Tag: Le’Tre Darthard

Sooners guard Javian McCollum to enter the transfer portal

After leading the Oklahoma Sooners in scoring, Javian McCollum set to enter the tranfer portal. Another big portal loss for the Sooners.

The exodus continues for the Oklahoma Sooners men’s basketball program. After just missing out on the NCAA Tournament for the third season in a row, [autotag]Porter Moser[/autotag] and the Sooners have another rebuild ahead of them.

Oklahoma had already lost [autotag]Rivaldo Soares[/autotag] and [autotag]Le’Tre Darthard[/autotag] to eligibility and have now lost [autotag]Otega Oweh[/autotag], [autotag]John Hugley[/autotag], and [autotag]Milos Uzan[/autotag] to the portal. Well add Javian McCollum to the list of portal entries from Oklahoma as Joe Tipton of On3 reports McCollum will depart OU after just one season.

McCollum was a big addition for the Sooners, coming over after a nice career with Sienna. McCollum led Oklahoma in scoring at 13.3 points per game and also averaged 3.4 assists per game, sharing point guard duties with Uzan.

Though his time in Norman was short-lived, McCollum made an impact. He’ll be most remembered for the shot he hit against Oklahoma State at the buzzer to help the Sooners beat the Cowboys in overtime and secure the Bedlam sweep.

With McCollum gone, the Sooners have lost nearly 50 points per game in departures this offseason.

A third straight year of roster turnover will put a bigger spotlight on Moser and his staff as they prepare for their first season in the SEC.

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State of the Oklahoma Sooners Men’s basketball program

Can the Oklahoma Sooners continue to live in the transfer portal?

Another year and another offseason of roster turnover for [autotag]Porter Moser[/autotag] and the Oklahoma Sooners men’s basketball team. The Sooners are coming off a year of growth but not enough to make the NCAA Tournament.

This marks the third straight season the Sooners have not gone dancing in March, which is unacceptable for a program like Oklahoma. The Sooners also now have their work cut out for them because they have to replace five key pieces from this past year’s team.

[autotag]Le’Tre Darthard[/autotag] and [autotag]Rivaldo Soares[/autotag] are out of eligibility. Milos Uzan, John Hugley and Otega Oweh have all entered the transfer portal. The writing seemed to be on the wall as the season was coming to a close but they still create a big hole to fill this offseason.

The Sooners did add two players to this past year’s recruiting class meaning they have four spots to fill in the transfer portal.

Some of the names the Sooners have reportedly been linked to are [autotag]Brandon Garrison[/autotag] from Oklahoma State, [autotag]Sean Pedulla[/autotag] from Virginia Tech and [autotag]Kevin Overton[/autotag] from Drake. What do they all have in common? They all played high school basketball in Oklahoma.

But right now, the state of the program is not good.

Does that mean those guys aren’t buying into Moser’s message? Are they not buying into the vision he has for the program or for them as individual players? What is the disconnect so far?

In this day and age, you can build a great team in the portal. North Carolina State and Alabama both did it. They both have several key pieces that transferred in this year or the year before. It can be done, but Oklahoma and Moser have to start hitting on the big fish.

I get Oklahoma isn’t a “basketball school” and is much more of a “football school”. A lot of people say Purdue is a basketball school and not a football school. Did you know since the 1980-1981 season, Purdue has made one Final Four, whereas Oklahoma has made three? Purdue ended their final four drought this season.

It’s time for the university and the people who support the school to start showing more support to the basketball team. Start raising NIL so they can be competitive in that space in the portal. If the Sooners will start getting competitive, they’ll have no problem getting fans into seats.

But it starts with the school taking it a little more seriously than they have to this point.

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Best photos from the Oklahoma Sooners overtime win over Cincinnati on Senior Night

The Oklahoma Sooners battled in their overtime win over the Cincinnati Bearcats and here are the best photos from the night.

It’s not about how you start but how you finish. And the Oklahoma Sooners finished strong in their overtime win over Cincinnati.

