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NORMAN, Okla. -- Last season, Oklahoma reached the Final Four. This season, the coaches have picked the Sooners to finish sixth in the Big 12.The reasons are many. The core of the team, Buddy Hield, Isaiah Cousins and Ryan Spangler, has moved on. Hield, an All-American who was edged by Michigan States Denzel Valentine for AP Player of the Year, now plays for the New Orleans Pelicans.Oklahoma still expects to be competitive as the holdovers take on more significant roles.Theyre a talented group, coach Lon Kruger said. How quickly they mature and grow into those roles remains to be seen, but certainly, we need them to do that. I think they can, and hopefully, even more quickly than people expect them to.Jordan Woodard, a senior who has started every game of his career, was second on the team with 13 points per game last season and shot 45.5 percent from 3-point range. He played primarily shooting guard last season, but hell play point guard most of this season.As he did last year, we need him to score, Kruger said. We need him to push the pace. We need him to be aggressive defensively. With the other three guys, they had the target on their back. Now, Jordans going to have that target on his back. Hes got a big adjustment in terms of preparing for that.Center Khadeem Lattin, known as a defensive specialist, will be expected to score now. Lattin averaged 5.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and just over two blocks per game last season.Much more aggressive this year offensively, Kruger said. Hell be a guy that we need to score. Hell be able to. Hes worked hard, put a lot of time in. Hes shooting the ball well.Here are some things to watch for with the Sooners:LATTIN LEADERNow that there are spots available for new leaders, Lattin can be heard throughout practices.With the seniors gone, hes stepped up and done a really nice job verbally and vocally and providing enthusiasm and energy, Kruger said. Khadeems brought that every day. Thats more of a natural role for him.THE WAIT IS OVERTalented swingmen Rashard Odomes and Dante Buford were behind more experienced players in the past, but they were good enough to play at most schools. Buford averaged 3.5 points last season. Odomes averaged 1.9 points. They will need to help replace Hields 25 points per game.FRESHMAN PHENOMKameron McGusty follows Hield as an Oklahoma recruit from Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas. The 6-foot-5 freshman guard will challenge for a starting job.Anytime you have a freshman coming in, youre never sure how quickly its going to transpire, Kruger said. Hes a scorer, a slasher, shoots the ball well. He will definitely play a significant role. What that is remains to be seen based on production and results, but hes doing a really good job in practice.FINAL FOUR CARRYOVERKruger said the experience of reaching the Final Four last season will help his team. More importantly, the work ethic the Sooners needed to get there has been instilled into the program by the departed seniors.Well see that, probably, for years to come, Kruger said. The investment they made, the time they put in certainly has been carried over by this group, and hopefully, the next group and the group after that.RISING STAR?Christian James, a 6-foot-4 guard, worked his way into the rotation late in the season and had some key moments for the Sooners. He scored 13 points in the Big 12 Tournament against West Virginia and 12 points in the NCAA Tournament win over Texas A&M. Expectations will be much higher this season.College Jerseys . -- Gus Malzahn finally had his day in Fayetteville. Cheap Jerseys .S. Open champion Justin Rose birdied the first hole with a blind shot he hit to a foot of the pin, and he stayed in front Tuesday until he completed a 4-under 67 for a two-shot lead over Jason Dufner in PGA Grand Slam of Golf. https://www.cheapjerseysjustwholesale.com/ . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. Nike Jerseys . The defence is doing its part, too. Drew Brees threw a pair of touchdown passes in the first half and the guys on the other side made sure that was enough, sending the Saints to a 17-13 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night. NHL Jerseys .com) - Manchester City midfielder David Silva is expected to miss the next four weeks because of a calf problem.CLEVELAND -- His left arm hanging to his side, Josh McCowns eyes filled with tears as he talked about wanting to stay on the field for the Browns.McCown was badly bruised and beaten.And just two weeks into the season, Clevelands quarterback situation is beyond battered.Filling in for injured starter Robert Griffin III, McCown sustained a shoulder injury during a 25-20 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. Although he stayed in despite being in pain, McCown couldnt lift his left arm and walked to the trainers room following his news conference with it pinned to his side.McCown said his plan is to play next week at Miami, but he would not divulge any test results or what hes been told by the medical staff, a sign that his injury could require him to miss some time.We will see, he said. My mindset is that everything will be all right and we will move ahead business as usual.But business, as it relates to quarterbacks in Cleveland, is anything but usual.After losing Griffin for at least eight games with a broken bone in his left shoulder, the Browns (0-2) felt fortunate to have the 37-year-old McCown to run their offense.However, now they may be forced to turn their offense over to rookie Cody Kessler next week or sign a more experienced quarterback.Making matters worse, the Browns said starting center Cam Erving suffered a bruised lung and will be held overnight at University Hospitals for observation. Erving, who was taken from FirstEnergy Stadium in an ambulance, will likely miss several games.This was not part of the plan during the offseason, when Clevelands new front office passed on a chance to take one of the top quarterbacks in the draft and decided to sign Griffin, who flamed out in Washington. Griffin, though, couldnt make it past Week 1 and now McCowns injury has Cleveland in a difficult predicament.Its been par for the course for an organization which has had 25 starting quarterbacks since 1999 and is undergoing the most massive rebuild in its history.Thee Browns have made bad decisions, no doubt.dddddddddddd But theyve also been plagued by bad luck.McCown had just thrown his second touchdown pass of the first quarter, giving Cleveland a stunning 20-0 lead, when he immediately ran to the locker room for evaluation.As Kessler was warming up on the sideline, McCown came back and returned to the game without missing a play.I think it is just not wanting to not be out there with your guys, said McCown, who became emotional while explaining his ability to push through injuries.I have a dad and an older brother who get up and go to work and sometimes they dont feel great and they go. They go and they grind. I have two little boys that are playing football now. They get hit and they get banged up, and I am trying to teach them what toughness means.For me, it is those things and just knowing the window for me right now and understanding that I dont want to miss snaps. I dont want to be out there without my guys.Unless it is going to fall off, lets try to make it work and make it go. That is my mentality.McCown didnt have anything to prove to his teammates, who have expressed their respect for him countless times in the past.Still, the sight of him taking hard hits and getting back up time after time furthered their admiration for him.We have to do everything we can to give him an extra second, an extra two seconds, strain, fight a little bit more to where hes not getting hit, not taking those unnecessary shots, guard John Greco said.There were a lot of plays where the ball got off, may have been a completion or incompletion, and then hes getting whacked. So weve got to do more. Weve got to fight harder, strain more, strain longer to keep him clean. The guys arm is hanging and hes in there. I mean thats awesome.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '