OU Women BB at Ft. Myers Tip-Off: Princeton up first Thur @ 2 PM

[OUBeliever56A]

Fresh off their 15-point road winover Virginia on Sunday, the Oklahoma Sooners Women's Basketball Team will take their 5-0 record into the Ft. Myers Tip-Off to play two 'ranked' teams. First up is Princeton (RV-28th and 32nd) on Thursday afternoon at 2 PM CST. Their second game in the Tip-Off will be against Tennessee (#21 and #19 ranked) on Saturday 12:30 PM CST.

It looks like that the Princeton game can be watched by selecting the "Watch" icon on the Women's Schedule page or the one in the article listed below.

I think it is wise for the Sooners and their fans to concentrate on the Princeton game as it has all of the characteristics of a potential 'trap' game for Oklahoma. The Princeton game is right there between a ACC Power 5 game with a respected Virginia team on the road and an SEC Power 5 game with ranked Tennessee team. But Princeton who is receiving votes in both polls is 3-1 with their only loss being at the hands of #2 ranked UCLA. After a poor 1Q of play by Princeton where they trailed UCLA 8 to 17, Princeton took the lead by half 35-32 over the Bruins. After 3Qs the score was tied at 56-56. With 4 minutes left the score was tied at 64-64. With 2 and 1/2 minutes left UCLA took the lead 68-66 on a 3-pointer. Princeton took the final shot of the game, a 3-pointer, to tie the score but UCLA won 77-74.

That alone should impress OU but with my memory of UCLA defeating the Sooners by nine in the 2nd round of the NCAA last March, the Princeton game should have OU's full attention for this game.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the Princeton game.
https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/2 ... -princeton

In their 3 wins, Princeton has won by 8 over DuQuesne, 5 over Middle Tennessee State and by 11 over San Diego State. It looks like Princeton may have been in California since the 16th or 17th of November. The teams that Princeton has played are 11-5 on the season including the 4-0 UCLA Bruins.

Princeton starts three guards who are 5'10" and 5'9". The two forwards are 6'3" and 6'1". The three guards, #23 St. Rose, #20 Chen and #10 Belker score 44.8 points a game. No one else for Princeton scores over 6.0 points per game. Their 6'1" forward, #00 Mitchell pulls down 10.5 rebounds a game, and has 3.75 assists/game. The 5th starter is a forward, #5, 6'3" Morton. The starters play 141 minutes a game. The remaining minutes are shared by 6 other guards and forwards for the Tigers.

The Tigers seem to be dependant upon the guards to score. But at 3-1 it is difficult to find fault with their plan so far.

OU does have positives that point to success in the game. For a couple, OU shoots 2 more 3's a game and 2 more shots inside the arc for 4 extra shots a game. With the fast pace that Oklahoma plays one would think they would have more shots per game, but the 21 turnovers per game hurts their possessions. Princeton only turns the ball over 14 times a game. If the Sooners can narrow that 7 turnover gap it will help them.

Oklahoma's depth will help them also. So far thru five games, Aubrey Joens and Reyna Scott has provided a spark off the bench with 12.8 and 7.0 points a game. The five starters for the Sooners average 55.8 points per game compared to Princeton's team average of 66.5. With their subs, the Sooners are averaging 89.8 points per game to outscore Princeton by 23+ points. That looks to be cause by pace of play by the Sooners. The two teams shot about the same percentages from 3-point and the free throw lines. But OU shoots much better inside the arc at 58% to 44%. Oklahoma could very well win this game by scoring inside the arc.

Verhulst, Vann, Williams and Keys all average double-digit points with Joens adding a fifth player over 10 points a game of the bench. I think another key will be the play of the three post-players for Oklahoma that relieve Skylar Vann at the F/C position. Culliton, Johnson and Allen continue to add valuable minutes and play. They trio averages 31.0 minutes a game and score 12.4 points and 10.6 rebounds which matches the rebounds of the starting post player for Princeton and outscores both the Princeton starting forwards. This gives the Sooners the ability to rest Vann and Williams at the 4 and 5 spots with good backup play.

Oklahoma's pace of play could be a challenge for Princeton to handle but OU has to shoot well and handle the ball well to take advantage of that pace.

I think Oklahoma, playing well and focused, wins this game comfortably. But Princeton will try to present problems for Oklahoma and make it a close game,

Good luck to the Sooners on Turkay Day at 2 PM CST.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

First of all, let me say that I did not 'watch' the game. In the second half I followed it on Live Stats and tried to watch some on my phone, but me watching something on my phone just doesn't work. So nothing about my comments is from watching the game. I am just looking at the stat sheet.

