SB Nation - Willie Warren

Cade Davis & Tony Crocker Save The Day

ccmachine — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:33:48 -0000

Willie Warren was once again very ordinary and Tiny Gallon was once again in foul trouble so the Sooners, once again, needed Tony Crocker to put the team on his shoulders which he did, again. Crocker scored 24 points and grabbed 10 boards for his fourth double-double this season but you could argue that it was made possible by Cade Davis.

"Cade (Davis) played well. Cade really saved us in the first half and down the stretch. I really feel like that is probably the reason that we won. That stretch right there when they made a push, I thought Cade was really good and I thought Crock (Tony Crocker) did some really good stuff. That shot (Crocker) took late was not a smart decision, but he battled against bigger guys and still got a double-double." - Jeff Capel

After falling behind Northern Colorado 38-27 with just under three minutes left in the first half the Sooners relied on Cade Davis, who nailed six three-point shots in the first half, to draw back to within one (39-40) at the half. Davis ended the day with a game and career high 25 points but 20 of them came before halftime. The second half belonged to Crocker who put OU ahead for good at the 16:44 mark of the second half.

Both Davis and Crocker were superb on offense but gave very solid defensive performances as well. Both had two steals and Crocker had two blocked shots while Davis had another himself. They combined to make the perfect one two punch for the Sooners but they really aren't the duo we expected to see leading the Sooners.

With three McDonald's All-Americans on the team you'd think that one of them would have found a rhythm by now but it just isn't happening, for whatever reason, right now. Tiny Gallon allows himself to make silly freshman mistakes which results in foul trouble which in turn results in more time on the bench than playing on the court. The Sooners were outscored 36-20 in the paint on Saturday and much of that discrepancy came in the first half with Tiny on the bench.

Willie Warren had more turnovers (5) than he did points (4) which helped the Bears an 8-2 advantage in fast break points. Something is clearly wrong with Warren and everyone sees the frustration in it. He's hasn't been the player that this team needs him to be yet and he may be running out of time to take the leadership position that everyone expected him to. On Saturday he settled for jump shots, despite being 2-9 from the floor, and never really tried to drive, create and get fouled. He never earned a trip to the charity stripe. Even Jeff Capel seems to be fed up and is no longer participating in the, "what's wrong with Willie?" game. Capel said he was "tired of trying to figure him out," and gave no other information on the issue.

"I'm not trying to figure out anything," Capel said before walking out of his postgame news conference. "You figure it out."

Tommy Mason-Griffin is giving solid minutes and in light of Willie's slump has been more crucial to the team than either Gallon or Warren have been recently. He's certainly shown more improvement from the start of the season than the other two have.

If you take away these three guys then Saturday's win over Northern Colorado his a huge stepping stone. However, having talent like that on the team makes Saturday's win a moral defeat.

"This was a step backwards. Nothing associated with this game today was progress." - Jeff Capel

Davis and Crocker saved the day for Oklahoma with fantastic performances on Saturday but they certainly weren't the guys we thought the Sooners would be banking on to carry the team.

An Ugly Win Is Still A Win, Sooner Streak Now At Five

ccmachine — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:10:42 -0000

More photos » by Mike Terry - AP

What the heck is the big guy (#5) doing in the background? (AP Photo/Deseret News,Mike Terry)

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Oklahoma's men's basketball team had 13 of their shots blocked by Utah on Saturday afternoon. They only shot 34% from the floor and missed 8 free throws. The Sooners missed crucial free throws down the stretch in regulation that could have sealed the game and didn't score for the first two minutes of the overtime period. Yet somehow OU managed to pull out a road win against the odds. Even with their double-double machine, Tiny Gallon, sitting on the bench in foul trouble.

Oklahoma's 78-73 win over Utah was anything but a thing of beauty but it was desperately needed. It was a measure of improvement as they last time they played in an opponent's gym they were practically run out of it. It was a test of character, will and merit and the Sooners passed. The best thing to come out of this game wasn't necessarily the win but the confidence established that the Sooners can win when things don't go their way.

