Sooner Basketball Stat of the Week

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It isn’t often that a team that shoots 47 percent per game, like the men’s Sooner basketball team this season, but it also isn’t often that a team shoots 33-percent for a game and loses by four-or-fewer points.

Oklahoma has experienced both sides of the shooting spectrum this season. Twice this season, the Sooners have shot 60-percent or better in a game, and twice they have shot 33 percent for the game. In both of the latter instances, they lost, but only by a combined total of six points (by two points against West Virginia and by four last Saturday to  Kansas).

Feb 13, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Jordan Woodard (10) shoots the ball against Kansas Jayhawks forward Landen Lucas (33) during the first half at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 13, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Jordan Woodard (10) shoots the ball against Kansas Jayhawks forward Landen Lucas (33) during the first half at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /

Being able to shoot so poorly but still keep the game close is a tribute to Oklahoma’s resilience this season and quick-strike ability. The Sooners’ have the offensive firepower – fueled by superstar ability of arguably the best player in college basketball this season, Buddy Hield – to put up points in a hurry. That’s one advantage that being the best three-point-shooting team in the country gives you.

Last weekend, at home facing Kansas, Oklahoma, the Big 12’s highest scoring team couldn’t buy a basket for the first 10 minutes of the game. It was as if there was a lid on the OU basket as the Sooners missed 17 of their first 19 shots. Buddy Hield, who shoots better than 50 percent per game, missed all six of his first-half field-goal attempts.

Oklahoma ended the first half hitting 8 of 30 shots from the field for a shooting percentage of 26.7 percent, easily the team’s worst shooting performance in a half this season. The Sooners never really came out of it, finishing 20 of 60 for the game. Even then, OU lost by just four points and owned the lead at several points late in the game.

It just goes to show that even if you are the highest scoring team in the league and have all five starters shooting better than 42 percent and three of the five above 50 percent per game, there are going to be games and periods within games when nothing you put up seems to find the mark.

That is exactly where the Sooners found themselves in perhaps the biggest game of the season vs. Kansas on Saturday, and it ended up costing them the game.