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10 Thoughts: West Virginia

Published

10 years ago

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Photo Attribution: US Presswire

Photo Attribution: US Presswire

BOX SCORE

Oklahoma State routed West Virginia today in Gallagher-Iba to push Travis Ford’s home record to 64-10 (not a misprint). Huggy Bear’s team raced out to a big lead in the first half but OSU closed with — gasp — some of the best offense I’ve seen them play all year. Here are 10 more thoughts on the game today.

1. As terrific as it was today (10-19 from 3P) OSU really does live and die by the three. Consider: 10-1 in games when it shoots better than 30% and 3-4 in games when it shoots worse than 30%. It’s outstanding when it works, and often a by-product of actually taking good shots, but I’d like to see some versatility in how this team scores. There isn’t much right now.

2. Yes, this sums up the referee situation.

3. Does ESPN not take into account that, at the end of January, we’ve probably watched an OSU game before and know that Smart and Forte were high school teammates? This is also terrible.

4. There’s no reason, other than foul trouble, OSU shouldn’t play the way it did for the last five minutes of the first half. They scored 15 points in the first 15:11 of the first half and 15 points in the last 4:49 of the first half and it was all because the offensive spacing was better and defensive trapping was elite.

Travis Ford claims he wants to do it, we have the horses (especially with BWill coming back) to do it. So…let’s do it.

5. Marcus Smart:charge calls as Kathryn Bigelow:movie award nominations.

6. Brad Sham and Bob Valvano said one of the “great Oklahoma State traditions” was basketball players shaking Eddie Sutton’s hand in the stands before home games. I’ve watched pretty much every minute of OSU basketball since Eddie retired, and I’ve never seen that happen.

Of course they also started discussing the merits of Michael Buble in-depth halfway through the first half. So…yeah.

7. If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you know I’ve long been in love with Markel Brown. He’s backing up everything I’ve ever said about him with his play this year. 24-1-5-1 today and he’s nearly always the spark plug OSU is looking for. While we’re here, it seems to me like Marcus Smart has the inverse problem Le’Bryan Nash has: great against great teams and mediocre against mediocre ones. Something to keep an eye on.

8. Three great tweets

9. My new favorite celebration of the year.

10. Yes, I was as surprised as you were to remember Cezar Guerrero holds the freshman scoring record (29 against UTSA last year). Three-te came within a deep ball of tying it today. And oh my how about that 30-footer he drilled in the second half. I got an inappropriate text I wish was fit for print from one of my long-time OSU friends after that one fell. Heat Czechs for everyone!

Iowa State at home on Wednesday.

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