absolutely has regressed from last year. he has lost his shot and doesn't seem willing to take anyone off the dribble.  we had better recruit some jump shooters. The inability to hit the outside shots is a glaring weakness on this team.

can we just sticky this thread to the top so every time we lose a game we can come and complain about Cooper as if he's the one that single handedly lost it for us.

you can't just look at the stat sheet without putting it into context of the game. Sure he takes some bad shots, as does everyone, but how many times today did he pass it as time is winding down only to have it dumped back to him instead of the other player making a play and creating a shot? I saw him drive and kick it out to a wide open Keely near the key but instead of shooting or driving to the lane Reg took two tentative steps and dished it back over to Cooper who was blanketed with 2 seconds left on the clock. He had no choice but to chuck up a bad 3. Like in the Robert Morris game, down by 3 with 5 seconds left, Groce draws up a play where Kellogg gets the shot at the top of the key for the 3, but instead Nick gets it and dumps it over to Coop n the corner instead. ball game. Is that DJ's fault?

you can't just pretend that our offense was running on all cylinders and then  DJ just suddenly started chucking up 3s for no reason. It didn't go like that.

our starting big  fouled out with 0 points after only 6 minutes on the floor, his backup fouled out in 14 minutes with just 6 points, our other big missed 10 shots, our best perimeter shooter didn't even take a shot until the buzzer at half time, none of our bigs had more than 3 rebounds, overall we were -10 on the boards, and we put the Zips to the foul line 44 times.

in spite of all of that we only lost by 5, so yeah if Cooper had played better we would have won but that doesn't mean we wouldn't still have some major problems to address.

What I saw today is that we didn't have a response to their height.  Outrebounded 36-26, three blocked shots by Marshall and a lot of intimidation underneath.

Also, 44 FTs by Akron and 30 OU fouls is obscene.  The refs called a lot of chintzy stuff on both sides.  Even the ESPN guys noticed it.

I had the same feeling about the lead.  I think the biggest OU lead was 5.  I wouldn't have turned the helm over to Stevie, tho.  Thought it was foolish for him to drive on Marshall; Marshall swatted it down without leaving his feet.

Thank you Dennis. I think you just named my new band, Escape Goat.

He's a scape goat because he chooses to shoot long range threes when we are down by two, and rightfully so..  A two point game does not mean we need to shoot for three to change the momentum.  Every time (at least this season and several times last year) we have the lead and then lose that lead, Cooper thinks he needs to drill a three to change the momentum.  Nearly every time he misses the shot and causes us to foul .  We are always in catchup mode at that point.

Seems to me that the truth is somewhere in the middle.  perimeterpost is absolutely correct:  there were times (especially near the end of the game and/or late in the clock) when our guys gave the ball back to Cooper so Cooper had no choice but to shoot it.....But at other times, especially late in the game, Cooper just came down and put up a shot.  It seemed that he thought the shot he got was likely to be our best option on that trip down the court, so he shot it.

So, what's the solution?  First, it will not happen in one game.  Probably will take the next 15-18 games to achieve.  The solution is some combo of these:  we need guys to develop mid-range jump shots...we need to become less dependent on the three ball.  we're throwing up a lot of rushed, not on-balance three pointers...Cooper needs to learn to drive to his right...we need to screen better near the basket...we need a player or two to develop strong drives to the hoop like Offut.

For now, we need to recognize who we are and play to it:  Our strength is defense and speed.  We need to develop offensively--will take a lot of time commitment for players to develop individual skills and team skills (screens, reversals, moving without the ball).  And, we need to find a way to stop getting pounded on the boards at key points.

     I doubt there's a bigger fan of DJ on here. But, c'mon gman. A lot (not all) of his shot selections this year are hurting this team.
     Do you want your point guard, who will set all sorts of assist records at Ohio, leading the team in shots (60 more attempts than Ivo)? When he is making a little more than one-third of those shots? Do you want your point guard attempting the most 3-pointers on the team when he is making one-fourth of those shots? 
     Obviously, DJ is not entirely to blame for taking poor shots with the shot clock winding down. I think everyone on here has a high enough BBIQ to realize that. But those attempts account for only a small % of DJ's shots. 

Note: I hope the above post does not qualify me as a crybaby.

one thing I noticed about pre Xmas success vs our post Xmas struggles is that when we were winning we were establishing our outside shot early through guys other than Cooper. This opened up the D under the basket for our bigs and also made DJ's heaves from downtown not matter as much because even when he missed it helped kept the defense honest.

Last night Kellogg didn't attempt a 3 until halftime and Offutt didn't attempt a single 3 all night long. How can we establish an outside game when our best outside shooters aren't shooting the ball?

One other stat to look at- fouls. Our 3 bigs (Smith, Keeley and Baltic) were a combined 0-1 from the foul line. How is that possible? To Cooper's credit he was 8-9 from the foul line. At least when he was missing shots he was getting fouled and getting to the line.

The constant sniping at this kid is pathetic. Borna hit the nail on the head, the others we have on the floor, especially the shooters, need to work themselves into lanes to accept the pass and THEN shoot it. 

How about the numerous times yesterday that DJ, the SMALLEST kid on the floor, took on the Giant in the paint and beat him. DJ's foul shots taken and made yesterday weren't the result of his jacking up a 3. It was from driving the rim and challenging and quite honestly IMO there were numerous occasions he got mugged and got No calls!

How many times does DJ make the pass to one of the bigs underneath and they either weren't ready or fail to catch the pass or immediately catch it and attempt to throw it right back to DJ.


There were lots of factors that led to the loss against the Zips. Remember we went into that game as 3.5pt underdogs, not 35 pt favorites as the delusional think we should be. The Zips aren't exactly chump change, although there are chumps, and we knew it would be a battle. 

The officiating left much to be desired and left us totally and completely exposed underneath. Even the Akron fans I was around were screaming for the refs to swallow their whistles and let the kids play the game.  Akron outscored us at the line by 15 and had more than double the foul attempts.That alone is almost impossible to overcome on the road and normally would translate into a double-digit loss. 

If I had to place blame for the loss I would look more to Gross. Yea the officiating stunk, however his going from working the refs to turning into a stark raving maniac at crucial times is not helpful. I think he gets WAY to caught up with what the refs are doing and loses focus on what his team needs to be doing and loses it's focus as well. Also couldn't understand why Gross didn't go more zone as the fouls piled up against his bigs and Akron just feed Marshall underneath leaving  us essentially defenseless. 

Don't lose sight of the fact that there are times that a combination of Smith, Hall, Johnson or Guoard are on the floor and none of them are looking scoring first. Puts a ton on pressure on the DJ's of the world to take up the scoring slack. Sorry I'm just not buying that DJ cost us the game, I'm actually of the opinion he did yeoman's work to give us a chance to win it against some long odds.

I never remember Gary Trent not showing up....ever.

Seriously...the guy never shot 2-15 from the field. Granted his shots were mainly withing 10 feet, but still. The guy always showed up.