Tulsa Game Thread
 

Wednesday, January 8th, 2020
7:00 PM
Fifth Third Arena
ESPNU

Tulsa (9-5, 1-0 AAC, NET #104) is looking to snap a streak of 3 consecutive seasons of missing postseason tournaments under 6th year head coach Frank Haith and are currently off-track to do so after not taking full advantage of one of the league's weaker OOC schedules (ranked 327th per KenPom).

They are however coming off a dominant 70-44 win over Temple in their AAC opener where they limited the Owls to their worst shooting outing of the year (27.7 FG%) while also holding them to a season-low 5 FT attempts.

Tulsa is led by 6'5 junior LSU transfer, Brandon Rachal, who is averaging 15 and 7 in his first year with the team. Tulsa returns 5 of their top 8 players from last year's 18 win team including 4-year starter Martins Igbanu.

Statiscally, they're pretty average across the board. They don't shoot a ton of 3-point shots (just under 19/game at 33.7%) and don't block a lot of shots (just over 2.5/game). They do get over 8 steals/game and don't foul a ton (just over 16/game).

Unlike us, they do possess a true road win at this stage of the season having won @Vanderbilt in November for their first Q2 win. They also just lost a nail biter @Kansas State a week and a half ago where a potential game-tying lay-up was blocked at the buzzer.

Thanks for keeping these going! I am hoping for another bounce back without letting the air back out the following game:)

-9.5

Vegas must like us at home.

Jaevin needs a get right game. Hopefully is able to use Tulsa at Home as a nice little slump buster.

It really sucks that we only have 2 sets of back to back home games in conference

whereas we have 3 sets of back to back road games.

Jaevin is shooting 44% from 3 at home and 20% away. I feel like his "get right game" should be on the road in a hostile atmosphere.

Another interesting thing about the presser was that CJB said he felt Jaevin shot 14 times and 8 of those we want him taking 100% of the time. But that leaves 6 shots. Without going back to look at footage in the last game...in general I feel like he takes a couple/few ill advised shots per game. Anything in the last second of the clock is understandable but he needs to clean up the other ill advised shots.

All of the players need to look at ill advised shots or when certain players put the ball on the ground who should only do so when there is a clear path to bucket. Diara and Scott are not play makers off the bounce. I don't mind them going down hill with one or two dribbles but spin moves IMO are out of the question for these guys...just not a high rate of success when that happens.

Gary Clark was VERY deliberate when he put the ball on the ground. He took his time to back a guy down to the paint or to wait on a double to pass out of it. Scott and Diara can learn a thing or two by slowing it down...they don't have the handles to be play makers.

There is only one thing left to do and that is to pound Tulsa into submission and continue the same with the rest of the schedule.

There may come a time when an at large is completely out of play but until then the objective is quite obvious. I am not expecting this to happen but that's the mission. Can CJB get 100% effort AND FOCUS out of this team? Can he fire these guys up enough?

If or until the season is completely lost I will remain hopeful. The alternative is not an option at this point

its one game at a time at this point, as we have seen we cant look past anyone, every game is a must win now. Biggest thing right now is defense and minimizing the turnovers, you absolutely cannot win if you continuously give the other team the ball. We need to win the games we should win i.e Tulane, tulsa, ECU, etc and split with Memphis, Houston, SMU and Wichita maybe sweep one of them. We cannot drop games to Temple, or UCF. We just don't have very many opportunities for good tier wins at this point, so we have to win the chances we have left, that "big" Tennessee win looks a lot worse than it did 3 weeks ago unfortunately.

For an at large big, we probably have to win 14 out of the remaining 16 games. We just have too many bad loses at this point and no good wins. Odds are not good.

Everyone was gassed by that last minute

Some one remind me why we shouldn’t at lease play some zone ?

How many inside buckets before we do something ?

Someone remind me who’s good on this team besides Jarron. Tre and Keith seem to be good if they aren’t asked to do much. The more they have to do, the worse they get. Also can Harvey take some of Jaevin as minutes?

I’m not opposed to it.

College officials

Defense is the problem?

These lineups without Jarron, no one can create a shot at all.

Feel like we've been just a slight bit less mediocre than them up to this point.

You’re right. They’re shooting 30%.

We either generate a turnover or they score at the rim.

It’s simple.

CJB is getting treated like a new coach by these refs

They are shooting 30%.

They are on pace to score 44 points and your questioning defensive strategies, I could see questioning offense

Tulsa has like all its points in the paint.

This is anti Bearcat basketball defensively


Sure we generate turnovers in a very gimicky way. But dude, once they beat the pressure, a few passes destroys our defense and they score at the rim, sometimes completely uncontested

This 94 feet crap ain’t getting no better next year either.

Add in that Jarron is a brilliant team defender but this new defense puts him on an island defensively with no one to help.

Pick your battles man. The defense argument doesn’t make much sense tonight. Maybe early on, but not now. Wait a half. I’m sure they’ll put u 50 in this half.

Seriously I even tried to help the guy out, he should be out here like “hey we only scored 26 on offense what the heck mick would have gotten 50 on them.

A poor shooting team shooting poorly is fine.

But the issue is how the defensive breakdowns have been an issue all year long.

I mean I just watched a defense that had Vogt & Diarra guarding the same person while a guy just waltzed In for a layup.


This defense will not work against Houston and Memphis and it will not work on the road.

Maw can’t stop getting into foul trouble

I hear you. But if a team shoots 35% in a half and scores 22 points, probably not the time to change that.

Also, that was probably diarra. Vogt can’t move enough to switch.

They aren’t making 3’s but on two’s they are 10-23

5 shots have been blocked, so that makes it 10-18.

I’d rather never block a shot if we don’t get punished so badly in the paint.


This a perfect example of a shooting percentage not telling the whole story.

I’m sitting in the student section behind the Tulsa bench, from my vantage point I just seen a lot of what the hell are we doing defensive stuff

They waltzed in for 22 points in the half. Every single coach in the country would take that. WTF

Tulsa averages 74 ppg st 46% shooting. I’d say we are holding them below their average.

Like guys are playing hard. But as a strategy it’s not what these team is good at in the half court

Jaevin & Jarron both poor 1 on 1 defenders, Chris Vogt doesn’t move quick enough to help.

Just give me a few zone possessions please

Dude.

It’s not about the score. It’s about how the defense is breaking down.


It’s not like our defense has been amazing all year. I’m seeing a huge weakness in the paint and it’s why teams come out at the half and kick out ass

AYFKM?

That’s not how stats work. You can’t just take blocks away to fit your argument. Like I said, just wait 10 minutes. I’m sure they’ll put up 50.

who the F is talking about all year. This is a tusla game thread and they have 22 points

I think we’ve started every game at least 3 straight turnovers in the 2nd half.

Not sure why McNeal plays.

McNeal doesn’t even hit rim 60% of the time.