Oklahoma Basketball: Takeaways From the Same Old Sooner Song

There was no miracle comeback this time, and not much offense to spark one. As a result, the Sooners fell victim to a fourth consecutive loss at home and are now within one more defeat of ensuring a losing record for men’s Oklahoma basketball one year removed from playing in the Final Four.

About the only thing that saved the Sooners from suffering another humiliating home defeat like the one administered a couple of weeks ago by a visiting Florida Gators team was that West Virginia’s game was nothing to shout about either, but obviously enough to ward off the sputtering Sooners.

Oklahoma managed to score just five points in the final five minutes of the game on Wednesday night. West Virginia wasn’t much better, scoring just nine of its own, but that was enough to record a 60-51 victory over the Sooners and avenge the earlier defeat the Mountaineers suffered against OU in the game played in Morgantown.

The 13th-ranked Mountaineers are now 19-5 overall and improved to 7-4 in Big 12 play.

Oklahoma is now a Big 12-worst 2-9 in conference play and 8-15 overall. There are seven games remaining in the regular season, followed by the Big 12 Tournament, but it bears noting that the last time a Sooner men’s basketball team won two or fewer league games in a season was 87 years ago, in 1929-30. OU was winless in the Big Six Conference that season, going 0-10.

The last time the Oklahoma men won three or fewer games in the conference was in 1968-69. That team, led by a pair of stars, Garfield Heard and Clifford Ray, who went on to successful NBA careers, was 3-11 in the Big Eight and 7-19 overall.

Kameron McGusty and reserve point guard Jordan Shepherd, both freshmen, were the only two Sooners in double figures in scoring for the game, with 11 points apiece.

The loss to West Virginia was Oklahoma’s sixth consecutive defeat and 13th in the last 15 games.

The difference in Wednesday night’s game can be summed up in one word: turnovers. West Virginia, which leads the country in steals and turnover margin with its aggressive defensive pressure, forced the Sooners into 23 turnovers that resulted in 27 Mountaineer points.

That was in sharp contrast to the earlier game between these two teams in January in Morgantown, when the Sooners turned the ball over just 12 times, at the time the fewest by a West Virginia opponent at WVU Coliseum all season.

“I thought West Virginia, with their pressure, bothered us a lot. We didn’t handle that nearly as well as you have to to beat a good ball club.” –OU head coach Lon Kruger

Commenting on the West Virginia pressure defense after the game, Sooner head coach Lon Kruger said, “I thought West Virginia, with their pressure, bothered us a lot. We didn’t handle that nearly as well as you have to to have a chance to beat a good ball club.

“I thought defensively, in the half court, we were fine,” he said. “Just too many turnovers for points.”

Now Oklahoma must travel to Iowa State, where the prospects of OU snapping its current six-game win drought are probably next to none unless the Sooners put together their best effort of the season.

Here’s a look on the rebound at some of the main takeaways the OU-West Virginia yawner:

• You cannot turn the ball over 23 times in a game, including having it stolen 12 times, and maintain any type of offensive continuity or rhythm. In a nutshell, that was the game for Oklahoma. The Sooners are averaging 15 turnovers per game, which is still too high.
• Jordan Woodard was held to just six points and missed all five of his three-point attempts. In his last five games, the Sooners’ leading scorer on the season (14.9 ppg) is averaging just over six points a game.
• For the second consecutive game, Christian James scored just three points. The Sooners need a stronger contribution from James, who in his last eight games has scored a combined 28 points, or 3.5 points per game.
• Bench points, which have been a plus for Oklahoma most of the season, were not on Wednesday night. The Mountaineer reserves outscored the Sooner bench 24-14,
• Oklahoma’s 50 total points against West Virginia was the Sooners’ lowest scoring output of the season. They made just 16 of 48 field-goal attempts (33.3 percent) and just 10 of 34 two-point shots for an even lower 29 percent.
• After trailing 27-25 in the first half, the Sooners never captured the lead in the second half.
• The Sooners outrebounded West Virginia 37-32, including grabbing 12 offensive boards, but it didn’t matter because of OU poor shooting performance on the night.