By John Shinn
Transcript Sports Writer
Oklahoma didn't have time to sulk after suffering a humbling loss last Saturday at Virginia Commonwealth. A little over a day after returning home, the Sooners hopped on plane for Anchorage, Alaska.
It is there the 25th-ranked Sooners (2-1) will get see if they can bounce back from their first loss.
"They'll be fine," OU coach Jeff Capel said. "I think they'll respond. I think they're embarrassed with how we played. We got beat by good team."
On paper, The Great Alaska Shootout appears to be an event OU should dominate. It opens up with San Diego (2-1) at 12:45 a.m. Thursday. The Sooners face Houston (1-1) at 10:30 p.m. Thursday. The winner of the three-team round robin advances to face either Washington State (3-0), Alaska Anchorage (1-1) or Nicholls State (0-5) Saturday.
Where OU shakes out in the mix depends on what it learned from its first road game of the season. The Sooners had a woeful shooting night against Virginia Commonwealth. But that happens to all teams.
"It was a good example of how important defense is," Capel said. "There are going to be nights when your shots aren't falling. You can't always control that. What you can control is how you defend. We had some breakdowns after we missed some shots."
Defense has been the Sooners' Achilles heel through the first three games. Opponents are shooting 45.2 percent from the field. That's two points higher than the Sooners (44.3 percent) have shot themselves.
Some of it has to do with four freshmen -- Tiny Gallon, Tommy Mason-Griffin, Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald -- playing lots of minutes in what has been an 8-man rotation.
Freshman often struggle with defensive early because they've been asked to do it every trip up the floor.
But Capel doesn't see that an acceptable excuse.
"These guys need to learn quick. They're not going to become sophomores and juniors overnight. They have to listen to us and understand what we're saying," Capel said. "I've been a freshman. I know how it is. It's not an easy transition, but they still have to listen to us and understand what we're saying and why we're saying it."
Three games in four days in Alaska is a good time to get a crash course. There shouldn't be many distractions when you're over 3,500 miles away from home.
