Report Card: Oklahoma outmatched by No. 21 Gonzaga in Spokane

Losing on the road to Gonzaga, who is ranked No. 8 in KenPom, isn’t a bad loss, but what was bad was how things looked for Oklahoma in the first half in particular. The Sooners trailed 49-30 at halftime and went on to lose 83-68. With the loss and the poor performance came a lot of low grades, and that’s exactly what we’ve got.

Here’s a look at how each player graded out in Oklahoma’s first loss of the season:

Starting Five

Guard: Xzayvier Brown — 73 — 21 points and five turnovers on 8-14 shooting from the field and 2-4 shooting from deep. Brown was solid when it came to scoring, but there were too many possessions where he over-dribbled and committed too many turnovers. Has to make better decisions.

Guard: Nijel Pack — 71 — 18 points and three turnovers on 7-15 shooting from the field and 2-9 shooting from behind the arc. Loved seeing the effort from him on both ends and he did some nice things as a scorer, but he was inefficient, missing seven three-pointers.

Wing: Derrion Reid — 78 — 11 points on 2-6 shooting from the field, 1-3 from deep, and 6-6 from the free-throw line. Thought he played much better than in the first game. Good to see him confident in his shot. Was efficient despite limited volume.

Wing: Tae Davis — 59 — 8 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 turnovers on 3-10 shooting from the field and 0-3 from deep. Very tough night for him on both ends. Shot poorly and was never able to get going offensively. Didn’t show great effort on the glass either.

Center: Mohamed Wague — 66 — 2 points and 7 rebounds on 1-2 shooting from the field. Really impacted the game when he was in on the defensive end and on the glass. The problem was he couldn’t stay on the floor and didn’t give the interior presence Oklahoma needed.

Starting Five Average Grade: 69.4

Bench

Guard: Dayton Forsythe — 68 — 6 points and 2 turnovers on 1-2 shooting from the field and 1-1 from deep. Had a nice flash with the pull-up three-pointer and was efficient when he was in. Wouldn’t mind seeing a little more of him.

Wing: Jeff Nwankwo — 45 — 0 points on 0-5 shooting from the field and 0-4 from behind the arc. Very rough night for him. Was negative across the board. Couldn’t knock down a shot and took a few bad ones. Got beat backdoor a few times, didn’t rebound well, and was slow on rotations. Bad night.

Wing: Kuol Atak — 52 — 2 points and 4 rebounds on 1-4 shooting from the field and 0-2 from deep. Had a few defensive lapses but overall wasn’t horrible on that end. Would’ve liked to have seen Oklahoma get him more looks from three. They tried to run a few actions for him, but Gonzaga was very physical with him.

Center: Kai Rogers — 40 — 0 points in six minutes of play. Not fully healthy yet but was asked to step in because of foul trouble. Let Gonzaga’s All-American center get to his dominant hand on one play. The Bulldogs had their way with him. He’s a freshman and will learn from it. Part of this grade is also due to inactivity.

Bench Average Grade: 51.2

Overall Grade: 65.8

This team simply cannot afford Wague to get in foul trouble. It was an issue tonight, and it will be an issue all season. This has been a problem for Wague throughout his entire career, and Oklahoma is banking on it not being one this year. That doesn’t exactly make you feel great.

It would’ve also helped if Rogers were fully healthy, but he wasn’t, and that was not the game to get him acclimated either. It also would’ve helped if Oklahoma had gotten some offensive production from Davis, who is supposed to be the team’s best overall player. You have to hope that was just a rough night for him.

Another concern was Nwankwo’s performance. To be fair, this was just his second Division I game, but he had a very rough night. He didn’t give you much offensively and had some poor defensive lapses. It seems like there’s a pretty clear role off the bench for Jadon Jones once he returns.

It was just a rough performance for the Sooners overall. This team needs some time to gel and figure each other out. The ceiling is still high, and expectations haven’t changed, but that was a poor showing against an elite basketball team.

They’ll need to figure things out before next Saturday, when they travel to Sioux Falls to take on Fred Hoiberg’s Nebraska Cornhuskers at 6:00 on Big Ten Network. That’s a game Oklahoma really needs to have, and it’ll start with better production from Wague and Davis, along with the guards taking care of the ball.

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