Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 60-47 Loss to Houston

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STILLWATER — The Cowboys hung with the Cougars for much of the opening half, but the Pokes went cold and couldn’t heat back up.

Oklahoma State fell to Houston 60-47 to open Big 12 play. OSU finished the game shooting just 26% from the field to fall to 8-4 on the year. Here are five thoughts from the game.

1. Missing Bunnies

The live stats had OSU going 3-for-22 on layup attempts, and even that might’ve seemed generous.

Houston is an elite defensive team — ranking third in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency coming into the night. Some of those misses were forced — Houston had five blocks. Some were just ugly and rushed. The officials, for the most part, were letting both teams play. Houston attempted just six free throws. The Cowboys shot 18, but 10 of those came in the final four minutes. OSU was 4-for-19 from 3, which is bad, but somehow, the Cowboys were worse in their layup percentage.

“Let’s just give them credit,” Lutz said. “They’re a good defensive team. They’re the No. 3 defensive team in the country, but we manufactured enough shots that were open and we missed them. Some of that has gotta fall on myself and the staff, and some of that’s gotta fall on the players. But let’s give them credit — defensively, they’re really, really good.

“With that being said, you can’t miss 20 layups or 18 layups or whatever we missed in any game, much less a Big 12 game against the No. 13 team in the country, and expect to win.”

2. OSU’s Starters Scored 19 Points

Only two OSU starters made a field goal on Monday, as the five players combined to go 4-for-24 from the field.

Bryce Thompson, Khalil Brantley and Jamyron Keller went 0-for-15, while Abou Ousmane and Robert Jennings went 4-for-9. Thompson and Ousmane came into the night averaging a combined 22.7 points but were held to a combined five against the Cougars, all coming from Ousmane, who had a season-low in shot attempts with three. Lutz said Houston was doubling Ousmane in the post, making it tough to get him going.

Again, Houston deserves a lot of credit for that, but it was a rough night for the Cowboys’ first five.

3. There Were Signs of Life

As rough a night it was getting the ball to go into the basket, there were times in this game where it looked like OSU could hang with the Cougars.

Patrick Suemnick capped off a 9-0 OSU run with a jumper that gave OSU a 17-11 lead with 10:24 to play in the opening half. That’s where the offense went cold, but everything before that was good.

OSU is going to beat some teams this season just because of how hard the Cowboys play. Lutz is also insistent that the Cowboys are a better shooting team than they’ve shown as of late. They’ve proven that earlier in the year, shooting better than 37% from deep in five games thus far.

And even with Houston’s physicality, the Cowboys outrebounded the Cougars 39-34. Houston averaged about 14 offensive boards a game entering Monday and brought down just five against the Cowboys.

Some night the shots will start falling, and if that hustle and grit is still there to back it up, there’s reason to believe the Cowboys will be fine. But that’s tough to say after a night when they shot 26% from the field and scored 47 points.

“You went toe-to-toe with the No. 13 team in the country for a good 12 minutes in the first half, you have a lead,” Lutz said. “You shot yourself in the foot by missing layups and turning the ball over, but if you can do it for 12, why can’t you do it for 40? I’m not telling you that we should be picked to win the league, but we’ll be fine. If we’ll play as hard as we did tonight, and we’ll rebound the basketball the way we did tonight, I think we’ll make shots moving forward, I really do.”

4. J’Wan Roberts Was a Matchup Nightmare

J’Wan Roberts, a 6-foot-8, 235-pound graduate student, was back for the Cougars after missing their most recent game, and he was a menace in the low post.

Roberts, who Kelvin Sampson called the winningest basketball player in Houston’s history, finished with a 20-point, 11-rebound double-double, nearly securing that double-double in the first half. The Cougars would dump it to him in the low post or the short corner and let him play a little bully ball. He went 9-for-13 on his field-goal attempts.

While leading the game in scoring and rebounds, Roberts also had a 97% stop percentage and was a game-best +28. He dominated.

5. Kelvin Sampson Super Complimentary of Steve Lutz

Kelvin Sampson has seen a lot of OSU basketball over the years — both in his time leading the Sooners and the Cougars.

Sampson heaped a ton of praise on Lutz’s Cowboys with how hard they played. Sampson mentioned his first Houston team went 13-19 as he was establishing a culture.

“Oklahoma State has a clear identity, which I think says a lot about Steve and what he’s trying to do here. …

“I see what he’s trying to do. I’ve coached against all the greats, but nobody’s team plays harder than Steve Lutz’s. … Really impressed with their team. They’re gonna beat some teams in this building.”

Steve Lutz’s Postgame News Conference