, or Pat needs to go back to using him five or six minutes into the game.  At least then Pat could sic him on whichever opposing player had come out hot.  I’m just not seeing him have same kind of impact on games.

Everyone else provided pretty much their standard performance.  Okorie hurt us with turnovers versus the press, Tairu has problems with the mid-range jumper, and I’m not sure why Jenkins didn’t play in second half.  I think it’s interesting that we shot 39% from the field, got out-rebounded 38-27, and yet we built up a 16pt lead before the press took away our aggressiveness on offense.

So I’m looking at our remaining schedule, trying to find wins.  It sucks because our home games are against the good teams (Texas, A&M, Baylor, KState).  At this point all we can do is get ready for an OU squad that just beat Texas.  But tonight I’ll have a few drinks and feel good about the fact that we made up for that debacle in Stillwater.  Kind of.

Thoughts?