OU Men's BB (10-0) in Charlotte, NC to play #11 North Carolina !

[OUBeliever56A]

The undefeated Oklahoma Sooners Men's Basketball Team will take their 10-0 record to Charlotte, NC to play the 7-3 North Carolina Tar Heels in the Jumpman Invitational on Wedneday night December 20th at 8 PM. The Sooners are currently ranked #7/#8 while the Tar Heels are ranked #11/#13 in the AP and Coaches polls respectively.

The non-conference contest will air on the Sooner Sports Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM The Franchise in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa; Varsity Radio App) with Toby Rowland and Kevin Henry announcing and be broadcast by ESPN with Dave O'Brien (PxP), Debbie Antonelli (analyst) and Myron Medcalf (sideline) on the call.

Here is the Sooner staff wrtiers article about the Top 15 matchup.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/12/1 ... -charlotte

While this game will not determine much of anything, it may be as big of a game that the OU Men's Basketball Team has played in awhile. The OU=Alabama game was talked about last year in the middle of the Big 12 conference play, but it was not a game that determined anything at all except it might have started the downfall of the Bama team for 2022 when OU defeated them by 24 points.

What the game tomorrow night can do is provide the Sooners with an opportunity to defeat a ranked team just before the conference play begins across the nation. If you have not noticed, the four team that Oklahoma received accolades for defeating earlier in the season, Iowa/USC/Providence/Arkansas is a combined 27-16 and only Providence is still ranked, by only the AP and they are in the Receiving Votes group outside the Top 25. Their NET rankings are between #59 and #98, which probably keeps them out of the NCAA tourney unless thay play very well in conference. A WIN over the Tar Heels could be huge for the Sooners going down the stretch in Big 12 Conference play.

Here is how I see the matchup on Wednesday night on ESPN.

Carolina's Starters - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Oklahoma's Starters

RJ Davis - #4, G, 6'0" 180 SR - 21.6 Pts 3.6 Reb - 34 minutes a game ........................... Javian McCollum - #2, G, 6'2" 160 - 14.3 Pts 2.7 Reb - 29 minutes a game
Cormac Ryan - #3, G, 6'5" 195 - 11.4 Pts 3.0 Reb - 28 minutes a game .......................... Milos Uzan - #12, G, 6'4" 193 - 8.4 Pts 3.9 Reb - 30 minutes a game
Elliot Cadeau - #2, G, 6'1" 180 - 6.7 Pts 1.5 Reb - 23 minutes a game ............................. Otega Oweh - #3, G, 6'5" 215 - 14.9 Pts 4.0 Reb - 25 minutes a game
Harrison Ingram - #55, F, 6'7" 235 - 14.6 Pts 6.2 Reb - 33 minutes a game .................. Jalon Moore - #14, F, 6'7" 222 - 8.2 Pts 4.8 Reb - 20 minutes a game
Armando Bacot - #5, F/C, 6'11" 240 - 15.2 Pts 11.3 Reb - 29 minutes a game ..............., Sam Godwin - #10, F, 6'10" 235 - 8.2 Pts 5.9 Reb - 18 minutes a game
Subs:
Seth Trimble - #7, G, 6'3" 195 - 5.3 Pts 1.9 Rb - 15 minutes a game .................................. Le'Tre Darthard - #0, G, 6'4" 190 - 7.9 Pts 1.5 Reb - 24 minutes a game
Paxson Wojcik - #8, G, 6'5" 195 - 2.6 Pts 0.8 Reb - 12 minutes a game .......................... Rivaldo Soares - #5, G, 6'6" 215 - 7.7 Pts 5.0 Reb - 21 minutes a game
Jae'Lyn Withers - #24, F/C, 6'9" 215 - 3.3 Pts 3.1 Reb - 14 minutes a game ................... John Hugley IV - #1, F/C, 6'10" 275 - 10.8 Pts 5.4 Reb - 19 minutes a game
Jalen Washington - #13 F/C, 6'10" 230 - 4.4 Pts 2.4 Reb - 9 minutes a game ............... Luke Northweather F/C and Kaden Cooper G - 3.8 Pts 2.8 Reb - 14 minutes a game

If you look at the matchups in this fashion, you might think the game is about the 'big 4 for the Tar Heels against the 'big 3' for the Sooners. The 'big 4' for North Carolina scores 62.8 Pts per game. The 'big 3' for Oklahoma scores 40.0 Pts per game. But the Sooner other 7 players (primarily 5) scores 44.4 Pts per game while the Tar Heels reserves score 22.1 Pts per game. The 'big 4" for NC play 124 minutes game which puts them about the max they can play. The 'big 3' for OU only plays 73 minutes a game, so they have a bigger upside than does the NC 'big 4'.

