Oklahoma Basketball: Sad Ending Shouldn’t Take Away From Terrific Season
By Chip Rouse
It hurts, and it will for some time. There is no other way to describe the sickening feeling of Oklahoma basketball fans following the horrifying blowout suffered by the Sooners in the Final Four national semifinals loss to Villanova on Saturday.
I don’t believe it is exaggerating one bit to say that no one of sound mind saw this one coming. Villanova may have been a slight favorite, but most experts beforehand referred to the Oklahoma-Villanova matchup in this year’s Final Four as a pick-’em game that could go either way.
After Nova went on a 23-11 run right before the half to open up a 42-28 halftime lead, no one proudly wearing Oklahoma crimson colors in massive NRG Stadium in Houston suspected that things would get ten times worse in the second 20 minutes, certainly not in a game pitting two of the best teams in the nation this season and on the sports biggest stage on the biggest weekend in the college basketball season.
No one saw it coming, but it did – and with a vengeance. The Sooners cut the deficit to nine points, at 46-37, less than four minutes into the second half, but from that point forward, everything that could go wrong for Oklahoma did while the exact opposite occurred for Villanova. The Sooners, figuratively speaking, all but left the building after that, with Villanova outscoring OU by an incredible 35-point margin, 49-14.
Buddy Hield, who led all NCAA Tournament scorers this season with an average of right at 30 points per game, scored only nine points in the game. But to be perfectly honest, even if the Big 12’s scoring champion for a second straight season had gone wild and scored 50 in the game, it probably would not have mattered the way Villanova was hitting practically every shot launched toward the basket.
Villanova missed only 14 shots the entire game, while shooting an unheard of 71 percent from the field. The Sooners missed almost that many shots in the first half alone, and in the second half OU couldn’t buy a bucket, hitting just 7 of 35 total shots for a horrid 20 percent. On one possession early in the second half, Oklahoma missed four consecutive shots after securing three successive offensive rebounds.
Over a six-minute span in the second half, the Wildcats went on an almost unbelievable, and unbearable, 25-0 run to totally bury any and all Oklahoma hopes of a miracle comeback. Game over – and with more than a few thundering exclamation points!
All right, enough is enough, already. No one needs to relive all that. The fact remains that it was a horrific and very unfortunate way to bring what by every possible account was a magical and highly successful basketball season for Oklahoma men’s basketball.
Sooner fans surely were hoping for a different result and, at the very least a much more competitive game with Villanova in the Sooners’ fifth all-time appearance in the Final Four.
It is beyond sad for Buddy Hield to have ended his phenomenal Oklahoma career in this fashion, but these things do happen – in sports as well as in life – and it should not, and does not, take away from the incredible body of work turned in by the 2016 Naismith Trophy winner who has had everyone associated with the college game shaking their heads in amazement throughout the season over what the Sooner superstar has accomplished in his sensational senior year.
This Sooners’ team won 29 games, the sixth most in the long history of Oklahoma men’s basketball, and was never ranked lower than No. 7 in the country all season long. In fact, for several weeks in late January, the Sooners were ranked No. 1 in the country.
For three members of the Oklahoma starting five – seniors Hield, Isaiah Cousins and Ryan Spangler – it marks the end of the line. For three full seasons, these three Sooners, along with junior Jordan Woodard, started every single game. The Villanova game marked their 106th consecutive start. You just don’t see that very often in this era of college basketball.
Over the past three seasons, Oklahoma has compiled an overall record of 76-29 and finished no lower than third place in arguably the best basketball conference in the country, and the 2015-16 season was among the best and most exciting in program history.
The humbling Final Four loss to Villanova is tough to take. You never want something like that to happen to your team, regardless of the circumstances. It just wasn’t the Sooners’ day.
Everyone knows that this season’s Oklahoma team is a much better team that what the final score indicated on Saturday. After all, you don’t get to the Final Four if you are not deserving, and the Sooners definitely were worthy and exciting to watch this season.
If you are someone who thinks that the humiliation of a 44-point loss on a giant stage like the Final Four trumps all that was great about Sooner basketball this season, then you probably shouldn’t be reading this article to begin with.
Pardon me for saying this, but it isn’t like this hasn’t happened before to some very good and championship-caliber Oklahoma sports teams (case in point: 2004, 2014 Oklahoma football).
There is no reason for the members of the OU basketball team to hang their heads. They didn’t play their best on Saturday, but that does not define or diminish what they have been able to accomplish this season.
Everything is still OK with Oklahoma basketball. Thank you Buddy & Company for an outstanding 2015-16 season.