NORMAN — Not ready. Just not ready. It’s nothing Lon Kruger might have done differently. He had the Oklahoma men in a good place to face Kansas on Saturday afternoon at Lloyd Noble Center.
Though it became a bit of an embarrassing 72-61 loss, Kruger had the Sooners sharp, leading 34-33 at the half. Kansas wasn’t playing poorly, OU was keeping up.
But Kansas kept playing.
Sometimes it’s that simple.
Because OU quit playing.
It all went wrong the first possession of the second half. Up by a point, in position to go up three or four on the No. 14 Jayhawks, and Romero Osby stood between the top of the key and halfcourt, a little right of center, looking for somebody to give the ball.
He wasn’t guarded closely when he extended his right arm as though he might give it up, just not the way he intended. The ball slipped away as his arm remained extended, like he’d left his keys in the car, the realization hitting him a moment too late.
But if he was hating himself for the transgression, he soon had company in all of his teammates.
It was only one of nine second-half Sooner turnovers, seemingly all of them coming the first 11:39 after the break, a stretch that amounted to a 27-8 Kansas run and a 62-40 lead.
OU played like one half was enough. Like it had proven something by sticking close to a very good team for 20 minutes. Like the whole idea was to show everybody it was not the team Missouri hammered 87-49 four days earlier, and having done that, the day was complete.
Only it wasn’t complete.
It wasn’t supposed to be complete until the final buzzer. Because the Sooners shut down much sooner than that, it was over much sooner than that.
“We came out kind of flat,” Osby said, “on both ends of the floor.”
No “kind of” about it.
Sam Grooms and Osby were there for the postgame autopsy, but were much better on what happened than why it happened.
“We just have to get better,” Grooms said.
They do, but not so much.
They’d be much better if they simply played well longer, which requires playing harder longer, which requires never believing you’ve solved the puzzle.
When Kruger speaks, he’s so to the point. After Kelvin Sampson’s smokescreens and Jeff Capel’s extreme honesty, Kruger can get to the essence of something with a word or two and a look on his face.
When he said the Sooners had to be “tougher,” he clinched both fists, like it was a visceral thing, like it required an appetite.
Then he said his players had to be “engaged,” another great word, one that has nothing to do with athleticism and everything to do with focus and intent.
When you’re engaged, things don’t happen to you. You happen to them. And being 10-2 in the non-conference doesn’t help you happen to them. Indeed, OU being 10-2 is so last year.
You wonder if the Sooners will get it.
It was an embarrassing second half, and yet a step forward when put up against what happened at Missouri. It should be almost pleasing to the Sooner Nation to watch its team take such lumps against programs it might not beat even on a very good day.
On the other hand, Bedlam is next, Monday in Stillwater, and even as the schedule becomes more manageable, with Kansas State and Texas Tech at home, 0-3 in the league with a home-court and a Bedlam loss along the way is no way to start anything.
You can’t be two steps behind everywhere on the court for 10 solid minutes. You can’t fail to get your best scorer, Steven Pledger, any good looks for an entire half. And you can’t fail to finish, as the Sooners failed several times, even when the ball gets to the basket.
You can, though, take a look at the schedule and realize a long march has only just begun.
“The good thing about it,” Kruger said, “is they will keep working.”
Also, of all people, you can believe in Kansas coach Bill Self.
“I followed Lon at Illinois, so I have a pretty good feel of how he coaches, because I coached the guys that were prepared to win when I took the job there,” he said. “I’m sure he’ll get these guys to that point real soon.”
Clay Horning 366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com