As it turns out, maybe the Sooners did fall into a trap game against Princeton as I feared they might. But when a team finally gets your attention, a team should play better, right. The Sooners did play better in the 2nd quarter, but they really did not in the 2nd half at all. The disastrous first quarter simply got OU beat.

When three of your starters (Verhulst, Keys and Vann) are 6 of 36 for the game and score a total of 16 points, there is just not enough scorers left for OU to make up the deficit. Tot and Joens tried as they scored 24 points between the two of them on 9 of 19 shots with 6 of 13 shots from beyond the 3-point line.

Oklahoma fouls early in the game did hurt OU also. Verhulst and Williams played a total of 6:26 seconds between the two of them in the 1st half of play as they picked up 2 fouls each early in the game.

Oklahoma was outscored 46 to 28 in the paint and Princeton had 20 second half points by picking up 17 offensive rebounds. Princeton outrebounded the Sooners by 13 rebounds 50-37. Surprisingly, Princeton also had 16 fast break points to 15 Sooner quick points.

I wish I knew if OU stayed in their one-on-one defense or if they played their zone defense after they got in foul trouble. Maybe it was just a bad matchup inside for OU or OU's guards could not stay with the Princeton guards. Princeton won like they have won this year, with their guards scoring and a couple of bigs getting rebounds. The three starting guards scored 56 points and two of their bigs pulled down 28 rebounds.

Chalk this one up as a loss for the Sooners in most every way. They have to recover quickly though and play an even better Tennessee team on Saturday and a team that is built upon what OU's weakness might be, play and length inside. But I will add that Tennessee lost to a ranked Indiana yesterday 71-57. Indiana and Tennessee swap rankings in the two polls with one at #19 and one at #21 in each poll.

Here is the Sooner Staff writers article about the loss to Princeton.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/2 ... fort-myers

Good luck to the Sooners on Saturday against the Vols.

Boomer Sooner!

[MsProudSooner]

Indiana beat Tennessee 71-57.

[TN Sooner]

I did sort of watch it - men’s game was on at the same time and I was trying to watch both. I did not watch it close enough to offer commentary beyond “we were terrible”. We missed open shots, we forced bad contested shots. We committed dumb fouls and dumber turnovers.

I thought the 1st quarter was bad enough to merit a “2-timeout” quarter. Jennie does not use timeouts often - she likes her guys to sort things herself and uses substitutions to help that process along. Generally I like this strategy. She called 1 in the quarter, but we were already down 15+ by the time she did. That TO was too late.

Important to remember how young this team is and that they’ve only played 5 games together. They still have a lot to figure out and a loss like this can be a tremendous learning experience.

[SoonerMike]

We were out of rhythm to start the game and never recovered. Shot poorly, seemed a step slow on defense as Princeton drove and got to their spot for lots of short jump shots. Culliton played good defense, but not on the offensive end. Peyton Verhulst never got going after early foul trouble, and contributed very little. She just needs more experience. For the first time this year I thought we missed the leadership and experience that our 3 graduated big time scorers provided, and also Liz Scott. Shooting was off, and Princeton was talented and well coached.
Hopefully we will learn from this game, and be better when we have adversity.

[OUBeliever56A]

Today's matchup between two Top 25 teams in Ft. Myers, Florida could have been between two teams that were 10-1 combined as a record. But noth Tennessee and Oklahoma were defeated in the their previous games in Ft. Myers by Indiana and Princeton to upset the proverbial apple cart. Tennessee is trying to replace the play of Jackson (22 pts and 12 boards), who has only played in the first two games as they are now 3-2, and Oklahoma just did not play well on Thursday as they picked up their first defeat of the season by Princeton.

Today's game at !2:30 PM CST is equally important for both teams as both will to pick up an important win. Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the game today with Tennessee.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/2 ... -25-battle

Even without the 6'2" Jackson, Tennessee puts a long lineup on the floor. Tennessee will start a lineup of 5'6", 5'10", 6'1", 6'2" and 6'5". The Vols bring three players off the bench who are 5'6", 6'3" and 5'6". The Tennessee starters score almost 40 points and the subs add 28 in the game. Forward, Puckett and Guard, Spear, are the main starting scorers with Powell, Guard and Striplin, Forward, add almost 11 points a game each off the bench. Hollingshead, the 6'5" C/F, will demand attention from the Sooners as she scores 9 a game and over 7 boards. I think handling the size of Hollingshead, Puckett and Striplin will be a challenge for OU. But if whoever Hollingshead is guarding, if the Sooners can shoot well from the outside could force Tennessee into a zone and then the Sooners should have open shots on the outside if they can shoot well.

