Thoughts from the Oklahoma Loss

I'll be 100% honest, I didn't see any of the game. I couldn't find a link anywhere. I listened briefly. But ended up watching the live scoring feed on ESPN.com. And let's be honest, there is only so much you can get from that and the boxscore.

As the preview said, I didn't expect the Mount to get a win. Oklahoma is a good basketball team. Going to get better as the year goes on. It's obvious they invested a little too much in the players and not enough in the video equipment, but otherwise a fine program. Seriously though, Jeff Capel played at Duke where they rotate McDonald's All-Americans out of the rotation. Looks like he is well on his way to accomplishing the same at Oklahoma. He entered a program with a good foundation and has built upon it in short order. The Sooners have one of the brightest college basketball futures.

The Mount trailed by 5 with about 15 minutes to play. At that point, the Mounties were shooting a little better than 55%. Things changed from there. The Oklahoma defense tighened up and the Mount had trouble scoring the rest of the way.

The Sooners held a 51-30 advantage on the boards. That was one of my biggest concerns for the Mount entering the season. How well they might rebound? I don't think that a conclusion can be drawn on how well this team will rebound based on the performance in Norman, but the disparity definitely shows that the area is a reason for concern and question the rest of the way.

4 of the 5 Mount starters were in double figures and Lamar Trice had 7, Will Holland a pair of threes off the bench. Sort of what we expected from the group. Kristijan Krajina (or whomever secures the fifth starting slot) will have to get some offensive production, but again first games are first games.

The Mount was able to limit its turnover total to just 15, but 8 of those came from senior point guard Jeremy Goode. For me its not a major concern. We know what Goode is capable of, and we're sure that this was a one game sort of issue. Plus we've always felt that the good play that comes from Jeremy will have to come with some concessions. He is much more efficient when he plays at a higher tempo, which also leads to some turnovers. 8 is too many. We expect that it was a one game thing.

Excited to see how the Mount responds on Wednesday at American. The Eagles lost their opener Friday night to fellow NEC member St. Francis PA. So the Mount will have a few days to figure out what went right in Norman and eliminate the problem areas.