"I think a lot of our guys grew up today. This certainly was not a pretty game. To win on the road and only shoot 34 percent isn't good. But one of the things that we did do was show a lot of toughness." - Jeff Capel

Willie Warren was awful, again, from the floor (7-22) but yet he managed to drop off a game high 27 points by shooting his was out of a slump, drawing fouls and converting free throws. Warren made 11 of his 12 free throws and hit a three-point shot in the overtime that gave Oklahoma the lead for good. He was 2-2 in the overtime and both shots were clutch. When Warren reaches the point where his shots start falling then the rest of the college basketball world had better watch out. Until then, drawing fouls and dishing out dimes seems to be as good a plan as any.

With Tiny Gallon in foul trouble for the entire game Oklahoma was dominated down low. Utah's 7-3 center, David Foster, swatted six Sooner shots himself and OU was outscored in the paint 16-10. To counter this Oklahoma went to the guards to carry the day and despite the poor shooting percentages they got the job done. Tommy Mason-Griffin had what was possibly his best game as a Sooner, finishing with 18 points and Tony Crocker banked 12.

However, rebounding was Oklahoma's guards saved the day. Tiny Gallon was limited to just 10 minutes of playing time and while he scored almost a point per minute he only managed to grab 3 boards. Going up against a seven-footer Tony Crocker, Cade Davis, Willie Warren and Tommy Mason-Griffin pulled down 28 rebounds. Crocker got 10 for his third double-double of the season and second consecutive and Warren was just two boards away from his own double-double with 8 rebounds.

Again, it was ugly but it was just what the Sooners needed. Oklahoma returns home to face Northern Colorado next Saturday and then UTEP in Oklahoma City on the 21^st before traveling to Spokane to play Gonzaga on New Year's Eve. That leaves two opportunities to build on this confidence and get ready for the toughest challenge to this point of the season.

OU Wins On The Road 78-73 Over Utah!

ccmachine — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:49:39 -0000

Willie Warren - 27 points/8 boards/4 assists

Tommy Mason-Griffin - 18 points/6 boards/3 assists

Tony Crocker - 12 points/10 boards

Runnin' Utes Face Another Big Test against Sooners

BrysonCutla — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:23:31 -0000

More photos » by Laura Rauch - AP

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Next Game

Oklahoma Sooners
@ Utah Utes

Saturday, Dec 12, 2009, 1:00 PM PST
Jon M. Huntsman Center

TV: Versus

Q&A With Crimson and Cream: Talking Oklahoma Hoops

posted by Jeremy Mauss about 2 hours ago

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Complete Coverage >

Utah's big win against Michigan Wednesday must be in the past if the Utes hope to continue their success. Utah (5-4) took apart the Michigan Wolverines (4-4) and hope to ride the momentum on Saturday. Oklahoma (6-3) has been hot of late, riding a four game winning streak into Salt Lake City.

The Sooners were ranked as high as #16 in the preseason. OU will be lead by Willie Warren who is averaging 18.6 points with 5 assists per game. There have been concerns that Warren isn't accepting the leadership role well. Complimenting Warren in the backcourt will be Tony Crocker who has improved much this season averaging 13.7 points and 7 rebounds per game.

For the Runnin' Utes they must continue

what they have been doing on the glass. Utah outrebounded Michigan 34-21. Rebounding and winning loose balls have been the struggle in this early season. Utah will be lead defensively by David Foster who is averaging about 4 blocks per game. On the offensive side it will be the energetic freshmen Marshall Henderson who had a career game against Michigan with 22 points.

This game looks to be a toss up as both teams are very athletic and well coached. This will be the Sooners second road game of the year and must match the intensity of Utah to be able to come away with the win. Utah has been highlighting this matchup for quite some time and it should be electric in Salt Lake City. The key for the Runnin' Utes will be to rebound, win the loose balls and control Willie Warren. Defensive minded Jace Tavita will receive the challenge.

Q&A With Crimson and Cream: Talking Oklahoma Hoops

Jeremy Mauss — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:00:19 -0000

The award winning series (or at least I think it is at least a good idea) is back for hoops season as we interview other SB Nation sites in a short five question Q&A. This first one is Oklahoma's Crimson and Cream Machine talking about Saturday's matchup with Utah.

1.What has been the reason for Oklahoma being so streaky of late as they are 3-3 in their last six games?

I think that the slow start can be attributed mostly to so many new guys taking the floor and not yet fully understanding the system or their roles on the team.