To me, all season the Sooners have looked for an identity on offense. Most everything offensively comes from the outside or passes to cutters on offense or the break on offense. Vann, Verhulst and Joens have been the most consistent scorers. The Sooners do not have a presence in the paint. On defense,the Sooners can be effective on the outside but if the ball goes inside the potential to foul and forced to use their depth at post enters into the play of Oklahoma. With OU's starting lineup having only one player over 6'0" they are forced to play Verhulst (6'1"), Vann and Williams inside again players bigger than they are. All three are subject to foul trouble. When those three are on the bench, a top four scorer is on the bench for the Sooners. Oklahoma can play a zone on defense, but i have yet to see the zone OU plays to really stop good players inside the last couple of years for Coach Baranczyk.

I wonder if the Sooners start a different lineup today. The loss of Liz Scott for the season, leaves a hole at one position. The Sooners have tried to fill it with Vann, the best 6th player in the Big 12 conference. but the lack of size and style of play inside is telling and has led to foul issues in several games. This results in one of the three 'bigs' that OU has (Culliton, Johnson and Allen) enters the game to pay about 32 minutes a game anyway. Maybe one of them should start and add fifteen fouls into play inside by them instead of Verhulst/Vann/Williams picking up quick fouls. I do not know who would not start, but it might be Williams. I think she could add some scoring off the bench along with what Joens and Reyna Scott are adding. It is important for OU to consistently get scoring from Verhulst, Vann and Keys. Keys might be the key to Oklahoma's offense if she can get going.

I truly do not think that Culliton or Johnson or Allen are complete players yet. Culliton is all defensive rebounds and getting fouled to shoot free shots. She has trouble scoring in crowd. Johnson runs the floor well and can play decent defense with some blocks but really cannot post up effectively on offense and can not shoot from the outside. Allen maybe the best combination of a player. She does need some strength but she can use her length to get rebounds and to shoot over people as she keeps the ball high and looks to have some touch with some range. She is the youngest and needs to grow into the college game. But she has the range of tools needed. Oklahoma needs to develop something inside quickly. The Big 12 play will focus on this gap inside I think.

I also would like to see Scott and Tot in the game more using Tot as the off guard. Tot can catch and shoot effectively with the floor spread. Scott adds the threat of going to the bucket with her size that Tot simply cannot provide at 5'3". I think with 2 of Keys, Tot and Scott in the game would add pressure outside on teams.

Just thinking out loud here. Coach Baranczyk has coached the Sooners well in her two years plus. Very well. But the heart of the Sooners with Williams, Robertson and Llanusa are gone and the unexpected loss of Liz Scott may cause a bit of a change. I know that the Sooners did defeat Ole Miss and Virginia with the current plan. In both games played well and there was no real foul issues for OU inside. Princeton showed a weakness that might be an issue for OU.

Good luck to the Sooners today. The game will be streamed on the Women's Sports Network, which can be found for free on Roku, FuboTV, XUMO, Freevee, Tubi, Vizio and more. Kylen Mills and Michelle Griffin-Wenzel have the game on WSN while Brian Brinkley calls the action on the Sooner Radio Network. (1400 AM or 99.3 FM locally.)

Sooner Radio Network- https://soonersports.com/sports/2019/8/9/210185760

Boomer Sooner!

[TN Sooner]

The Sooners put forth a better effort against the Vols, but, as 56 posited above, simply could not deal with UT size in the paint. I was pleased to see them bounce back and play better against team that was a lot better than Princeton. But we just didn’t have enough and we still have our bugaboos hanging around. Careless turnovers. Missed “bunnies” around the hoop. We shot 2-3 air ball treys. Sky in a big time scoring slump. Simply can’t overcome all these mistakes against a solid team.

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Women's Basketball team dropped their game to the Tennessee Volunteers yesterday 76-73 in Ft. Myers, FL. I was at the final volleyball match yesterday for OU but 'watching' the game on my phone via Live Stats. I was not able to find the game on TV in a replay last night either. So, I know very little about the game.

