In the impossible world going undefeated in college basketball a loss for the Sooners, like every other team in the country, was imminent. We just didn’t think it would be as epic as Monday night’s 73-54 setback to Stanford. The Cardinal seemingly couldn’t do anything wrong and Oklahoma couldn’t buy a basket.
Austin Reaves scored 17 points to lead the Sooners, Brady Manek scored 10, and Alondes Williams came off the bench to score 12 but their efforts weren’t near enough to dig Oklahoma out of the 17-0 hole they started the game with.
Here are the three biggest contributing factors to the Sooners’ bad night in Kansas City.
Poor Shooting
The Sooners were 23-of-61 (37.7%) from the floor, 4-of-17 (23.5%) from three-point range, and 4-of-13 (30.8%) from the free throw line. For perspective, Stanford shot 38.5% from the floor, 40% from three-point, and 68.4& from the free throw line.
Some nights the shots just don’t fall but it was colossally bad for Oklahoma on Monday night.
Beat On The Glass
The Sooners not only got beaten in rebounding by twenty boards (48-28), they were only able to secure just five offensive rebounds. That’s a lot of empty trips down the floor, with just one shot, and a great job of limiting Oklahoma’s possibilities by Stanford.
Kristian Doolittle led the Sooners with eight rebounds.
Pointless Minutes
Three Oklahoma players logged a total of 59 minutes of playing time on Monday night without scoring a basket. Most notably was Jamal Bieniemy who was 0-5 from the floor and scoreless over his 32 minutes of playing time.
Among the Sooner starters Manek and Reaves scored 27 points with Doolittle (Season low 4 points), De’Vion Harmon (3 points), and Bieniemy combining for just seven points.
Oklahoma (5-1) will play Missouri (4-2) at 6:00 Tuesday night.
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