Sunshine Pumping Basketball Style

Holly Rowe’s cleavage will now forever haunt my nightmares.

im gonna shoot myself if that damn sooner comes to okc, please god,

Blake Griffin was doing a great Tim Duncan impersonation – eyes buggin’, hands wide, palms up beseechingly.

BEH,

I was thinking the same thing, but I have a lot of respect for the Artist Formally Know As the Big Fundamental. Before he forgot how to shoot free throws and learned the Eurotrash soccer flop and wine from Manu, he was a joy to watch.

Pretty much agree with everthing you said.

I nearly shit a golden brick when Harrison dropped his first shot, a 3-pointer.

For the most part, our shooting (33.8%) is just as fugly as that sideline reporter.

The only bright spot for me was seeing Dogus grow just a bit as an offensive PG.

Blake Griffin was doing a great Tim Duncan impersonation – eyes buggin’, hands wide, palms up beseechingly.

Rebounding everything in sight, going for a double-double every night, hitting soft 15-footers off the glass …

Griffin has a little of that Rasheed Wallace persona, who looks to post on smaller guys. Born with a big man’s body, but yearns to make pretty jump shots.

He is kind of an odd blend of Kenyon Martin, Carlos Boozer and one of the Barry brothers.

Ponderos,

When you play 39 minutes and only put up 20 points and 10 rebonds as the tallest dude on the court with the most ups, that ain’t much to crow about. That is under both of his season averages. He was only occasionally double teamed.

He is a hell of a college player, and he deserves to go #1 over all, but he is Glen Robinson unless he lands with an alpha dog. If you don’t like that comparison, try a Rich Man’s Drew Gooden without the tenacity.

I forgot to add how impressed I was with Willie Warren. He made alot of good basketball decisions and did not force much. He also looked like he had an extra gear if the Sooners had needed it. Only nit to pick is his awful, low release on his J and free throws.

BG’s Mom makes Peggy Bundy look like Ms. Universe. BG may be a good to great basketball player, but he is one…ugly…SOB. And it’s not hard to see where he gets it from…mom and pop didn’t win any beauty pageants…each time they show up on my screen I throw up a little my mouth.

Peg Bundy was always kind of trashy hot. Blake’s mom is only one of those.

As for Griffin’s mom, I wouldn’t hit that, either.

It’s just a little age. When did Peg have her fastball? Early 90s?

General:

Very funny, upbeat, insightful post.

I agree that Damion might guard Blake a little better than Gary. Confidence is a huge part of offensive basketball and Blake was super confident going against Gary. Damion is a little bigger, faster, and better jumper than Gary so he might have had better luck than Gary.

If you play Damion at power forward, who plays small forward for the horns? Either Mason or Ward, right? Effectively you would be replacing Gary with Mason or Ward. Not a trade I would make. I would rather have Damion at small forward, even if it means playing a zone some of the time.

Last night the OU coach did a much better job of exploiting the Damion/Johnson mismatch than did Barnes. Barnes was mainly going insane because Damion was not quite quick enough to guard a smaller, quicker guard. OU paid no penalty for defending Damion with the smaller, lighter Johnson. If ever there was a time to post up Damion, that was it.

The basic problem last night is that OU’s starting 5 is a lot better than UT’s starting 5. Blake is much, much better than Dex or Connor at center. Taylor is better than Connor or Gary at power forward. OU’s Johnson (no pun intended) was a tough matchup for Damion (even if Damion had not been required to help out on Blake). Willie Warren is better than Abrams.

It all adds up to the horns having to play a lot of help D against a team that is efficient at exploiting help D. When nearly every one of your guys can not guard his man without help, it is probably time to play a zone. This is especially true when the opposition features a center who will be at the top of the NBA draft.

Having said that, it was amazing that Dex guarded Blake so well with so little help.

I don’t see where Harrison Smith is going to get much playing time. Last night he played because Barnes went insane in the first half. There are two guard spots. Abrams gets all the minutes at shooting guard and that isn’t going to change. At point guard, the horns are 3 deep.

Going with 3 guards where 1 guard jacks up a bunch of shots (8 for 27!) and the other guards rarely hit outside just does not work.

The strength of the horns is on the front line and Barnes just has to figure out how to make that work.

dex made griffin work more down low than he is used to, thats for sure. not too many 285 pound dudes he’ll go up against

i’d hate to have the #1 overall pick. and glenn robinson had a good NBA career didn’t he? or am i romanticizing how good he was in college onto his pro days?

Kafka,

Good points. I tend to disagree with you on some of the strengths of the Sooners. But, if Barnes had gone with DJ against Blake Griffin when Dex had four fouls, that takes Connor out of the game, which is not a loss with the way he is playing right now.

Huge,

Glenn Robinson was the best player on some very bad teams. As such, he had good ppg numbers, but his PER stats were awful and he did not rebound the basketball. He was never a contributor to a good basketball team.