I found out the Verhulst went out of the game right after the start as she knocked knees with a Tennessee player. I saw on my phone that Tennessee started quickly and led 8-0 in the first two minutes of the game. OU had battled back and tied the game before the 1Q was over at 16-16 but trailed 16-18 by the end of the 1Q. OU took a halftime lead into the locker room with the score 38-32. OU built the lead to 10 points in the 3rd quarter and held that 10 point lead until the 6 minute mark of the 3Q with a 50-40 score.

At that point in the game, OU had outscored Tennessee 50-32 over the last 23 minutes. Of course, that has to be OU playing very well to do so. But in the remaining 16 minutes of the game, Tennessee returned the favor by outscoring OU 36 to 23 to win by 3 at 76-73 as the buzzed sounded on an OU 2 point bucket.

In trying to look at stats, it is tough to figure out how OU lost the game. The Sooners made one more shot from 3-point territory and 1 more bucket from inside the arc. but those 5 points scored were erased as Tennessee scored 8 more points from the free throw line on 18 of 24 shots compared to 10 of 14 charity shots for OU. The two teams shot almost the same from the field,, 3-point and free throw lines. OU did commit 26 fouls compared to 15 by Tennessee. I was told that the last part of the game that Tennessee pounded the ball inside to their bigger post players and either scored, got fouled or passed the ball out to open shooters to score. Inside players for OU did have 15 fouls in the game with Verhulst fouling out and Vann and Culliton having four fouls by the end of the game. Somehow, Williams only had 1 foul in the game.

OU handled the ball well with only 15 turnovers while Tennessee had 18. OU had 20 assists and 10 steals as well for a 2-1 ratio of assists/steals to turnovers which is good also.

So why did OU lose? I am not sure, a slow start was overcome by the end of the 1stQ. the Sooners played well for 2nd Q and first 1/3 of the 3rdQ. but down the stretch, they simply could not match Tennessee point for point as the Vols outscored the Sooners 36-23 the last 16 minutes. Perhaps it was the inside presence and size of Tennessee that turned the tide in their favor. But OU did 'match' rebounds with Tennessee 48-49 and actually had 2 more offensive rebounds than the Vols.

Finally, looking at the 4thQ stats, Tennessee simply shot better than OU, Tennessee made to more shots from the field in the same number of shots with one more 3-point bucket in 2 two less long range shots. Tennessee shot 41.7%, 50% and 100% from the three areas of the floor compared to 44.4%, 22.2% and 75.0 OU took half of their shots from behind the 3-point line in the 4thQ.

I noticed that the two subs that score well for Tennessee, Striplin and Powell had 27 points in the game and perhaps that was the key. It seemed like they played well down the final stretch of the game looking at the play-by-play. I also noticed that the 3 Sooners that need to score (Verhulst, Vann and Williams) were 11 for 38 in the game and had 31 points. That 29% is maybe not good enough for OU to win.

I think it is a fact as well that the Sooners will find it hard to match up against a big team this season. The Sooners are looking for help inside defensively and someone that can score inside when needed. If the Sooners can find that, they might have a good full-range team in 2023-24.

Williams did score well with 16 points (with 5 points from the free throw line) along with Keys with 12, Joens with 12 and Scott and Verhulst with 9 each. Williams, Vann and Verhulst had 8 and 7 rebounds respectively.

The Sooners return to Norman with a 5-2 record from Florida. Thy will try to regroup and pick up two wins against Grambling and UNLV in the next two weeks playing in Lloyd Noble Center. Grambling is 3-3 on the season and UNLV is 6-0.

Grambling (3-3) has lost to North Texas, South Florida and Houston handily but they did defeat Arizona State by 3 at home. they do not score much as they average 57 points a game but they have three strong rebounders. There next game is against OU on the 1st of December at 6 PM.

UNLV (6-0) was receiving points in the polls but were the last team listed on in both polls when they were 4-0. After winning two games over UC Santa Barbara and San Diego by 19 and 37 points over Thanksgiving they will likley pick up more votes in the upcoming polls. The Rebels have a big that has strong stats. Young, a 6'1" Center scores 17.5 points a game and pulls down 9.3 boards a game. Guards, Durazo-Frescas and Jackson average a combined 26.4 points a game also. UNLV plays Northern Arizona (4-2) and Arizona (6-1) this week before they play OU on the 9th of December at 2 PM.

The Sooners Women will spend four days in practice getting back on the 'right' track before they play Grambling on December 1st at 6 PM in LNC.

Boomer Sooner!