On senior night, the Sooners were down big early in the first half but battled back to trail by one at halftime. Even after the Bearcats extended their lead back to double digits in the second half, the Sooners rallied once again.

On a night with no [autotag]Javian McCollum[/autotag] and what was a rough outing for Milos Uzan, the Sooners got big-time performances from [autotag]Le’Tre Darthard[/autotag], [autotag]Rivaldo Soares[/autotag], and [autotag]Jalon Moore[/autotag], who combined for 50 of Oklahoma’s 74 points.

The win puts the Sooners at 20 on the season and likely solidifies they’ll be a top 10 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Oklahoma has one more chance to make a statement this Saturday when they travel to Austin to take on the Texas Longhorns.

Here are the best photos from the Oklahoma Sooners overtime win over the Cincinnati Bearcats.

Bench steps up in Oklahoma Sooners win over Oklahoma State

Le’Tre Darthard hit two huge threes and helped lead Oklahoma to a big win.

The Oklahoma Sooners capped off a massive week by going 2-0 with a win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the final home Bedlam game as conference opponents. It was an ugly game for the Sooners, but sometimes you have to win ugly.

It was tied at four nearly seven minutes into the game. But then the Sooners found their rhythm offensively. They ended up shooting 45.7% from the field and 39.1% from three, but once again, they were poor from the foul line. They went 15 of 24 (62.5%), which is really what kept Oklahoma State in the game, or this one could have been a blowout.

The biggest plays of the game might have been two [autotag]Le’Tre Darthard[/autotag] threes. One was in the final seconds before halftime. The other hit the front of the rim, and bounced up and in, giving the Sooners a three-point lead with just over three minutes left in the game. The Sooners ultimately never gave the lead back.

Porter Moser spoke in his press conference about those two huge plays. “Even like at the end of the half,” Moser said. “What a veteran. We got a stop with seven seconds left and Waldo (Rivaldo Soares) got it, escaped dribbled, two dribbles up the sideline for a big three. Those are really good momentum turners right there.”

Those were massive shots from a guy many thought was getting too many minutes. But Darthard was massive for Oklahoma, going 3 of 4 from three and scoring nine points. They’ll need him and the other bench players to keep it up with a stretch of games against top 15 opponents coming up.

It starts with No. 13 Baylor on Tuesday night.

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Oklahoma Sooners find the right pieces in the Transfer Portal

The Sooners have been one of the Transfer Portal success stories so far in college basketball this season.

The transfer portal era has created both positive and negative consequences for college sports. The good thing is it’s made it so that teams can plug some holes they have going into the next season. It also gives players an alternate avenue if their current situation isn’t working out.

But that can also be a bad thing. It also teaches players if things don’t work out, don’t wait it out and try to improve. Just hit the portal. Several teams have had to rely on the portal. Since [autotag]Porter Moser[/autotag] took over at Oklahoma, they’ve been one of those teams.

But they hadn’t had much success with the portal until this season. The additions of [autotag]Javian McCollum[/autotag], [autotag]Le’Tre Darthard[/autotag], [autotag]Rivaldo Soares[/autotag], [autotag]John Hugley IV[/autotag] and [autotag]Jalon Moore[/autotag] have seemed to fit perfectly.

Moser shared Monday about why they’ve had so much success this season. “Javian, we really needed speed, shooting at that guard spot,” Moser said. “We needed some older big wings that could defend physically against higher level athletes, Rivaldo Soares and Le’Tre Darthard. John gives us a big physical presence. So, we did well in the portal by getting the needs we have and I don’t think that you could look further than the Big 12 at a league that has done the same.

The Sooners hit a home run with their portal class. It’s a credit to him and his staff for the evaluations they did on these players and knowing they could fit together. Which has brought winning basketball back to the Lloyd Noble Center.

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‘I believe they’ll knock it down every time’: Milos Uzan has confidence in Le’Tre Darthard, Rivaldo Soares

RIvaldo Soares and Le’Tre Darthard play big off the bench for the Sooners.