I think BG good be a contributor to a good basketball team, but if you are expecting a franchise saving player, he is not going to be the guy.

Damion on BG? Did you watch Damion try to guard Michael Washington? Look, I love DJ because he’s a great athlete and he plays hard, but his hoops IQ and savvy is very low. Put him on a stud and he’s going to pick up fouls real quick.

We talk about all these posting opportunities… who will throw the passes to these guys?

Bob:

I think any of the horns (except maybe for Abrams and Gary) will make passes to the post if Barnes teaches them how to do it and then instructs them to do so.

It is easy to pass into the high post. Passing into the low post is more difficult but is a known technique.

At small forward, Damion is going to be matched up with smaller, faster players quite frequently. It is smart to take advantage of the opposition by posting up the smaller players.

Gary and Dex both have excellent post up games. Given that UT has trouble scoring points, it would be a shame to waste easy scoring opportunities just because Barnes does not focus on it enough to make it happen.

Bobby Knight is now doing some little shows on ESPN where he explains a particular strategy in some detail. Last night he was explaining how Stephen Curry passes. Bobby say Curry is as good at passing the ball as any college player he has ever seen.

Barnes is a huge fan of Knight and took Knight’s anger management and player management seminars. Maybe he could bring in Knight for a little offensive strategy consulting.

“if Barnes teaches them how to do it”

As far as I can tell, Barnes has not done this in his time in Austin.

My list of good to adequate post entry passers in order of ability:

1) Varez Ward
2) Damian James
3) Connor Atchley
4) Doge Balbay
5) Harrison Smith

Two worst post entry passers on this team in order of disability:

1) Justin Mason
2) AJ Abrams

I actually think we have improved on this as the season has gone on.

General:
You and Bob are even harsher on Barnes’ O coaching than I am. I am optimistic by nature (I am thinking of changing my screen name from Kafka to Candide) so I think Barnes could make it happen. I realize that you and Bob have history on your side.

Great list of entry passers (I don’t know about Harrison but I will take your word for it).

You left Gary off the list of worst entry passers. Don’t know if that was a sin of omission or commission.

Yes, the horns have improved their entry passing (and post man sealing defender) as the season has progressed. This is evidence (IMHO) that Barnes is actually teaching this (at least some).

After the ISU game, it occurred to me that it might be interesting for the horns to play all 4 of their good bigs at the same time with Abrams. On the very same day, Barnes mentioned that he was considering doing this. He called it his jumbo package.

Mason has the will to be a good entry passer but is deathly afraid of making a mistake (i.e. turnover). He is tight on offense. This is ruining his offensive game (at least shooting and passing).

Barnes needs to understand that people are different and have to be motivated/taught in different ways. Not all guys need to have their asses kicked when they make a mistake.

Some of the horns (like Mason and Connor) remind me of a dog who has been mistreated. Like Trips implied, you don’t have to kick a dog to train him. The same is true for players.

You can’t play offensive basketball without confidence and Mason and Connor are lacking confidence.

On the other hand this might be a good life lesson for Mason and Conner. Every now and then you are going to be working for an asshole and you need to be able to deal with it and keep your spirits up.

I left Gary off because he attempts so few passes, that you could not possibly know if he is good at it or not. Gary should be receiving them, not throwing them.

I left Dexter off also because he has never throw one to my knowledge, and he shouldn’t be attempting post entry (unless we start running the well taught high/low that I yearn for).

Dex has thown several beautiful interior passes (he is a good passer). If the horns ever invert their O, I’m guessing that Dex would do fine both on shooting outside and making the entry pass.

Gary is a good shot from 15 to 18 feet. I would love to see a high post offense with Gary, Dex, or Damion at the high post.

I call Gary a poor post entry passer because he won’t pass the ball. I am sure that if he put his back into it, he would be a fine entry passer.

I think Dexter and Varez Ward show the best aptitude for passing on the team (vision+situational reaction time)

I agree about Dex and Ward, they are both good at quick recognition of an opportunity and getting the ball to the target.

If they would put Dex at the high post and cut Gary or Damion off Dex’s ball screen (i.e. where Damion and Gary use Dex as a screen while they goto the rim), it would probably work well.

Dex would and could get the ball to those guys and Damion and Gary are both athletic enough to finish the alley oop pass. Dex can also hit the free throw length shot if his defender switches to Gary or Damion.

The nice thing about this approach it that it requires minimal ball handling skills. It is easy to get make the entry pass into the high post (because the defender is afraid of denying the entry pass because the high post man may seal the defender and back cut to the basket).

It is easy to make the alley oop pass (pretty much like a shot except to the side of the bucket). As long as you have athletic guys like Damion and Gary to process the alley oop pass, it’s all good.

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