This team has three former McDonald's High School All-Americans in the starting five and I think that initially posed a problem. These guys were used to carrying the load for their teams and now they have to share it. Even as a sophomore Willie Warren has had to adjust to this because last year he was the compliment to Blake Griffin and now this year has to learn to allow Tommy Mason-Griffin and Tiny Gallon to be a compliment to him.

I think that in the last four games we've seen them get their legs underneath them, so to speak, and while the competition hasn't been great (Nicholl's St., Arkansas, Arizona, Centenary) is hasn't been all that bad either. This road trip to Utah will be a good gauge of their progress.

2. . Who are the key players that Utah must account for offensively?

Before Wednesday night's game I would have just said Willie Warren and Tiny Gallon but seeing how Tony Crocker dropped off 29 points in the first half I think that the Utes will need to be aware of where he is on the floor as well. Freshman Steven Pledger will come off the bench and is a pretty good shooter from just about anywhere on the floor.

3. What is with Willie Warren? He has NBA talent but had a DNP coaches decision against Nichols State, he is considered selfish, and needs a lot of shots to get his points.

Willie has struggled in taking the leadership role that the team needs from him. Last year the team belonged to the Griffin brothers and while he was a key component he wasn't the guy everyone looked to. Now he is and as I stated before he's had to learn to allow others to compliment him instead of trying to carry the team on his own. Like most pure scorers he does take a lot of shots and when he's on he's one of the best in the nation but its when he's off that he has to trust those around him to do what he can't.

The DNP was because of illness.

4. What are the teams expectations this year after losing Blake Griffin to the NBA?

I think that its a realistic expectation to see them finish around 4th in the conference. From there we'll see what they can accomplish in the dance.

5. Who wins and what will be the difference?

I think that this is a must win game for Oklahoma. They are on a four game winning streak and things are starting to come together for them. As previously stated this will be a measure of progress because the Sooners have been really bad on the road so far. I say that their athleticism and triple threat scoring options allows to keep the streak going.

Statistical Plus-Minus Update; Tony Crocker Playing MUCH Better

dishingoutdimes — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:46:49 -0000

Willie Warren still leads the pack in the statistical plus-minus department. Obviously he's been one of the more valuable players on the team, and it shows, as his SPM figure has ballooned to an absurdly high 26.24. I wish I had calculated it after the Arizona game when he had 25 points and played a great game, because I'm sure the figure would have dropped last night. Willie got in a bit of foul trouble and then couldn't really find a rhythm.

Tiny Gallon, Steven Pledger, and Cade Davis all still boast positive figures. Tony Crocker has made a very sharp turnaround. Previously he was slightly negative, but now has the second highest SPM on the team (11.23). Tommy Mason-Griffin has also made a considerable turnaround. After starting out the season strongly in the negative, he is almost back to a neutral figure and has been playing much better as of late.

As the team continues to jell, Crocker is going to be very important. His last two or three games have been great - he's hustled and scored, and done everything in between. The Sooners really need Crocker to be a legit second scoring threat to Warren. If both of those guys are firing on all cylinders, it will be tough to stop the Sooners' offense. This is because the Sooners would then have two guys who can create their own shot, and be scorers rather than shooters (there's a huge difference).

Add in a couple of marksmen (Pledger and Davis), a floor general (Tommy Mason-Griffin), and a big man (Tiny Gallon) and things are looking brighter for OU. One big concern I have is that Tiny Gallon will start to wear down especially as OU gets into conference play. They don't really have a lot of depth in the post. I think Orlando Allen has been playing alright, and he deserves more of a look off the bench than he's gotten recently.

The Sooners have clawed their way back to 6-3. Perhaps they'll start receiving a few votes in the polls next week. First, they're going to need to prove they can win away from home, and they'll have a couple of opportunities coming up - most notably this Saturday at Utah. Second, they need a signature win. Beating UTEP (ranked #29 in the KenPom ratings) on December 21st, and beating Gonzaga (AT Gonzaga) on December 31st would both qualify.

Of course, getting on the Sportscenter cycle doesn't hurt with the pollsters, and that's what Crocker's performance last night did for the Sooners.