Oklahoma Sooners’ bench has been up and down all season. They have a lot of veterans in reserve with a ton of experience, but it just hasn’t been consistent enough.

But this past week, the bench was very good for Oklahoma. [autotag]Rivaldo Soares[/autotag] averaged 10.5 points per game on 71.4% from the field and 60% from three. He also grabbed four boards a game. [autotag]Le’Tre Darthard[/autotag] also was pretty good. He averaged five points per game but shot 50% from both the field and from three, including two huge free throws to seal the game vs. Cincinnati.

Milos Uzan discussed how big it is when Soares and Darthard are hitting shots. “When everybody is making shots it makes us a lot better,” Uzan said. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in everybody. With Tre and Waldo, they are great shooters. When they’re set up and they’re feet are set, I believe they’ll knock it down every time.”

Now that they both have had a good week in Big 12 play, the Sooners are going to need more of that going forward. They can’t have the inconsistency they’ve had. The Sooners have two massive home games this week, one against their arch-rival and the other against a very good Texas Tech Red Raiders team who is 15-3  and 4-1 in Big 12 play.

The Red Raiders will also be coming off a week of rest as they don’t have an early week game. So, only time will tell if they can keep this momentum going.

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Oklahoma Sooners bench plays big in win vs. West Virginia

Rivaldo Soares and the bench played huge in the Sooners win vs. West Virginia.

During Oklahoma Sooners’ two-game skid in conference play, a big critique of mine was how poorly the bench had played. Well, during Wednesday night’s win against the West Virginia Mountaineers, the bench rose to the occasion.

Oklahoma got 26 points from its bench, including 13 from [autotag]Rivaldo Soares[/autotag]. Soares came into the game having scored 13 points total in his last five games. But he showed up with an attacking mindset against West Virginia. He shot six free throws during the game, making five of them. He also went 2 of 3 from the three-point line.

Soares shared after the game about how important it is for the bench to play well, especially in [autotag]Big 12[/autotag] play. “At this point of the season, every team has it,” Soares said. “People start getting hurt, and you have to have some type of depth in order to be good. The teams that don’t really have a lot of depth tend to struggle toward the end of the season.”

The Sooners’ three main guys off the bench, Soares, [autotag]John Hugley IV[/autotag], and [autotag]Le’Tre Darthard[/autotag], average 22 points per game combined this season. But during their three losses, they averaged 11.3 points per game combined.

The Sooners will go as far as their bench can take them.

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Luke Northweather provides spark off the bench for the Oklahoma Sooners

Luke Northweather might have been the surprise player off the bench who provided a spark against the Kansas Jayhawks.

The Oklahoma Sooners need more production from their bench. Against TCU, the bench scored 18 points, but 14 of those were from [autotag]John Hugley IV[/autotag], who basically played starter minutes due to foul trouble for [autotag]Sam Godwin[/autotag].

Against Kansas, the bench scored only 11 points. But six of those came from a surprise player. [autotag]Luke Northweather[/autotag] who has only played in 11 of Oklahoma’s 16 games. He hadn’t played any Big 12 minutes before getting some run in Allen Fieldhouse against Kansas. But Northweather came in and gave the Sooners six points on 2 of 3 from the three-point line.

While hitting those shots was good to see, Porter Moser said it was something else about his performance that caught his eye. “What I liked, even in the first half, he looked comfortable,” Moser said. “He looked like the moment, he wasn’t afraid of the moment. That was the sign that I saw. I thought he embraced the moment.”

It remains to be seen if Northweather will get more minutes as the season goes on, but the Sooners are in desperate need of someone to step up off of the bench to give them some scoring. [autotag]Le’Tre Darthard[/autotag], [autotag]Rivaldo Soares[/autotag] and Hugley have shown they can do that but not on a consistent basis to this point.

If Northweather can come in and add to that, it gives Oklahoma even more weapons as the season goes on.

