Bleacher Report - Articles by Lindsey Hodges

Oklahoma's Five Keys to Reaching the Final Four

Lindsey Hodges — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:41:36 -0500

With 10 games left in the Big XII regular season, and a conference tourney looming, the Oklahoma Sooners still have room for improvement. What follows are the five areas that are most important for Oklahoma to continue its roll to the Big XII regular season title and a possible No. 1 seed.

1) Guard play

Austin “Half Court Shot” Johnson has been on fire—the kind of on fire that burns with the fury of a thousand suns. So hot, that if Jeff Capel had told him to stand outside before OU’s win in Stillwater Monday night, the ambient heat from his body would have melted all of the ice in Oklahoma and caused a super-storm the likes of which the Great Plains hasn’t seen since the Paleolithic era.

The one knock on Oklahoma all season has been that they will live or die with the play of their guards. Tony Crocker has been solid. Willie Warren, the best NBA talent of the group, has been brilliant in spots, dropping 18.8 points on the road this season, but has also disappeared at times.

OU has proven the strength of its guards. Now they have to continue to prove it for at least 10 more games.

2) Blake Griffin’s Ball Security

Blake Griffin is a monster; no one is debating that. He can, however, improve his game, and Oklahoma’s prospects, by focusing on ball security. He must stop turning the ball over.

Griffin averages 3.2 turnovers a game. The impact of this is diminished because the Sooners are 20-1, and because Griffin also averages 2.5 assists per contest, but make no mistake, he averages more turnovers than any single player for UConn, Duke, North Carolina, Pitt, or Notre Dame. His assist to turnover ratio hovers around 1/1.3, but with his precision as a passer, this figure could easily be reversed.

Griffin is double-teamed almost constantly, so a turnover now and then is expected, but if Griffin can curb his propensity to give the ball away and morph those turnovers into assists, then he will truly be hitting on all cylinders.

3) Prove it on the Road

OU’s only loss this season came at Arkansas. The Big XII is traditionally a hard league to steal road victories in. OU is 3-0 in league road games, but that dominance away from the Lloyd Noble Center could be a mirage.

OU has beaten Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and Texas A&M on the road, but their RPIs respectively are 28th, 105th, and 46th—not exactly dominant competition. However, the OSU win is respectable considering what a snake pit Gallagher-Iba Arena can be.

Continued road success will prove the mettle of this team. Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech, and Missouri all await the Sooners, in their own buildings, and have RPIs of 20, 35, 94, and 29.

The Sooners haven’t won in Austin in Jeff Capel’s tenure at Oklahoma. Baylor will want revenge for the hoop train Griffin and his gang ran on the Bears in Norman. OU hasn’t beaten Missouri in Columbia in seven years. The Red Raiders are down this year, but Lubbock is loud, and one bad night of shooting and a few calls against Griffin, and Big XII perfection is a shattered dream for the Sooners.

4) Bench Play

The maturation of the bench is of the utmost importance to the Sooners’ national championship hopes. OU’s starting five ranges from the best player in the nation to a few superb role players. The bench has been a point of weakness; however, with the sudden injection of Juan Pattillo into the lineup, Oklahoma may have a definite answer to the question of depth outside their five starters.

Pattillo was invaluable in the Oklahoma State win, and if he continues to find his legs, he will be an extremely serviceable replacement for either of the Griffins when they need rest.

Cade Davis is also developing nicely as a role player. Coming out of high school in Elk City, OK, Davis was ranked only behind Blake Griffin as the best player in the state. He is lights out from three-point land and a very good passer. The problem is that Oklahoma is only seven, maybe eight, players deep.

If Blake Griffin was to fall to an injury, this team would immediately evaporate; he is that good. No team could lose a talent like Griffin and emerge unblemished.

Similarly, if Austin Johnson were to go down, that could also spell doomsday for the Sooners. There is nary a player on the roster that could fill in for Johnson, and, according to Capel, he isn’t even a “true” point guard. OU must develop depth at the point and at the forward spots to survive in March.