Crocker And The Gentlemen - Tony Goes Off On Centenary!

ccmachine — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:41:07 -0000

Tony Crocker had 29 points and 10 rebounds Wednesday night against Centenary, in the first half! Scoring 11 of the team's first 13 points Crocker helped Oklahoma jump out to a 13-0 lead over the Gentlemen and for the fourth game in a row the Sooners cruised to a double digit victory.

Crocker was joined by teammate Tiny Gallon in recording a double-double as Oklahoma's big man finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds. Other than Crocker (11-19) and Gallon (7-11) the Sooners had a poor shooting night. As a team OU shot 34-73 from the floor (46.6%) and 10-30 from three point range (33.3%). Tommy Mason-Griffin (4-9), Willie Warren (4-13) and Cade Davis (0-7) all struggled from the floor making Crocker's performance all the more significant.

"(Tony) Crocker had a great first half. It’s one of the best performances I’ve ever seen live. He was just in one of those zones. He is a streaky shooter and earlier this morning in shootaround I watched him make about 15 in a row. The whole time he was saying ‘I don’t think I can miss.’ I guess it carried over to tonight. One of the things I liked was that all of his shots early came within the flow of the offense. He was terrific." - Jeff Capel

With guys like Warren and Gallon who can have big nights and take over games the Sooners need a third option to keep defenses from being able to shutdown all scoring options. You may be able to stop one guy from killing you, if you're good you can focus on two scorers but it's extremely difficult to stop three. Crocker is now officially the x-factor for the Sooners which means that there will be nights where OU will live or die based on how he plays. Last night was a night where the thrived on Crocker's ability to score when his teammates couldn't.

In the pregame post I said that the two things the Sooners would need to do to secure a win was dominate the boards and play their roles within the offense. OU had a 49-33 rebounding advantage which led to 15 second chance points and the team relied on the hot shooter to lead them to a win.

I don't think that anyone would say that this is Crocker's team. Willie Warren is still the most dangerous scoring threat the Sooners have but on a night where his shots weren't falling, (0-6) from three-point range, he relied on someone else to spark the team. That's learning your place and in my opinion shows the kind of leadership the team was missing earlier in the season.

Nailing 7 three-pointers helped Crocker score a career high 33 points and his 13 rebounds provided his second double-double of the season. If all that wasn't enough he also had three blocked shots to help Oklahoma's defensive effort of holding Centenary to 37% shooting from the floor.

Scenes from the Jimmy V Classic

SFBE.NF — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:41:51 -0000

There are few things that never seem to get old or date themselves in life, one of them is Jim Valvano's memorable speech standing at the podium during the 1993 ESPYs ("I got tumors all over my body, I am worried about some guy in the back going '30 seconds right now?")

In the 15th installment of the Jimmy V Classic, we were introduced to a depleted Pitt team, an overrated Butler team, an underrated Georgetown team, and a young Hoosier bunch who may have earned Tom Crean's biggest win in his in short tenure as coach.

Game one showed us that Greg Monroe is the best sophomore in the country (apologizes to Willie Warren and Ed Davis). The versatile forward (who has his critics) dropped the hammer on the Bulldogs shaky frontcourt and may have put the Horizon League favorites up against the wall and out of automatic-bid status. Hoyas win 72-65.

Admittedly, IU-Pitt looked like a snoozer, and it was. Nonethless, they might have done some light partying in Bloomington, with the nationally televised win. After the game, Christian Watford said he was ready to "put Indiana back in the spotlight." They can make even greater strides towards that goal with a win against Kentucky on Saturday.

And for Pitt, well, the Oakland Zoo may soon be getting wrestless.

Sooners Pound Wildcats Behind Warren’s 25

ccmachine — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:46:45 -0000

For the first time this season Oklahoma's men's basketball team dominated a game from start to finish in their 79-62 win over Arizona. Steven Pledger's free throw put the Sooners up 20-9 at the 12:03 mark of the first half and the game was never in doubt. Willie Warren led all scorers with 25 points followed by Tiny Gallon (14), Tony Crocker (13) and Tommy Mason-Griffin (10).

Of course as usual there are still some concerns about this team and their performance, like getting beat on the boards (32-28) and a bit of a second half shooting slump, but for the most part this was the most dominant and most complete performance we've seen from this team. My favorite stat was that the Sooners only turned the ball over 7 times while stealing the ball 9 times and forcing 17 Arizona turnovers. OU scored 21 points off turnovers, 10 points on fast breaks and had a 34-20 point advantage in the paint.