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Oklahoma ranked No. 10 in ESPN’s power rankings

The Oklahoma Sooners have been the surprise of the country and find themselves in ESPN power ranking’s top 10.

The Oklahoma Sooners men’s basketball team might be the surprise of the college basketball season. They were picked to finish 12th in their conference in the preseason but instead find themselves in the top 10 in the country.

The Sooners are sitting at 13-1 (1-0 Big 12), with their only loss a “neutral” site loss in North Carolina to the Tar Heels. The thing that has been most impressive is how different players seem to step up in just about every game. Their depth has been a key factor to the start. Whether that’s [autotag]Otega Oweh[/autotag] or [autotag]Javian McCollum[/autotag] or [autotag]Milos Uzan[/autotag] or [autotag]John Hugley IV[/autotag] or [autotag]Le’Tre Darthard[/autotag], it always seems to be a different person who always steps up.

ESPN has taken notice of that. They ranked the Sooners No. 10 in their latest power rankings, and it’s because of their depth.

When I talked to opposing coaches for a piece last week about Oklahoma, BYU and Ole Miss, Le’Tre Darthard’s name barely came up in conversation. Yet he was a key difference-maker in the Sooners’ win over Iowa State to start Big 12 play. The Utah Valley transfer came off the bench to hit three 3s and score 11 points, including a 3 with 3:15 left to push Oklahoma’s lead to four. – Jeff Borzello ESPN

That’s exactly why they’ve been as good as they have been. As Borzello said, coaches weren’t even talking about a guy like Darthard, but he stepped up big in Oklahoma’s win over Iowa State. If they can continue to get big contributions from a variety of players, they’ll be a tough team to beat the rest of the way.

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Oklahoma Sooners open Big 12 play with a 71-63 win over the Iowa State Cyclones

The Oklahoma Sooners opened Big 12 play with a 71-63 win over the Iowa State Cyclones to move to 13-1 on the season.

The Oklahoma Sooners opened their final year of Big 12 play with a 71-63 win over the Iowa State Cyclones in Norman.

[autotag]Javian McCollum[/autotag] led the way for the Sooners with 15 points on 6 of 16 from the field.

It took just under two minutes for either team to register their first points of the game, which set the tone for defensive battle Saturday evening. That McCollum three put Oklahoma in front to start the game and they wouldn’t trail again until there were less than five minutes to play.

After leading for nearly the entire game, the Sooners were forced to respond as the Cyclones took a one-point lead with 4:47 to play in the game. And respond, they did. Oklahoma went on to outscore the Cyclones 16-7 over the remainder of the game.

The final stretch saw the Sooners make several defensive stops to keep the Cyclones from coming back to tie the game. And it was their free throw shooting that put the game away. Oklahoma was 7 of 8 from the line in the final 1:23 to seal the game.

Oklahoma shot 47% from the field and 40% from the three-point line and held Iowa State to 43% shooting and 19% from three-point range. Though the Sooners lost the rebounding battle and the turnover battle, they were able to keep Iowa State from taking advantage. Oklahoma also held the edge in fast break points.

In addition to McCollum’s big game, Milos Uzan had 12 points, four rebounds, and five assists. [autotag]Le’Tre Darthard[/autotag] had 11 points off the bench, shooting 3 of 4 from three-point range. [autotag]Sam Godwin[/autotag] was the other Sooner in double figures, scoring 10 points on 5 of 8 from the field. Godwin also had six rebounds in the win.

The Oklahoma Sooners moved to 13-1 on the season and 1-0 in Big 12 play. They’ll have a chance to make some noise with a pair of road trips to TCU on Wednesday and to Allen Fieldhouse next Saturday to face the Kansas Jayhawks. The Horned Frogs took the Jayhawks to the bring on Saturday, falling short in a controversial 83-81 loss in Lawrence.

The Sooners are off to a fantastic start, but these next two games will have big-time Big 12 title and NCAA tournament seeding implications.

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