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Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 83-73 Victory against Colorado

On a better start, Remember the Ten and more.

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1 year ago

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[Devin Wilber/PFB]

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STILLWATER — It was a big day for the Oklahoma State community, and the Cowboys honored it with a big win.

Oklahoma State beat Colorado 83-73 in the annual Remember the Ten game. The win pushes OSU to 10-7 on the year and 2-4 in Big 12 play. Here are five thoughts from it.

1. A Much Better Start

Saturday was just the second time in conference play this season the Cowboys didn’t go into the locker room down double digits. In fact, they went in up double digits.

OSU had a 43-33 lead at the break while shooting 43% from the field. Coming into the day, the Cowboys were outscored 181-132 in five Big 12 first halves while shooting just 30% from the field. Those numbers include the Kansas State game, where OSU led 43-24 at the half. Without that, it was ugly.

It wasn’t that the Cowboys hit the floor aflame. They had a 1-for-5 start from the field before making four of their next five.

OSU did, though, force the Buffaloes into 10 turnovers in the first and held CU to just 1-for-9 from 3. The Cowboys turned those 10 turnovers into eight points and had seven fastbreak points in the half.

“Our defense was a little bit better,” Lutz said. “I thought that we were able to get some easy baskets off of turnovers. And then I thought that we shared the ball. At halftime, if I’m not mistaken, we had six assists on nine made baskets, which is a very, very high percentage. As I’ve talked about in the press conference last week, we’ve been a little bit too selfish. I thought the guys played more as a team and shared the ball offensively. But it all started with our defense. We were able to turn them over and get some easy ones.”

2. Eating Glass

The Pokes scoring 31 points from the foul line certainly helped their effort Saturday, but this game was won on the glass.

Oklahoma State outrebounded Colorado 36-23, marking the first time the Buffaloes have been outrebounded since a Jan. 4 meeting with Arizona State. Sometimes rebounding numbers can feel inflated because the losing team misses so many shots, but OSU was 23-for-50 from the field Saturday. Colorado was 23-for-49. It was just a bullying performance for the Pokes.

With that advantage, OSU outscored the Buffaloes 22-7 in second-chance points. That’s a winning stat.

3. Rarely a Dull Moment with Chi Chi Avery

There was a sequence late in Saturday’s game where Chi Chi Avery pump faked his man into the air (his pump fake almost always works) before driving baseline and throwing down a two-handed slam.

Those two points accounted for Avery’s 14th and 15th of the night — tying a game-high. The issue was on the other end of the floor, he gave up a jump shot. A timeout was called, and Lutz let Avery know he wasn’t thrilled with the defensive effort.

“Chi Chi’s got as high a ceiling as he wants to have,” Lutz said. “He has NBA potential, but it’s just a matter of can he remain disciplined, can he do the right things, can he practice hard every day? His highs and his lows are just phenomenal. You have that great dunk, and then you go down and you let the guy shoot from the corner and you stand in the lane? That’s not acceptable. We had talked in the timeout about not taking our foot off the gas and playing the right way. It’s just a matter of how good Chi Chi wants to be.”

Avery’s highs are phenomenal. He’s 6-foot-8 but moves fluidly and is the Cowboys’ most pertinent 3-point threat. Take a possession in the first half, for example. Colorado threw a zone at the Pokes. The offensive possession somewhat broke down, but Avery coolly stepped into a 3 from the logo — and hit it.

A consistent Chi Chi is one heck of a basketball player — one of the more talented players OSU has had in recent seasons. Here’s to hoping everyone gets to see more good Chi Chi.

4 Suemnick, Dow Step Up

West Virginia transfer Patrick Suemnick had his best game as a Cowboy on Saturday. He did the majority of his work in the first half, being a big reason for OSU’s solid opening 20 minutes.

He had 10 points and four rebounds — all of which came in the first half. Three of his rebounds were on the offensive end, and those offensive boards led to six OSU second-chance points.

There was a fun stretch in the first half where Arturo Dean hit a rolling Suemnick for a bucket before Dean stole the ensuing inbound pass. Not long later, Suemnick scored again. Those two both brought some juice.

“This one just meant a little bit more to me,” Suemnick said. “I lost my grandfather last week, and then his funeral was yesterday. My grandma texted me. She’s like, ‘He would want you to stay there and handle business for the game, but just make sure you play for him today.’ It just had a little extra meaning for me.”

Then Connor Dow raised a few eyebrows this past weekend when he subbed in against BYU and scored five quick points.

At his midweek availability, Lutz said he was going to find a way to get Dow some more minutes, and he did. Dow played a dozen on Saturday and might’ve played more if he didn’t pick up a pair of first-half fouls. Dow hit both of his 3-point attempts, finishing with six points and a pair of rebounds.

Three-point shooting was expected to be a big part of Dow’s game. He was only a freshman last season, but him going 16-for-57 (28%) from deep certainly wasn’t ideal. Well, now he’s hit his past three attempts and looks a lot more confident when he steps into those. And if the ball is on the floor around him, Dow is soon to follow with a dive to the white maple. For a team that has struggled from 3 this season, Dow could turn into a valuable piece.

5. Remember the Ten

Lutz is new to Stillwater, but he did not shy away from the fact that winning on this day means more to the OSU family.

It was the annual Remember the Ten game, where OSU honors the lives of Kendall Durfey, Bjorn Fahlstrom, Nate Fleming, Will Hancock, Daniel Lawson, Brian Luinstra, Denver Mills, Pay Noyes, Bill Teegins and Jared Weiberg — 10 people who lost their lives when a plane crashed on Jan. 27, 2001 as the group was headed back from a basketball game against Colorado.

Lutz spoke eloquently earlier in the week about the importance of the game and how he has studied up on the event. Here’s how he opened his postgame news conference.

“Obviously we’re excited to get a victory, but this day is much more about the families of the 10 members that we lost in 2001,” Lutz said. “Obviously we were playing for something bigger than this game against Colorado, and I thought that our fans came out and supported it and helped us get to a victory. That just goes to show how phenomenal the Oklahoma State family is in terms of taking care of one another and always being loyal and true to one another. We’ll never forget them, and we’ll always have their backs. It was a great day in terms of that.”

Postgame News Conference

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