Lack of depth was the difference in the game. That, and the fact that MSU kicked our butts on the offensive boards. When you're getting killed on the boards on the defensive end, you can't get your running game going. The worst sequence was when Lon gave Bennett his four or five minute first half appearance, which was necessary to give his bigs some rest.
The bad foul called on Spangler with about seven minutes left in the first half was huge. We were up nine or ten at the time. It ended up four, at least in part because we lost Ryan for the remainder of the half.
You cannot expect Woodard to play 40 minutes against a high level of competition. We have to play Booker and Cousins together when we rest Woodard. I can't remember the last time we recruited a true big man out of high school. Lattin has promise, but he's a four at most. He has some hops, but no width. Their big guys ourplayed our big guys and they had more depth and worse on our guys more.
But the real difference was their ability to play half court offense in the second half. And because they played more guys, they were fresher in the last five minutes. We don't have a guy who can come off the bench and guard somebody with quickness. There is NO WAY, that we shouldn't be able to double team their point guard to keep the ball out of his hands on an inbounds play in the last four minutes.
Keep the ball out of his hands, and you get to foul 50% free throw shooters. Instead, we fouled their two best free throw shooters on a team where three of the guys on the floor are lousy from the line. THey had multiple big strong guys like just about any Big Ten team. And they played good defense against our best two scorers, Hield and Thomas.
We have two decent big guys, both transfers. It is inexcusable to me that we can't recruit a decent high school big at least once every other year. And aren' t there one or two decent of those guys in the state over a four year period.
Just a thought. When was the last time we got a great player from the Dallas area? There are a ton of big guys in Dallas who can freakin' play.
I said in another thread that this would be a half court game and that we couldn't beat MSU in a half court game. And that was the crux of the night.
We play in a conference that has one team with shot blockers and that is Texas. Nobody else has them When we play against somebody with some quality big guys inside, we can't run an offense. But this was about depth. They had it. It was said about OU all year that we didn't. Now that Lon has made a second weekend of the tournament, maybe we can recruit a 6-10 guy who can play at least a little.
When was the last time we had a real college shot blocker?
But this wasn't on Lon. He played the hand he was dealt. MSU was just a better team. The seed difference was about OU doing well in the once again overrated Big XII basketball conference. Michigan State has a coach who is the best of Kelvin Sampson and quality strategician. Toughness is the pride and logo of MSU basketball. It's why they were in their fourth straight Sweet 16. Everybody but Thomas should be back next season. OU should be as good. Everybody else will be a year better.
And maybe Ryan will regain his touch from 15 feet.
