Open Game Thread: K-State vs. Oklahoma
Who: Kansas State vs. Oklahoma
When: January 10, 2008 | 12:47 PM
Where: Manhattan, KS | Bramlage Coliseum (12.528)
Media: Big 12 Network/ESPN Full Court/ESPN360 | 1350 KMAN
Alright, boys and girls, Kansas State is FINALLY starting Big 12 play, and what a way to kick off the conference season! K-State hosts #6 Oklahoma in a sold out Bramlage Coliseum, and both Panjandrum and TB will be at the "Bram" to witness the game in person. But, please, don't let that prevent you from commenting on the game. If you've got thoughts, share 'em. If you've got concerns, share 'em. If you've got funny .gif pictures that you think I should add to my collection, share 'em. We'll check in later in the day (or on Sunday) to share our thoughts as well.
Go Cats!
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I should be around for the most part.
Should be a good chance to see just how good this young K-State can be.
Go State!
Okey dokey
I promised an OU preview, but got swamped with the Big 12 Outlook, so this will have to suffice:
Blake Griffin is not the key to this game. Yes, you have to play honest on him, and be physical, but he’s going to find a way to break 20 so we just have to accept that.
Willie Warren is also not the key. Not because he is not a threat, but because I have 100% faith that Dominique Sutton will hold him to 12 points or less. Warren is a less polished version of O.J. Mayo, and Pullen and Sutton combined to control him pretty well last season. Brandon Rush was ineffective for an entire half against Sutton, and that was when Dom only had a few games under his belt.
The key is twofold: don’t let Taylor Griffin beat you underneath with easy shots, and control the perimeter. Taylor is an underrated threat, and his brother draws so much attention that he often gets uncontested looks off the extra pass. Kent and Samuels MUST be on top of their game and prevent this from happening, as Colon and Anderson will have their hands full with Blake.
As for the perimeter, I do not believe the Sooner guards are anything to be overly concerned about (other than Warren, who I have already addressed). Johnson and Crocker can light you up if you let them, but I have also seen them shoot OU right out of a game and forget that they have Blake Griffin on their team for long stretches of time. Pressure them (and we will), and they will make dumb decisions.
Pullen and Clemente, rotating with Brown and Awaji, should do an adequate job denying entry passes, pressuring the basketball as it comes up the floor, and guarding shots. The X factor in this game (other than the crowd, which should be a distinct advantage for the Cats), is which team’s bench shooter will contribute more: Cade Davis or Fred Brown. If one of them comes out hot and just nails 3s, it could turn the entire game. Davis scares me a lot more than Johnson or Crocker – he’s a more polished version of Werner, a male Laurie Koehn. We CANNOT leave him open on the perimeter, ever.
I like the Cats to win 74-70, but it will be a hard-fought contest either way. Can’t wait to tip this off. I’ll be in and out on here periodically.
I think Taylor Griffin just asked the ref,
“Do you know I am Blake’s brother? You can’t call charges on me. See? My last name is the same as his.”
Man, we lost composure in the last 3 minutes
Gotta find some kind of offense, but I don’t know how. Posts can’t do anything b/c they get hacked and Jake and Fred are playing PG like crap.
Yeah, but one positive I've seen
is that we now have the talent at all 5 positions to match up with teams like this. Even last year we lacked that 4th or 5th player that could compete against these teams.
Turnovers are absolutely killing us.
No other way about it. And it’s more because of mistakes we’ve made, not that Oklahoma is picking our pockets.
Well, my quick review.
The first half showed us what happens when we follow through with our defensive game plan and are patient on the offensive end. Towards the end of the first half, our guards started forcing the ball inside, too often with dribble penetration. Turnovers lead to easy points for OU, and we weren’t able to recover. The second half pretty much exemplified all of our shortcomings on both ends of the floor. We have a tendency to get lazy on the defensive end, which leads to silly fouls and easy points. On offense, we make silly mistakes and turn the ball over, or we force low-percentage shots too early in a possesion.
While I’m not happy about the loss, I definitely expected this type of outcome considering how young and untested we were. Look at it this way, besides Texas (who we only play once), the rest of our schedule doesn’t get much more difficult than this.
A couple of thoughts moving towards Tuesday’s contest in that city down the river. I’m comforted in knowing that our post players can keep Cole Aldrich in check for most of the game. As long as the refs stay objective and don’t get blinded by this supposed “phog”, our guards should be able to pressure their backcourt into making silly turnovers. I feel very confident, although I can guarantee that other school will be pumped and ready to play in front of their home crowd.
Yeah, in retrospect this wasn't totally surprising
I was optimistic that we would play better, but we are what we are. We have to be hot from outside to win in this league with our post deficiencies, and we were too inconsistent. By hot, I mean that Jake, Denis, and Fred all have to be hitting their 3’s. Obviously Jake did not show up today. When that happens, things don’t open up inside for Samuels, and he was further hampered by the early cheap fouls. Those 4 all have to have good scoring games for us to win conference games, I feel. Today, we had only 2 of 4 until it was too late, and you can’t do that against the best player in the league.
Also, I agree that we can beat KU
But I don’t think we will. I’m going to assume they come out hot, pissed about the MSU game.
Hey, if we pull it off, I’ll be pleasantly surprised, but I really thought we would play better than this today and we looked too much like we did against Iowa and Oregon, and that discourages me from making any more bold predictions for the immediate future.

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