While Texas and Kansas have hogged the Big 12 spotlight so far, Oklahoma is starting to demand some attention of its own. Lon Kruger’s squad, which came into last week ranked #16 in the country, visited Tulsa on Saturday afternoon and left with an easy 87-68 win. Oklahoma appears to have its best team since Blake Griffin was running the show. The Sooners’ defense is performing at a top-10 level this season, holding every team they’ve faced to fewer than 70 points, 36 percent from the field and 28 percent from three. That stingy defense is the main reason they continue to climb the national rankings and are demanding respect in such a competitive conference.

Lon Kruger has the Sooners playing very good basketball right now. (AP)

The strength of Oklahoma comes from its starting five. If it has been a while since you’ve seen the Sooners play, here’s what you can expect:

• Ryan Spangler is a Gonzaga transfer who plays physical defense in the post. He’s a great athlete who shoots a high percentage. He’s shot 50 percent or better in 32 of his 40 games at Oklahoma, and he’s shooting 64 percent from the field this season. Spangler is disruptive on defense and has a lot of athleticism for a big man.
• Senior forward TaShawn Thomas is another quick, athletic forward who rounds out the Sooners’ frontcourt. He can put the ball on the floor and play great defense on the perimeter. Thomas was the MVP against Tulsa, shutting down their shooters on the three-point line all afternoon. When he rotated down into the post, there was just no way the Hurricane were going to score driving the lane. Tulsa started settling for the more inviting mid-range jumpers instead of attacking the glass. Thomas ended the night with 25 points, five rebounds, and three blocks to go along with his stellar defensive performance. “We realized that we need to get the ball in to TaShawn and Ryan a lot more,” Kruger said afterward. “Last game, Ryan had a big game against Missouri. TaShawn had a big game today. We had gotten away from that balance, and Ryan and TaShawn help us get back to it and I like the results much better.”

• All three of Oklahoma’s guards can shoot to open up the offense. The Sooners are led by junior guard Buddy Hield, who will be a candidate for Big 12 Player of the Year. He made the preseason all-Big 12 Team, and is averaging a team high 16.0 PPG and 5.9 RPG so far this season. Keep an eye on him as the season progresses. Meanwhile, sophomore Jordan Woodard and junior Isaiah Cousins get the ball in transition and try to score quickly. As a unit, the Sooners’ backcourt rebounds just about as well as any guard trio in the country, averaging 16.7 per game. “Our guards have rebounded the ball pretty well all year,” said Kruger. “Our guards rebounding the ball makes the difference for us.”

The Big 12 now has six teams in Ken Pomeroy’s top 20 and three teams ranked in the AP Top 25. The league hasn’t been this strongly competitive for years, in large part because Kansas has been so dominant. Oklahoma has the playmakers and defense built to add its name to the list of teams that will try to end the Jayhawks’ 10-year run of conference titles. But January will be a tough month for the Sooners. They take on Texas, West Virginia, Kansas, Oklahoma State and Baylor twice in a three-week stretch. We should know exactly what this Oklahoma team is capable of after that, but the early returns are positive.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 14th, 2014 at 11:01 am by Eli Linton and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: buddy hield, isaiah cousins, jordan woodard, lon kruger, oklahoma, ryan spangler, tashawn thomas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.