A player who left Oklahoma while Riley was still at Oklahoma told a story that sums up Riley to a tee.
He said after a game they won in a shootout, Riley stood on his grandstand and told all the media that he personally was handling Defense the next week & that would be the main focus moving forward.
The player said Riley watched defense for about 15 minutes & then, as always, flipped the practice focus back to offense.
The player said every practice was offensive focused. If the Defense messed up during team, they would just move on. If the offense messed up in team, they would do it over & over until the offense got it right. The defense hardly got any work in.
During games, when his defenses obviously need rest, Riley won’t slow it down at all. And I’m not talking just running the ball. I’m talking straight merging as simple as using the full play clock, even if passing, to allow the defense more rest, instead of hurry up & snapping with 30 seconds on the play clock. He screws his own Defense over.
