10 Thoughts: Bedlam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuezcCZGWII

BOX SCORE

Some of you know my boy @nolancox. For those who don’t, Nolan was a walk-on at OSU and helps out with this site a little bit. Anyway, a few weeks ago we started talking about this team and Marcus Smart and what both were capable of in March. Our running semi-joke (halfway serious life mantra) right now is “are you going to bet against Marcus Smart?”

The answer, as Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, and now OU fans can tell you is…hell no.

10 thoughts…

1. As good as Smart was, he couldn’t have done it with Le’Bryan today. #2 did everything we always wanted him to do — post up, go hard after and ones, run the baseline. It was a little bit disconcerting, the things he was doing were so un-Le’Bryan like. Good on him though for stepping up and taking over for spurts in the second half and overtime. OU had no answer inside for his size and moves.

Le'Bryan Nash had 23 points in the second half and overtime combined today. #OKState

— Brendon Morris (@brendon_wm) February 16, 2013

2. I thought OSU did a poor job of two things today. First, Markel and Smart didn’t go to the rim nearly enough. They settled for a lot of pull up 19-footers and garbage they shouldn’t be settling for. Second, our end of the first half and part of the second half defense was just horrific. Pledger almost fell down he was so wide open a few times. I thought Ford did a pretty good job of using the full court pressure but our half court defense left a lot to be desired.

3. Two things I loved about the crowd. The first was not being able to hear any of the whistles. Seriously, on TV you would see a ref running in clearly blowing on his whistle and none of the players would stop playing. Also, Dave Armstrong (bless his heart) introduced the telecast with this (and it sounded as good as it looks in print):

Standing room only in Stillwater today.

4. I honestly…I didn’t even consider us losing this game until halftime. Honest to God, it never even crossed my mind. I was so hyped on the sellout and how hard this team has been streaking that I forgot we actually had to play the thing.

5. OU terrifies me by the way. I do NOT want to play them in the Big 12 tournament. Lon Kruger is a monster and I respected the crap of the way they came out just gunning everything. Osby is a beast too, if he’d hit anything OSU would have gone down. It’s probably painful for them to have not trailed the entire second half and still fallen. Kind of like the opposite of Bedlam football.

6. “Marcus Smart is a stat stuffer” is the new “Marcus Smart is very smart.”

7. The Watch ESPN feed I was rocking the game on was unbelievably bad. It felt like I was watching one of the mid 90s Eddie Sutton coaches shows OSU put on YouTube. The lens was wide screen but the feed was standard so 1/4 of the screen was being cut off. I’d go five minutes without seeing Forte because he’s always standing in the corner. It was incredible. Thanks again to AT&T in Dallas for giving me that 35-point TCU-Iowa State game instead!

8. On the court storming. I ride with OKC Dave and Scotty VP. I would say “act like you’ve been there before” but honestly, and this isn’t a dig really, most people who ran on the court haven’t been there before. It was fine for today but I don’t particularly want to see it again against Kansas or Kansas State.

Give Oklahoma St a break, it's the first time a lot of those folks have seen a game there this year. They don't know who the ranked team is

— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) February 16, 2013

https://twitter.com/okc_dave/status/302889005945597952

Plus, there’s this.

Some background on court-storming: The athlete section, mainly football players, were initially the only section to rush the floor. #OkState

— James Poling (@James_Poling) February 16, 2013

9. My favorite non-basketball part of the entire day was Reid Gettys being introduced during the Studio 66 show before the game as “Reid Gettys of Phi Slama Jama fame.” Oh, glad he’s here.

10. This is the “eight seconds and shoot” team Ford has always dreamed of. OSU’s outlet passes were crisp, they didn’t 100% go into half court offense at the end, and mostly, they didn’t give up on a game that felt like it kept getting away from them.

And as always, don’t bet against Marcus Smart.

Kansas on Wednesday. I want another sellout.