5) Peak Late

The Sooners must peak late. Playing well in February is important, but not indicative of success. Playing well in March is where careers are made and destroyed. Oklahoma must play hungry, and they must play their best ball at the end of the season.

No one in Norman wants a National Player of the Year award at the expense of a Final Four banner. The fans of Oklahoma would rather win a national championship, their first in basketball, than have another Big XII tourney title.

The key to that goal is in the No. 1 seed. If OU plays well down the stretch and dominates the second half of its conference schedule, as it did the first half, and continues its success into the late rounds of the Big XII tournament, a one seed is not out of the question.

Duke, Carolina, and Wake Forest are going to beat each other up in the ACC, as are Pitt, UConn, Georgetown, Marquette, and a host of other teams in the Big East. OU is, at this moment, the best bet of any team outside those conferences to get one of the top seeds.

As it stands right now, OU is a talented team with a huge upside. Are they a legitimate Final Four threat? You bet.

Are they a Final Four lock? Not unless they continue to improve every game, and rise to the level of their competition, competition that will only get tougher each subsequent game.

How the Oklahoma Sooners Can Save College Football

Lindsey Hodges — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:07:32 -0500

It truly has been a year of unmatched splendor for college football fans. A year of successes, uplifting stories, and the birth, and rebirth, of programs once given up on.

Now, the Oklahoma Sooners can make this the most important season in college football history.

As many as four teams have a legit claim for No. 1, and the only thing standing between this group of Trojan Warriors, Utes, and Cows is Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators.

If Florida smacks OU around the Orange Bowl like USC did, no one will dispute the Gators are number one.

However, if those plucky Sooners can pull the upset, well, chaos ensues.

I'm not going to get into who I, personally, think deserves what this season. There is no way for me to make an unbiased statement on that subject. I will say that Oklahoma winning will ensure a glorious future for fans like you, and your children.

For how long have we marched to the oppressive beat of the BCS drum?

For how long have we toiled to see no true champion?

I say, "No more!"

George Orwell, in his book 1984, supposed that the working class was the most mighty force on the planet, yet would continue to be oppressed as they were easily scared, and afraid of change. We can be these Proles no longer!

I, as a college football fan, am tired of being duped. I'm tired of dreaming of a playoff system. I'm tired of having to fight against, or defend, everything that happens to my team.

So I beg of you, be you Bulldogs, Wildcats, or even (gasp!), Trojans, cheer for Oklahoma. Believe in Oklahoma. Trust in Oklahoma.

A Sooner victory is the only way to piss off enough people to bring change to our great sport.

An Oklahoma victory, alone, can move the wheels of history.

So unite with me, as college football fans, and hope for a better tomorrow.

A tomorrow where, through whining and complaining, we finally create change.

A tomorrow, that can be today, through your hopes and prayers.

It is up to us, the American Fans of College Football to, in unison, cry out with a thousand voices through the night:

"Yes We Can!"

*if OU wins, or you are, just, really into my message, you can yell "Boomer Sooner" as well. Try it, you might end up like Billy Sims, and never be able to stop...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1mI9WooCzw

New Year's Bowl Resolutions

Lindsey Hodges — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:35:54 -0500

As we enter 2009, there are 10 resolutions that these teams, coaches, and players are making. From curses, to states of mind, to play calling everyone left in the bowl season has something to improve on. These are the New Years Resolutions for the 2009 bowl season*. *Party hats and guilt not included

Begin Slideshow

Georgia Tech-LSU: Jackets Embarrass the Option in Peach Bowl

Lindsey Hodges — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:33:19 -0500

Georgia Tech taught me something I already knew:

The option doesn't work in college football anymore.

Lesson learned, Yellow Jackets. Now stop making fools of yourselves.

I was taught, in the state of Oklahoma, that the option died over the course of several horrific Orange Bowls, at the hands of Jimmy Johnson's Miami Hurricanes. A rude, cruel football murder was perpetrated in South Beach in the late 80's that set OU back a decade.

But you know what OU did?