The bench for the Sooners is going to be the key in the game I think. The Sooners can keep bringing in fresh players that can easily matchup with Carolina as their players stay in the game for extended minutes. I think the Sooners might be able to wear down the Tar Heels, especially the two big forwards that start. The Sooners are probably quicker also at more positions and that shows up in the steals as OU has 81 compared to the 48 for NC.

I think the Sooner defense will be the key in the game also. I think that Davis for North Carolina will be throttled by McCollum, Darthard and maybe a bit of Uzan. I think the quad of Godwin, Hugley IV, Moore and Soares can match up well against Ingram and Bacot and play them tough inside and force the to Carolina players to run the floor repeatedly. Oweh can swing both ways, outside to guard Ryan and inside if needed along with Soares if needed. I like the matchups for the game and that OU can play them to an advantage.

Both teams score 84 points a game. Both teams pull down just under 40 rebounds a game. OU shoots better than NC. OU shoots 60.5% inside the arc and 34.8 from outside the arc. NC shoots 50.1 inside the arc and 35.9% from outside the arc. Both teams shoot in the high 70% range from the charity stripe.

It is an interesting matchup. If OU plays with pace and can go to the rim on offense as they have all season, they will win because that can play outside in inside. I think NC will want to pound the ball inside and try to muscle up on OU and hope that Davis can get his points from the outside. Maybe Ryan is a key for them against OU. But I think OU will guard him well.

Good luck to the Sooners against North Carolina.

Boomer Sooner!

[OU Guy]

This will be a tough game to win and I expect us to be in the losing side. The key to me is keeping it competitive. OU has no tier 1 wins so this is a huge test. And its basically a home game for the visitors at a “nuetral” site.

I’m still excited about this team amd the future of it regardless of outcome. Now that OU is ranked more top recruits will take notice of and see Mosers “vision”. The past 2 years he can tell recruits his vision but they never saw it due to players we had. Moser had to scrounge players from all over the US to portal in that fit his style. So win or lose recruits see his vision in work and can now see how they would fit in and improve the team.

[OUBeliever56A]

I really thought OU would play well against North Carolina. But the difference in experience for the Tar Heels made a big difference tonight. Probably difference in playing against really good teams made soe difference tonight. I think in most every game so for this year, the Sooners were the more athletic and the probably the better team on the floor. I am not sure that was the case on either point tonight. North Carolina was deeper and they had the two best players on the court in Davis and Bacot. They, the Tar Heels had a huge home court advantage on the neutral court in Charlotte.

I do not think a loss to North Carolina is anything to be upset about. There is enough to dissect in the game to think that OU will play better in the next tough game. The turnovers were closer to 20 than 15 for the Sooners and the Sooners did not get too much from Godwin and Hugley IV inside or as much from McCollum as I thought but he did score some late in the game. I did think that Oweh 'willed' his way to a good night with his play in the 2nd half.

When OU got close (down by 5) with about 3 minutes left the Davis 3-pointer and the next missed 3 by OU from way outside the arc hurt the Sooners. Then after an Oweh layup and with a little more than a minute left, the shot that went in at the shot-clock buzzer to give NC an 8 point lead hurt again followed by a Sooner turnover.

The Sooners were not out of the game until the very end of the game with their late surge. It was one game out of their first eleven games. There is much more to be happy about at 10-1 for the Sooners than to be unhappy about. The loss to North Carolina will show the coaches and the team what needs to be worked on during the last two non-conference games left before the Big 12 play starts.

The final score was 81-69 which is about right after the Sooners poor shooting in the first half, especially from beyond the arc. But the Sooners did have a shot with about 3 minutes left to sneak up on the Tar Heels and pick up a win.

I still believe in the team. The best by this bunch is probably still ahead of them.

Boomer Sooner!

[SwampSooner]

On a true neutral court with neutral referees, I think OU wins this game.

[Pokerman]

The game was really painful to watch. I think it's clear that all the turnovers were their downfall.

In an attempt to put a positive spin on a bad game, I'll say this:

They no longer have the pressure of being undefeated on them (playing not to lose).
Identify the problems, fix them and move on.

[EMan]

it was a very mediocre all-round game by the Sooners. Their outside shooting in the first half (1-10 from beyond the arc) dug them a hole they couldn't quit get out of even though they made several runs at it. To me, the biggest killer was going 16-24 at the FT line. If they just hit their FTs that game is definitely up for grabs in the last couple of minutes regardless of how they struggled the rest of the game. Hopefully, they've gained some good experience to draw upon as the conference season gets underway, especially learning what to expect on the road.