Talking Bedlam Round 3 with Cody Stavenhagen

A rare moment is upon us; A third round of bedlam in basketball.

It last happened in 2015. Before that in 2010.

Today we get the treat of watching our favorite rivalry happen again. For OSU players and fans, it’s not just another chance to beat the Sooners, it’s also a chance to take the season series and (probably) lock up a bid to the NCAA tournament.

It’s too big of a game NOT to preview. To do so, I turned to Cody Stavenhagen who covers the Sooners in football and basketball for the Tulsa World. Cody offers up some great insight, including how OSU may be partially to blame for the collapse of the Sooners’ season, who for OU deserves blame, and who besides Trae Young could ‘show up’ for the Sooners.

As usual, the full interview is available at the bottom. There were a couple of glitchy spots, so I do apologize. However my talents as an interviewer are getting better. So there’s that.

Phillip Slavin: What are you expecting from OU in this third matchup?

Cody Stavenhagen: “It’s been hard to figure out what to expect from OU recently. There’s a part of you that kind of keeps thinking — this is something Kameron McGusty talked about yesterday — that it’s been forever since OU had a game where everyone was clicking. You had Trae Young and Christian James and Brady Manek and maybe Kameron McGusty, all playing well and hitting shots. The OU win in Norman feels like forever ago. I feel like I barely remember it.

That game in Stillwater was obviously an emotional loss for OU that some players admitted kind of stuck with them a little bit. That wasn’t the start of OU’s losing streak, but I think that was probably the moment in this season where OU really lost some confidence in itself. When Trae Young took 39 shots in that game, he’s never played quite the same since that.

What to expect? I don’t know, it’s tough to say. I think both teams are coming into this game with a lot of confidence. Trae Young missed a Sunday practice with a bruised hip, but practiced Monday. I’m a little concerned about his health. So in terms of what to expect, I expect a really good basketball game between two competitive teams who clearly do not like each other that much. In terms of who’s going to come out hot, how the teams are going to match up, it’s tough to say. I think it’s going to be a close one more than anything else.”

PS: I have one question I’ve wanted to ask someone who’s followed the team this season. Who do you think deserves more of the blame for what has gone wrong with OU in the second half of the season; Trae Young, the rest of the team, or Head Coach Lon Kruger?

CS: “I would start by saying it’s pretty ridiculous to blame Trae Young at all. If you look at just the numbers, even… he’s changed the standard for what a bad game is. He has like 20 points, six assists, and shoots a little below 40 percent and it’s like, ‘he had a bad game.’ If you put him on any other team in the country that is a great game.

Even though his numbers have dropped off a little bit, he’s still gonna lead the nation in scoring and assists. He’s really the reason OU has been competitive at all in some of these games. So yeah maybe at some points he’s taken some bad shots, he’s made some bad decisions. Maybe his presence overall hasn’t fully clicked with the team over the last month or so, I do not think you can blame Trae Young.”

“The blame lies in the rest of these players not, just not producing at the clip they need to. Or at least not the consistency they need to play with. So is that their fault or is that Lon Kruger’s fault? That’s where this gets tricky. It’s tough to criticize Lon Kruger, obviously a coach who has won at so many different levels at so many different schools. But I think this is  — if you look over the course of his career — this is one where you think ‘was this a good coaching job?’ and you really have to scratch your head. A lot of the things that have gone wrong with this team has been consistency, effort, attitude.

This is a team that has not been good defensively all year, and if you ask why, he’s say ‘well we just need more effort.’ Well effort isn’t something you can really teach in February. I my mind a team playing with effort and cohesiveness is a sign of good coaching, and usually a sign of staple Lon Kruger teams. This season, for whatever reason, this team hasn’t quite had it. I think a little blame can go around individually like why hasn’t Kameron McGusty been the player he was when he averages 14.4 points in conference play as a freshman. Why does Kadeem Lattin really plateau and not take a step forward his senior year? But when you zoom out and look at the sum of all these parts, I think the reason for sustained losing streak, the reason why so many different guys have struggled in so many different ways, falls on the coaching staff, if you’re going to pick one thing to blame. I don’t know if that’s a realistic way to look at it either…. I think Lon Kruger deserves his share of heat for this.”

PS: Outside of Trae Young, who else do you think will show up for the Sooners against the Cowboys?

[USATSI]

CS: “If I had to pick one guy I would say Christian James. He’s the second leading scorer on this team. He’s had a couple nights where he gets hot and can score 20 points or more. He’s the guy who I think, really over this past month’s tough spell, has really become the leader of this OU team. At least just in terms of his attitude and demeanor. Here’s a guy who take this very seriously, who wants to win. I know just in practice this week was getting after it. He’s a guy who’s rooting for dudes who are trying as hard as they can. You’d like to see Christian James play well. Will he? I don’t know, it’s been tough to say, but he’s a good player who I think is the type of guy who is gonna be able to rise to the occasion in March. If I had to pick one guy it would be Christian James for sure.”

If you have 13 minutes to listen to the full interview, I’d advise you too. There are some glitchy spots, but Cody has some interesting insight into what went wrong with Marcus Smart’s sophomore season at OSU, if OU is out of the tournament with a loss, Cody’s own unusual relationship with OU, Texas, and OSU, he gives his pick for the game, and we talk who will win the Big 12 tournament.