OU Women return to LNC to play Grambling on Friday at 6PM at LNC

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Women's Basketball team return to Lloyd Noble Center on Friday night at 7 PM to play Grambling. The Sooners are 5-2 while Grambling is 3-3 for the season. The game will be on ESPN+ and on the Sooner Radio Network. Sooner Radio Network- https://soonersports.com/sports/2019/8/9/210185760

So far this season the Sooners have averaged 83.57 Pts/G and allowed 68.29 Pts/G for a differential of +15.28 Pts/G. Grambling has scored 69.67 Pts/G and allowed 74.33 Pts/G for a differential of -4.66 Pts/G. Oklahoma is shooting 48.2% from the field, 33.1% from downtown and 73.8% from the charity stripe. Grambling's shooting is poorer at 35.7%, 30.4% and 68.3%.

Oklahoma has pulled down 47.9 Reb/G with 32.5% of those on the offensive end of the floor. Grambling is averaging 43.5 Reb/G with 43.3% of those on the offensive end.

Oklahoma has turned the ball over 137 times for an average of 19.5 per game. They offset that high number with 31.8 assists & steals a game. Grambling has turned the ball over 24 times game and picked up 22 assists & steals per game. OU's turnovers are a high number but they are steal a better team than Grambling on both sides of those stats.

Grambling plays 8 players for 19 minutes a game. Of those eight, 6 are guards and 2 are forwards at 6'1" and 6'2". Three other players play about 12 minutes a game and they are 2 centers and a forward who are 6'1" or 6'2". Five players score 8 points a game with the top two players (Young #24 SG, and McKinney #10 SF) average 22.0 a game between them. Their best rebounder is McKinney.

Through their first seven games, Aubrey Joens is leading the Sooners in scoring playing off the bench and she is leading the team in shooting % also. Joens is averaging 12.7 Pts/G and 4.3 Reb/G. Joens is shooting over 50% from the field and from 3-point territory. Skyler Vann and Payton Verhulst are averaging 12.6 Pts/G and 6.6 and 5.1 Reb/G. Sahara Williams has played well as of lat and is scoring 11.3 Pts/G with 6.6 Reb/G. Lexi Keys is the fifth Sooner scoring over 10 points a game with her 10.1 Pts/G and 2.6 Reb/G. The 5th starter, Nevaeh Tot, is scoring 5.3 Pts/G and 2.4 Reb/G. Reyna Scott is scoring 6.9 Pts/G and 2.4 Reb/G off the bench. Kennedy Tucker is scoring 1.6 Pts/G and 1.3 Reb/G.

The young trio of post players for the Sooners Beatrice Culliton, Kiersten Johnson and Landry Allen are scoring 3.7, 3.7 and 3.1 Pts/G and 4.9, 2.1 and 2.9 Reb/G.

The Sooners are the better team tonight that will be playing in Lloyd Noble Center. I do not expect a close game either. But I would like to see OU play a strong game inside without fouling. Currently the Sooner 'bigs' are averaging 0.85 fouls per minute inside. as a group. Here is what that means.

Every five minutes the three starters (Vann, Verhulst and Williams) play, they will commit 4 fouls between them or if they played the full 1st half together, they would foul 16 times with all three fouled out at that rate in the twenty minutes. With that rate of fouls the Sooners are forced to move to the bench to play the three young post players. What is more troubling is they foul at a higher rate than the starters. They commit 1.04 fouls every minute of playing time between the three of them. It they played the second half together, they would all be fouled out with about 5 minutes left to play in the game. Culliton is averaging 1.35 fouls per minute of playing time. Every pone of these three players need to improve with regards to committing fouls. This has to improve for the Sooners. It simply has to. No reaching fouls, No ticky-tack fouls from carelessness, or not moving their feet. Just keep your hands up, move your feet and go get the rebound with position.

Good luck to the Sooners on Friday night a 6 PM.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the Oklahoma-Grambling game on Friday night on Retro Night.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/3 ... -grambling

Friday's contest tips at 6 p.m. on ESPN+ with Chad McKee and Latricia Trammell on the call. The Sooners host their annual Retro Night on Friday and fans are encouraged to wear throwback Sooners gear while enjoy retro OU elements on the big screens in the arena. The first 500 fans will receive an exclusive Top Daug spinner hat.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Women's BB Team put one in the win column last night against Grambling with a lopsided win 103-69. After the first quarter, where Oklahoma only led by 5 points, 23-18, the Sooners got things going with better shooting a they outscored Grambling 32-19 in the 2ndQ to lead 55-37 at half. OU increased the lead by 8 points in the 3rdQ and finally to a 34 point margin at the end of the game. Oklahoma did play last night without Payton Verhulst (starting guard) as she was wearing a walking boot and attended the game, supporting the team from the bench. Let's hope her foot/ankle heals quickly so she plays on the 9th against UNLV.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the win for the Sooners.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/12/1 ... ling-state