They ditched the option for a more viable offense. Sure, they didn't find it until Bob Stoops and Mike Leach came along ten years later, but they found one.

Nebraska still ran the option for years after Oklahoma jettisoned it, eventually coming to the same conclusion as their rivals to the south: This can't work anymore.

And for a time, all was well with the world.

Then, along came Navy. The option was revived, and Georgia Tech's 2008 season began to take shape.

I respect a "mid-major" program that does things a little different than a big time program. I went to Tulsa, and graduated with a legendary offense including a 5,000 yard passer, a 1,000 yard rusher, and three 1,000 yard receivers, so I know a little bit about a "mid-major" doing things a little different.

What I have observed of coaches that run these "prolific" offenses at small schools, who eventually are hired by schools in the power conferences, is that their system rarely makes the transition intact, and as productive as it was.

Short story: It's really easy to run the option at Navy. Name three teams Navy plays each year other than Army, Air Force, and Notre Dame. Can you? I couldn't, so I looked it up. Suffice it to say, the run defenses of Towson, Duke, Temple, and SMU don't have offensive coaches scared.

Sure Georgia Tech did well during the regular season this year, but how good is the ACC? I think the WAC and the Mountain West might be better, at the top of the conference, than the ACC. BC played for the championship of the ACC this year, andVandy, VANDY, went legendary on the Eagles today.

The real reason the wishbone, option, whatever you want to call it, worked was because there were a stable of running backs to execute it. Due to scholarship limits on programs today, the lateral speed of defenses, and the fact that almost no one gets caught by surprise anymore, the deck is stacked against the option.

I will say this though, if USC had kept all nine of their five-star running back recruits, and got a QB like West Virginia's Pat White, they could run the wishbone. Same goes for OU with Brown, Murray, and Madu.

As it is, Georgia Tech needs to get with the program, and decade.

Oregon State-Pitt: Sun Bowl Sets College Football Back a Century

Lindsey Hodges — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:22:51 -0500

I'm a huge football fan. I love smash-mouth football on every level. A game that ends with a 3-0 score is something I long for. Long for, if the defenses are really great throughout the entire game.

The Sun Bowl was not this. The Sun Bowl might as well be called "The Inept Bowl" this year.

My mother had a law partner in Midwest City, Okla. for about 15 years. He was a quiet, nerdy type of guy that no one would assume even thought about sports. He did think about sports, however—specifically the Sun Bowl. In fact, I was bowled over, pardon the pun, when he asked me if I was going to watch the game.

That was five years ago, and since then I have watched the Sun Bowl every year to see why he liked it so much. I mean, I can understand liking the Rose, Cotton, Orange, or Sugar bowls. Hell, even the Fiesta Bowl is considered a great bowl, now. Not as much in the '80s, but now it's annually pretty great contest.

So it is now, with a heavy heart, that I relinquish my fascination with the Sun Bowl. That's how bad this game was. I knew without OSU's star tailback, Jacquizz Rodgers, that the game might be slow, but I was not prepared for this.

Kick both of those teams out of the top 25. Also: make them relinquish all their victories this season. That's what Pitt and Oregon State deserve for making me watch a game of this nature.

There shouldn't be stats given out after this game. The trophy should be thrown into the ocean, and the Sun Bowl should be burned to the ground, and salt should be sowed into the ground so that no college bowl ever grows in the streets of El Paso again.

That's not hyperbole. This game was that bad. Almost "put-a-person-to-sleep" bad. The kind of game that makes me long for a playoff, not because it is the right thing for the sport, but because no one should have to watch a game this bad, that means, literally, nothing in the grand scheme of the season.

I felt like I was watching a game in 1897. Only Walter Camp was nowhere to be found. If he had been in El Paso this afternoon, however, he would have wondered why he ever invented a game this pointless and boring.

Oklahoma State Moseys to 9-4, Loses to Oregon

Lindsey Hodges — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:10:38 -0500

This could have been the finest football season in Oklahoma State history. Well, at least recent history.

