One could almost hear Tom Petty singing Free Fallin’ while watching Tulsa’s season continue to fall into the abyss on Saturday at the Reynolds Center.
Tulsa’s lack of toughness was the theme for TU coach Frank Haith in his post-game press conference, as he seems as befuddled as anyone as to what is going on the last few weeks.
“It’s disheartening that we didn’t have the fight that you need to win basketball games. We’re not competing right now,” Haith said. “I just didn’t like the lack of effort we had out there today.
“The toughness thing is something we have to get better at. That was very noticeable. We’re not a tough basketball team. We’ve got to get tougher.”
A once promising start to the conference season has turned into some really ugly basketball, as a crowd of 4,229 witnessed Houston easily dispatch Tulsa 73-64 on Saturday.
An abysmal offense in the first half, combined with poor defense during the entire game, spelled doom for the Golden Hurricane.
Tulsa (12-12, 6-6 AAC) had no answer for Houston sharpshooters Rob Gray and Damyean Dotson, who scored 28 and 24 points, respectively.
Offensively, another poor half of shooting resulted in Tulsa trailing 36-25 at halftime. Nine turnovers and 30.8 percent shooting in the half is a continued recipe for failure.
Houston (18-7, 9-4) never let Tulsa get close in the second half, as the most the Golden Hurricane cut into the lead was six points - the last time 65-59 on a three-pointer by Pat Birt with 4:51 remaining.
But just when it seemed like Tulsa might have a chance, TU failed to get a rebound off a bad miss of a well-guarded three-pointer by Gray. In typical fashion for the game, Gray made a wide-open three, and Tulsa never got closer.
“We had a chance to win the game. The toughness stuff just reared its head, in terms of lack of block-outs, two second shots that they scored down the stretch,” Haith said.
Gray, averaging over 20 points per game, was as good as advertised, as was Dotson. However, defense on the duo for most of the game was porous at best.
Despite a well-deserved reputation for being excellent outside shooters, the duo was continually left open for three-pointers. The result was 12 of 27 for Houston behind the arc, including 6 of 11 by Gray.
With virtually a two-man team, Houston shouldn’t be that hard to stop. Houston’s inside game is weak to say the least, with two stiffs - seniors Kyle Meyer and Bertrand Nkali - playing a combined 27 minutes. The two combine to average three points a game, and had a total of two points between them Saturday.
Tulsa played a little better in the second half on offense, as Corey Henderson was one of the few bright spots in the game. Henderson scored 19 points on 6 of 9 shooting from the field, including 5 of 7 on three-pointers.
“We had our chances to win the game even though we’re not tough,” Haith said. “We didn’t fight like you need to fight to win basketball games.”
Tulsa has now lost five of its last six games after a 5-1 AAC start. The only game Tulsa has won in that stretch is against UCF, which is Tulsa’s next opponent on the road Tuesday night.
“I’m going to tell you this - we’re going to be tougher,” Haith said. “We’ll find somebody, some guys, that will play with the kind of resolve, the kind of intensity that we need to play with.”