There were many positives for the Sooners last night. Among them was the play of Neveah Tot as she had her best offensive game of the season. Tot scored 16 points on 5 of 11 shooting with 4 of 5 from 3-point territory and had 4 assists against only 1 turnover. Aubrey Joens just keeps playing well off the bench as he led the Sooners in scoring with 19 points on 6 of 13 shooting with 5 of 11 from 3-point territory. she also had 8 rebounds. Freshman Landry Allen recorded her first double-double of her career as she scored 11 points (career high) and had 12 rebounds (career high) and played 17:33 minutes in the game (career high). Skylar Vann added 16 points on 5 of 10 shooting but was 0-3 from 3-point territory. She concentrated last night on playing inside though and was effective from the key area and cutting to the basket. On the downside, vann did have 6 turnovers and did foul out in the game. Sahara Williams, Lexi Keys and Beatrice Culliton (starting for Verhurst) added 24 points for the starters, but also had 10 turnovers as a trio. Keys left the game briefly with a lower back after diving to the court for a loose ball. Scott, Tucker and Johnson added 17 more points off the bench. Johnson also had 4 blocks while playing some pretty good defense inside and a nice bucket or two inside moving with the ball.

Grambling was not a very good team however as they played without the top scorer, Young, a shooting guard. They are not a strong team inside but have fairly good play outside.

One of the things that is noticeable is the passing by OU, which at times, seems robotic. Many times, they catch the ball an just automatically pass the ball to a spot where they 'seem to know' a Sooner will be. Many times a defender can anticipate those passes and be in the passing lane, but the defender is seen by an OU passer about the time the pass is being released. The Sooners had 25 turnovers last night and probably could have reduced that total by a third if they would just look to make sure the defender is not 'jumping' the pass before they pass the ball. It is pretty basic basketball practice, see the pass before you make the pass.

Up next for the Sooners is UNLV. they are 7-0 and play Arizona tonight. The Running Rebelettes (not sure that is an official mascot name) are receiving votes in both polls. As a team they shoot 45.7% from the field, 39.6% from 3-point territory and 80% from the charity stripe. They score 85 points a game and allow only 56. They have had only 70 turnovers a game for only 10 per game. It is true that tonight's game for UNLV is probably by far their best opponent this season. But Zona did get beat by Ole Miss by 9 points and are 6-1 in their only loss. Arizona is unranked and not receiving votes for the polls. Oklahoma is receiving a few more voters than UNLV in the polls. The game should be a good contest for Oklahoma on December 9th.

UNLV's best player, from a stats perspective, is their 6'1" Center, Young (#23) who scores 16.9 pts and averages 10.0 boards a game. Young is playing very well as a freshman. Two guards score 26.0 points.

Boomer Sooner!

[TN Sooner]

Nice recap.

Verhulst- twisted her ankle on the tip-off last week against TN. After a tape job, she was able to return and play most of the game. Now, she was held out of last nights games.

I sure hope this is just a pre-caution and they are getting her a bunch of rest while they can. The Sooners don’t play again until next Saturday and then have another long stretch without a game (12-19 is next after UNLV, i think?).

[EMan]

One of the things that is noticeable is the passing by OU, which at times, seems robotic. Many times, they catch the ball an just automatically pass the ball to a spot where they 'seem to know' a Sooner will be. Many times a defender can anticipate those passes and be in the passing lane, but the defender is seen by an OU passer about the time the pass is being released. The Sooners had 25 turnovers last night and probably could have reduced that total by a third if they would just look to make sure the defender is not 'jumping' the pass before they pass the ball. It is pretty basic basketball practice, see the pass before you make the pass.

I made that same comment about the "lazy passes" last night. That has to be cleaned up. Quickly!

[OUBeliever56A]

Nice recap.

Verhulst- twisted her ankle on the tip-off last week against TN. After a tape job, she was able to return and play most of the game. Now, she was held out of last nights games.

I sure hope this is just a pre-caution and they are getting her a bunch of rest while they can. The Sooners don’t play again until next Saturday and then have another long stretch without a game (12-19 is next after UNLV, i think?).

I think this is what happened. The Sooners coaches and trainers looked at Grambling, and said, "We can handle Grambling and give Verhulst a couple extra days of rest". Come Monday, she should hopefully be on the floor at least shooting.

Yes, UNLV is next but do not take them for granted. If they beat Zona tonight, it might be a tough game.