No, this team is not on par with the Gundy-Sanders-Dykes teams that terrorized scoreboards in the late eighties.

Oregon, however, is a much better opponent than the Wyoming team that was trounced by the aforementioned players in 1988, and is the story of the game.

Oregon, despite a few defensive lapses looked nothing like the team that got tore up from the floor up by USC. They didn't look as good as the Oregon team that beat down Oregon State, but not everyone can be Oklahoma and score 60 points a game.

I was left with two questions after this game, and neither of them involve the heart-broken Cowboys.

1) Can this Oregon team compete with USC next year?

2) Is OSU's defensive performance an indicator of how the other three Big 12 South bowl teams will perform?

1) I really am no expert on Oregon, but the way they withstood quite a bit of adversity from the Cowboys makes me think, without massive losses to the draft or graduation, this team might be able to compete for the Pac 10 title, or the Rose Bowl if USC is in the BCS Championship Game, or both.

2) I think perhaps the national perspective on the Big 12 defenses might be right after watching this game. OSU Could. Not. Buy. A. Stop. They stayed on the field for what seemed like ages, and when the offense did score, and gain momentum, the defense quickly surrendered more points.

I threw Band-Aids at the T.V. to stop the bleeding.

Clearly, that didn't work.

As for the Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Texas defenses. I think only Oklahoma and Texas' will be proven to be worth their salt. We at least need to see one of the Big 12 South, ugh, tri-champions, before we condemn their D's, but right now, things don't look good for them.

As for OSU, at least Robinson is coming back, and barring massive defections to the NFL, they might be able to compete for the Big 12 South in the future. This season, however, would have been so much sweeter for the Pokes if their three losses came to teams ranked in the top three in the nation. Coaches talk about how moral victories are ficticious, but that would have been the definition of moral victory.

Unfortunatly, "How 'bout them Cowboys?" is a question that must be asked when OSU takes to the proving grounds next autumn. Perhaps next year the Pokes will have more success.

Chase Daniel and Missouri Underwhelming Yet Again at Alamo Bowl

Lindsey Hodges — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:39:23 -0500

Let me start by saying I LOVE the Alamo Bowl, especially when Northwestern is playing in it. I remember when Nebraska and Eric Crouch flea-flicked Northwestern off the field during the 2000 season. I remember it, mostly, because it was the first bowl game I ever watched. It was exciting, even though the outcome was never in doubt.

This year, however, was one of the least exciting one-score games I have ever seen, and it all comes back to Chase Daniel. The question is, “Why am I not surprised?”

From coast to coast, Mizzou was predicted to decimate Northwestern. Pundits pointed to this game as the first indicator of how the Big 12 defenses would fare against their bowl opponents. Finally, Chase Daniel was picked to light up the Northwestern defense.

So, what happened?

The same thing that always seems to happen to Mizzou. They talked about being disrespected, disappointed, and claimed to have a chip the size of the Show Me State on their collective shoulders.

Daniel had the Tigers mad—just like he did before the last two Big 12 Championship Games. Much like in the 2007 Championship Game, Daniel looked, to quote Network, “mad as hell,” and as though he, “…(wasn’t) going take it anymore.”

In the end, however, the same snake-bitten Mizzou team showed up and did their best to lose the game.

Oh, they won. The final score shows that, but they looked bad doing it. Daniel looked confused, and the defense—with the exception of Weatherspoon, who was the MVP of the game—looked like a sieve.

The pundits, however, were wrong. This team is not an indicator of Big 12 success this bowl season. The indicator will be tonight, in the Holiday Bowl, as Okie State takes on the Ducks of Oregon. See, Mizzou plays in the Big 12 North, which is like the Amstel Light of the conference.

Mizzou deserves some credit though. They beat a team that they were supposed to beat. So, “Kudos, Tigers.” While I’m at it, “Good work, Texas. Rice has nothing on you.”

At the end of the game, left in the half-full stands were 200 solemn Tigers and, on the sideline, was the angriest dwarf wearing the number “10” I have ever seen.