The most beautiful thing I have seen all month? Let me think a sunrise over Goblin valley state park, that was nice but I think the sunset over the Salt Lake valley was pretty Majestic, no there’s something else. Buddy Hield, yes that’s it, a step back swish with the defenders hand in his face. Hields stroke is gorgeous, I mean gorgeous, it’s as if he has choreographed his beautiful shot. It’s because he has, it is well recorded that Hield constantly practices that beautiful three ball and against Oregon on Saturday practice paid off as the Sooners clobbered the Oregon Ducks 80 to 68 to advance to the Final Four.
Hield went 13 for 20 and 8 for 13 from the three point mark scoring 37 points. 65% shooting wins games but so does rebounding 38 rebounds for the Sooners. Oklahoma looks like the kind of team that can compete with Kansas or Villanova. The sooners also had some depth scoring Woodard had 13 points and Cousins had 11 points but both of those guys shot terribly from the field just showing how valuable Hield is to this Team. But where Cousin struggled putting the ball in the hole he did really well on the boards with five rebounds. Cousin plays hard and strong and gives the Sooners the grit needed inside. Hield and Cousins combine for a deadly rebound and reset when they need it which is not often with Hields accuracy.
It has long been said Jump shooting teams can’t win in the tourney. Please explain Oklahoma then, oh wait you can’t, well that’s because the Sooners are nothing like we have ever seen before. They can beat Kansas who has a spotty three point defense. They can beat North Carolina plus who doesn’t want to see a Marcus Paige Buddy Hield shootout to claim the crown of the best in college basketball. Their defense can shut down the paint point fed fighting Irish and cruise by Virginia with drive and kick plays. The sooners are more polished than Syracuse the only team that can stop Oklahoma is Villanova who shut down Perry Ellis in the first half of their game with Kansas.
Either way Hield has proven that he is top ten draft pick material. Is there a next generation Steph Curry in this year’s NBA draft? Yes and he’s got a dirty dirty stroke.