For lack of better words OU is starting to get their legs underneath them and have proven in the last two games that the team that absolutely fell on its face in Alaska isn't a true representation of who the Sooners are. Guys are starting to learn or adjust to their roles on the squad and hopefully we're seeing the chemistry of three McDonalds All-Americans begin to develop.

Sooners Have A Tough Game On Sunday

dishingoutdimes — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:50:11 -0000

Fresh off a 67-47 domination of Arkansas (2-5), the Sooners play host to Arizona (3-3) on Sunday in the Pac 10 - Big 12 Hardwood Challenge. Above is a chart of the Statistical Plus-Minus breakdown for the OU-Arkansas game. Again, here is a basic definition of SPM:

The one measure that I found that I really like is statistical plus-minus. What is it? Basically it is the number of points that a player would add to a team if that player replaced an "average player", over 100 possessions. It is based on tempo neutral statistics (averaged for "per 40 minute production"). It accounts for things like turnovers hurting a team, and things like assists and steals helping a team.

I excluded Andrew Fitzgerald and T.J. Franklin from the analysis as neither played more than 3 minutes. Admittedly SPM works best when applied over a longer stretch of games, but it does offer some revealing trends. Ryan Wright had probably his best game of the season, which is funny because you probably wouldn't have noticed him on the court all that much. He only played for 12 minutes, but had a productive 12 minutes with 4 points, 3 rebounds, and an assist. As expected, Tony Crocker was basically the MVP of the game. He had more minutes than Wright (Ryan's production probably would have fallen with more minutes). It was one of Tony's best games as a Sooner. It seemed like every time down the court he would get a rebound. He finished with 16 points, 16 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and a block.

Willie and Tommy Mason-Griffin both had solid games. "TMG", as he is sometimes called, needs to round out the stat line just a bit more. His assist totals continue to stay down, but he also decreased the number of turnovers he had. Cade Davis' SPM figure is slightly negative, which is enormously misleading. He's probably the other candidate for MVP in the Arkansas game. He hassled the nation's top scorer, Rotnei Clarke, all game long and held him well below his season average with 11 points. Without Cade's consistent effort on the defensive end, this game would have been much closer. For reference, Cade held Rotnei to a -3.46 SPM figure, an unbelievable accomplishment for the junior guard from Elk City, Oklahoma. The most impressive thing was the number of isolation plays they ran for Rotnei Clarke, and how all but 1 or 2 (if memory serves me right) failed because of Cade's defense. I thought the shift to man defense was a big plus for the team as a whole.

Bottom line: Cade Davis deserves a lot of credit for the performance he had against Arkansas, and defending Rotnei Clarke. It's no easy job to defend the nation's leading scorer for 38 minutes, especially when you're used to coming off the bench. Cade has had to work hard ever since he got here, and clearly the effort is paying off.

More on the 'Zona game after the jump!

Arizona will come into the game at 3-3, after dropping two consecutive games to Vanderbilt (#23 KenPom ratings), and UNLV (#40 KP). In fact, their last time out it was a heartbreaker, at home, in double overtime (74-72 loss). Arizona plays a lot of man defense as well. Their low defensive turnover% (15th lowest in NCAA) suggests they play teams straight up and don't gamble on the passing lanes (the low defensive steal% also suggests this). Thus, I would expect a half-court game where both teams will try to set up plays. This would decrease the number of possessions in the game, probably pretty close to being in line with OU's average of 65 per game.

While Arizona does have a pretty good record, they have yet to beat anyone ranked higher than #100 in the KenPom ratings, and statistically their best win was against Colorado. They also have not played a game at a true away site.

What does Arizona do well? Their defense is only allowing 0.905 points per possession (PPP), which is good for 55th in the NCAA. They hold teams to a low effective FG% (44.1%, 65th NCAA) and have a low defensive A/FGM ratio (38th NCAA) which suggests that they play defense to set up a lot of one-on-one matchups and try to make you beat them with individual effort on that end of the floor.

I think a key to the game for the Sooners will be to run the floor on misses by Arizona, and not allow them to simply sit back and dig in their heels. We have the athletes to run the floor, and doing so would put the Wildcats out of their comfort zone.