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Not quite 40 minutes of anything right now. We trail 12-6 with 11:52 to go in the 1st half. Go Bears.

Halftime
UCA 32
SW OK St 30

We are a little rough around the edges, but I can see the improvement over past seasons. Go Bears!

A couple of things:
I'm hoping coach is holding something back since this only an exhibition game.
You can tell most of these players weren't recruited to play this style of basketball.

UCA trails 39-34 with 15:37 left.

Still having a rough go of it. Down 40-45 with 11:43 left.

3:44

UCA 51
SWOKST 59

All I have to say is hmmm...

There will be very rough days as CW gets the team in place and a new style taught..has to be patient

I agree with you.

40 minutes of he**....I hope not this kind! I'm sure CW will have his players work out a system that is good for them and they'll win some games.

The one thing we can take out of this is it was an exhibition. We have a week to fix things, make adjustments, and beat Hendrix next Saturday night.

Anyone who thought this team was going to make a quick turnaround just because of a coaching change didn't keep up/see many games the last several years.

A coach and/or his style can only take you so far.

We lose 70-60 against a DII school. Not a good omen. Don't misinterpret my post, I'm still 110% behind the new coaching change. Something had to be done. No doubt CW doesn't have the type of players presently that he wants to run his style of basketball. Adapting his coaching style to the talent he has might be the most interesting thing to watch this season. For me, that will be the telling sign of just how good a coach CW can and will be down the road. I figure he has one of two choices - coach to the players abilities and probably win some games or coach according to his philosophy and maybe go down in flames.......or surprise the heck out of some folks and make some noise.

I agree with you HB. There were spurts when you could tell that these players were trying to play CW's style of ball, but then something would happen and they would stop playing like he wanted and get frustrated with themselves. One thing is for certain, we are going to need some players who can handle the ball to play this type of offense. There were numerous times when they were playing uptempo that a player would trip over the ball and kick it to the other team of out-of-bounds. Credit SWOSU because they were playing some pretty good defense. I could tell this team wanted to play well, but they just haven't quite gelled with what CW wants them to do, and who could blame. They weren't recruited to play this way, but they are giving it all they have and with some time they will hopefully put some stuff together.

Go Bears!

One bright spot was Chris Henson coming off the bench to get 14 and 9. In the first half especially he looked good. He may be our breakout player because he'll actually be given a chance to play. Freshman Ryan Williams (#25) looked hustled and looked good in spots as well.

Agreed on Henson. He was a square peg in a round hole in the previous system. A mobile, agile 6'8" guy with a mid-range and outside shot should thrive in a more uptempo game. I think with consistent minutes and, in turn, confidence, he has a good chance to develop into a real threat for us.

Couple things to keep in mind about yesterday's game - Dewan Clayborn and Aubrey Ball were in street clothes and Tadre Sheppard was limited and only played seven minutes. This team is going to be fairly short-handed all season long anyway with guys like Jordan Harks and LeQuentin Miles having to sit the full year out and Terry Tidwell not joining until after the semester. Harks looks like he'd be a difference maker if he was out there. The guy averaged 14.6 points and 8.7 rebounds during conference play as a freshman last season for a 19-win team and was an NAIA All-American Honorable Mention.

Don't be fooled by the D2 thing. That Southwestern Oklahoma State team had some talented guys who were clearly more physically mature than most of our guys (as you'll often get with D2 teams). If you think back to our D2 days, there were a lot of guys on those teams who would start for us today. Lamar Grimes, Chris Gray, Lee Reliford, Mark Maxwell, etc. D2 guys aren't always less talented - they just got overlooked in recruiting, developed late, transferred from D1 situations that didn't suit them, or just couldn't stay D1 eligible.

SWOSU had a guard (Jeremy Lay) out there who transferred from Hawaii. Had 26 points against New Mexico, 14 points/4 rebounds/4 assists in 14 minutes against Fresno State, 19/4/4 against San Jose State and so on.

Greg Richardson, one of their forwards, is a TCU transfer. Curtis Nickson, the 6'9" 275-lb. monster they had out there originally signed with UAB out of high school. He'll be 23 in two months. Ross Moore and Charleston Flemmings, who combined for 30 points, are both senior guards who had good careers at state-title/runner-up teams in big classifications (6A/4A) in Oklahoma and Texas.

We aren't really equipped to handle teams that are that big and physically mature. The goal is to offset that by using speed and quickness to create havoc - but when you're only playing nine that's hard to do. And their solid, experienced guards didn't help us with poor decision-making.

Long story short, I wouldn't be overly concerned because it was a D2 team. I don't really have any great expectations for this season anyway - as has already been said here, it takes time to get your guys in place and give them time together as a team.

The goal, I think, in Year 1, is to try to win as many games as you can but really you're building for the next year. The problem then, in Year 2, is that you're replacing Tadre, Imad, Pouncy, Dos Santos with a new recruiting class and guys who sat out this year. So now you're better built for your style - but you're inexperienced. I think Year 3 is really where you hope to put it all together.

The arc on the women's side is similar. The first year, with predominantly somebody else's players, was awful. The second year - with a team built by the current coach – it was an inexperienced team ... though they defied logic and went nuts with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores. If Year 3 is when you put it all together, they probably ought to have a good year.

So yeah - yesterday wasn't the epic opening we'd hoped for, but it's also not much to get concerned about. This will be a "baby's first steps" type year ... and to me, it's fine as long as baby is taking steps instead of just standing there stomping.