Not Chris Otule's shining moment

[Da 'Lanche]

Lots of progress this year, but, tonight, he has been brutal on both ends of the court.   Hope it is a learning experience for him and he continues to mature and grow.   He is such a likeable kid but tonight has just been awful for him.

[Hards Alumni]

Well there is a talent gap.

Just sayin.

[nyg]

Huge talent gap.  I am sure he is a nice kid, but he can't hold the pass or make a shot from 3 to 4 feet.  Gardner is 10x better offensively and showed tonight against great opposition. 

[4everwarriors]

Chris one of those McDonald's players, the kind that eat there.

[79Warrior]

Huge talent gap.  I am sure he is a nice kid, but he can't hold the pass or make a shot from 3 to 4 feet.  Gardner is 10x better offensively and showed tonight against great opposition. 

He is fine playing against smaller players. he is completely lost tonight.

[Goose]

O'Toule has improved a ton but he is not a big program guy.

[ChuckyChip]

He is fine playing against smaller players. he is completely lost tonight.

+1.  Chris really struggles against guys his size or bigger...something to focus on in the off-season.

[Mr. Nielsen]

There will be better days.

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

Due to his disability, he will never be an offensive force.  He does well defensively.

[Blackhat]

He's come a long way in 2 1/2 years of healthy practice time....excited to see if he can take it to another level with 2 more years of practice..

Agree there are some physical limitations there though.

[LA]

I give Chris props on making huge strides in only his second season (first complete season) of playing D1 basketball. Yes he was 0-4 tonight but he did grab 8 boards (4 offensive) and had 2 blocks against one of the longest and most talented front courts in the country.

Also why are you ragging on Chris when our star junior guard was 2-9 with 7 points and had 4 turnovers??

[willie warrior]

Otule is a back up. If the people cannot see that, then I feel sorry. nothing against the guy, that is what he is. gardner is the future. Spare me the raves.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Otule didn't have a great game, but the passes into him were absolutely ATROCIOUS!! The kind of passes a varsity girls team would make! AWFUL! I'd say it was honestly 70 percent bad passes and 30 percent Chris needing to go get them. Terrible!

I still like Chris, by the way!

[wadesworld]

Otule didn't have a great game, but the passes into him were absolutely ATROCIOUS!! The kind of passes a varsity girls team would make! AWFUL! I'd say it was honestly 70 percent bad passes and 30 percent Chris needing to go get them. Terrible!

I still like Chris, by the way!

I absolutely agree.  Crowder may be the worst passer I have ever seen.

[MUMac]

I absolutely agree.  Crowder may be the worst passer I have ever seen.

Crowder and Buycks can both be lazy passers.  Today, it was exposed.  The lazy entry pass allowed Zeller to poke it away.

[warriors1991]

Watching OSU right now and noticing that any time Sullinger is ANYwhere near the basket, he's elevating over the rim and attempting a dunk.
I'm not dumb enough to think that Otule is that athletic but he IS 6'11. He tended way too often this year to try fadeaways or 3 foot bankers or fallaways when he needs to realize he can be a better dunker than a shooter and try more often to elevate and attempt to hammer it home.
At the very least he'll draw more fouls than getting facialized.

[Jacks DC]

Otule didn't have a great game, but the passes into him were absolutely ATROCIOUS!! The kind of passes a varsity girls team would make! AWFUL! I'd say it was honestly 70 percent bad passes and 30 percent Chris needing to go get them. Terrible!

I still like Chris, by the way!

Yep, those are risky entry passes and given Otule's poor conversation rate it's not worth trying to get him the ball.

[CTWarrior]

Otule didn't have a great game, but the passes into him were absolutely ATROCIOUS!! The kind of passes a varsity girls team would make! AWFUL! I'd say it was honestly 70 percent bad passes and 30 percent Chris needing to go get them.

The passes to Otule are awful because he can't catch a hard bounce pass or chest pass.  The lob is the only pass he can catch.  UNC had that figured out before the game started so they overplayed the lob but we kept doing it again and again.  Even when he did manage to receive the pass he was totally ineffective.  I like the kid as a defensive stopper, but we need him out of the low post and not clogging the lane with extra defenders when he is in there.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

The passes to Otule are awful because he can't catch a hard bounce pass or chest pass.  The lob is the only pass he can catch.  UNC had that figured out before the game started so they overplayed the lob but we kept doing it again and again.  Even when he did manage to receive the pass he was totally ineffective.  I like the kid as a defensive stopper, but we need him out of the low post and not clogging the lane with extra defenders when he is in there.

I'm sorry, but I think you're wrong. Otule wouldn't have made a difference, but the passing into Chris (and Davante) was TERRIBLE!! He needs to go get the ball, but those passes were lazy, soft and without intent.

North Carolina is going to win it all, by the way.

[wadesworld]

North Carolina is going to win it all, by the way.

Losing to Kansas in the Finals.  Called it from day 1.

[Blackhat]

I'm sorry, but I think you're wrong. Otule wouldn't have made a difference, but the passing into Chris (and Davante) was TERRIBLE!! He needs to go get the ball, but those passes were lazy, soft and without intent.

North Carolina is going to win it all, by the way.

Guess the bounce pass for post entry is a lost art on our guys.   Somebody (Blue, Cadougan, etc.) please develop an up top fake then step over to deliver a low hard bounce pass to the post.

[MUBurrow]

Yeah, Otule had a rough game tonight, but I thought it was all about pace. You spend a year+ teaching him how to be a more traditional, (not in the BS white shooter sense of the word) back to the basket big man: play with his back to the basket, use his length on a traditional help defense, etc. Then you speed the game up tremendously, have him match up with one of the most athletic up and down big men in the country, and try to make him get up and down without utilizing that traditional positioning and of course he's going to have his problems.
Thought he busted his ass, but Zeller is a totally unique player thats next to impossible to scheme or simulate in practice.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Losing to Kansas in the Finals.  Called it from day 1.

Go Jayhawks

[77fan88warrior]

Yep, those are risky entry passes and given Otule's poor conversation rate it's not worth trying to get him the ball.

Put down the bottle!

[DaCoach]

Chris was hardly the problem tonight. You could just as easily jump on DJO and Buycks. As a team we had 18 TOs and only 8 assists, 5 from Junior. We were 2-16 from 3. This was a team loss and a coaching loss. But let's admit we're further than almost anyone predicted. It ended poorly but the season was hardly a failure.