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Three Key Takeaways.

Buddy Hield’s 27 Points Led the Way for the Sooners (USA Today Images)

1. The Sooners are going to have play better going forward. Cal State Bakersfield played well today, but if the Sooners don’t improve they are going to have a difficult time handling VCU. Their defense allowed Aly Ahmed to get open and score 16 in first half, including a three-pointer at the buzzer to keep Bakersfield in the game. However, they made the right adjustments at the half and Ahmed was held scoreless after the break. Cousins and Woodard were able to make up for Oklahoma’s limited offense in the paint, and will have to keep producing going forward to free up Buddy Hield. Khadeem Lattin scored an important six points, and is going to have to step up on offense more if the Sooners have designs on a Final Four or beyond.
2. Bakersfield took advantage of early miscues and cold shooting and wouldn’t go away quietly. Oklahoma started out slow and Bakersfield took full advantage of the lull. They were able to keep pace and hold Hield to mainly transition baskets in the first half, but as they tired and allowed the All-American to get his hands on the ball, he wore them down. He scored 13 of his 16 second half points in the final nine minutes as the defense tired. The Sooners as a team shot 72 percent from three-point range in the second half.
3. Concentrating intently on keeping the ball out of Buddy Hield’s hands seems to have some merit. West Virginia adopted this strategy in the Big 12 Tournament and were able to get past Oklahoma as a result. Bob Huggins said: “All we talked about was, let’s do everything we can possibly do to not let him get his hands on the ball.” Bakersfield had several different defenders on Hield, but it was evident their sole job was to concentrate on him. At one point, Hield was standing in the corner not moving, and the defender didn’t take his eyes off him to look at anything else going on. The majority of Hield’s points were in transition – he had a hard time getting open until the final minutes.

Star of the Game. Buddy Hield, Oklahoma. Hield had a relatively quiet game and was well-defended, but somehow came out with a game-high 27 points.

Quotable.

• “We’d be tied if a few calls finally went our way.” – Random fan.
• “I can’t believe it either, Buddy, I can’t believe it either” –Another random fan, as Hield looked at a referee in disbelief after a questionable possession call went Bakersfield’s way with 3:32 left in the game.
• “That’s unfortunate. That’s all I got.” – sophomore forward Khadeem Lattin, on being called a good team but not a great team.
• “So we’ll get back to the hotel now and sit down. I haven’t seen VCU at all, so Coach Hill’s seen a bunch. So I’ll sit down with him and the rest of our coaches and we’ll map out what we think gives us a chance to get a good result. – Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger, on preparing for VCU

Sights & Sounds. The Bakersfield cheering section was vocal about a series of questionable calls that seemed to go in favor of Oklahoma throughout the game. Fun group.

What’s Next? Oklahoma will advance to play #10 VCU on Sunday. The are going to need to have solid play by Woodard and Cousins to allow Hield to get more open looks.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 18th, 2016 at 5:57 pm by Czech Smith and is filed under 2016 ncaa tournament, rushed reactions. Tagged: buddy hield, cal state bakersfield, oklahoma. 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.