Digesting Oklahoma’s overtime loss to West Virginia

Morgantown has never been my favorite Big 12 destination. After I almost endured a heart attack in the fall of 2012 due to Tavon Austin, it’s a place I’d prefer Oklahoma never go to again.

However, as our new conference foes, Oklahoma and West Virginia are going to be seeing each other a lot. And last night’s hoops game in Morgantown was one I’d like to forget, so here are some of my thoughts from last night:

Feb 1, 2014; Ames, IA, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Je

• First, no one make excuses for this team. I get it. They had travel issues. They didn’t arrive to the arena until 90 minutes before tipoff. Would Oklahoma being on schedule have helped? Maybe. We can what if here all day, but the loss still counts and Oklahoma had the opportunity to win. They were down early, but OU fought back, but could not finish off the Mountaineers. Moral: don’t make excuses, things happen.
• Winning on the road is never easy. The fans showed up at WV, and I applaud them for that. This is a hot West Virginia team that’s gaining traction, and losing to them is not a bad loss. Maybe to the RPI, but the Big 12 is super competitive, but it only makes Oklahoma more motivated for the postseason.
• WV’s Eron Harris was 6-13 from the perimeter. It’s very hard beating teams when a guy like Harris goes off like he did. He was hitting from all cylinders, and I guess OU will have to think twice about leaving him 50 feet out.
• Ryan Spangler amazingly never fouled out of this game. Midway through the second half, Spangler picked up his fourth foul. Some how, some way, Spangler was able to avoid fouling out in a game that went in to overtime and as many missed shots as there were, you would have thought Spangler would have tried to give the extra effort and bang for a loose ball. Maybe he held back to avoid that game-benching foul—case in point: Oklahoma can’t afford to have Spangler in foul trouble on the road in crunch time.
• Oklahoma’s defensive problems are a serious issue. The Big 12 is filled with great shooters and it does not look like the defense is seeing much improvement. Ultimately, what you see now is what you’re probably going to get in the postseason. Oklahoma’s offense is really going to need to carry the load unless something changes drastically.
• Tyler Neal’s role increased, which I’m okay with. A senior like Neal has been around the block, and he helped add 16. He wasn’t much of a factor against Iowa State last Saturday, but this is Neal’s second 15+ point performance in the past three games. Hopefully, Oklahoma can see more from him down the stretch. A young team like Oklahoma needs his veteran leadership.
• While the Sooners did lose, you have to be happy the way they fought back. Oklahoma never conceded, and while they had a lead in the last minute, Oklahoma came out as good as you could hope for with a team that dealt with everything they did.
• This was the first time all season the Sooners lost back-to-back games. To have that not happen until February is good on the Sooners, but hopefully it’s only a two-game skid and they can bounce back against the Baylor Bears come Saturday in Norman.
• Anything else you would like to discuss, tweet me at @StorminInNorman.