A Look Back at PFB’s Hoops Predictions for the 2017–18 Season

The Cowboys had an up-and-down season, where the highs were as high as anyone could have expected and the lows simple came along a bit too often. Mike Boynton’s first year didn’t end the way he or most OSU fans would like but there is definitely reason for hope looking forward.

In the spirit of transparency — and to open ourselves up to #OldTakesExposed — let’s take a look at PFB’s staff preseason hoops predictions and how they well they’ve aged.

On where OSU would finish in the Big 12

Kyle Porter: 7th
Kyle Boone: 9th
Hayden Barber: 9th
Matt Harris: 8th
Kyle Cox: 8th
Sam Aldrich: 8th
Ryan Harris: 8th
Nick Welch: 8th
Phillip Slavin: 7th

Actual finish: 6th

By way of tiebreaker, the Cowboys ended with a No. 6 finish in the Big 12. Slots 6-9 shared a four-way tie in the W-L department.

OSU’s conference record

Porter: DNP
Boone: 5-13
Barber: 4-14
Matt: 5-13
Cox: 6-12
Aldrich: 6-12
Ryan: 6-12
Welch: 5-13
Slavin: 7-11

Actual finish: 8-10

Not one of us had the Cowboys reaching eight conference wins with Slavin on the optimistic end. Mike Boynton’s squad out-performed our expectations going 8-10 in the toughest league in America.

OSU’s overall record

Porter: 17-13
Boone: 14-16
Barber: 13-17
Matt: 15-15
Cox: 10-20
Aldrich: DNP
Ryan: 16-14
Welch: 14-17
Slavin: 17-13

Actual finish: 21-15

Thanks to a late season surge and a couple of fun NIT rounds inside GIA, the Cowboys reached 21 wins, (just the 36th 20-plus win season in OSU history) and tied a school record with 15 home victories.

I’ll take the brunt of it here with my obvious typo pessimistic outlook.

Miscellaneous Hot Takes/Predictions

Being that our predictions post was in a roundtable format, several PFB staffers felt the freedom to throw caution to the wind and spell out some searing takes. Let’s take a look at how those panned out.

Aldrich: I️ think Cowboys finish 8th in Big 12, Carroll wins Big 12 POTY, Pokes miss tourney (barely). Waters and Dillard are effective starters. Sima makes immediate defensive impact when eligible. Cowboys are greatly improved defensively.

Carroll caught fire late and ended with an all-Big 12 third-team selection but we may have over estimated how much playing along with dynamic scorers like Jawun Evans and Phil Forte freed Clip up a year ago.

No one could have forecast Davon-Dawson dismissal but Waters became an effective starter and the Pokes did miss the tourney. “Barely” is subjective and it wasn’t as close as most thought when looking at the committee’s rationale.

I’ll sign on for Sima’s impact and the Cowboys’ defensive improvement. Consistency is key but the Pokes showed the type of tough defense (at times) that justifies those retro practice shorts.

Kyle Porter: … Clip might be the best player in the league, and I think Kendall Smith has a big year. I have a firm “if you have the best player in the league you won’t finish worse than 7th” rule.

The best player in the league probably resided in Lawrence, Kansas but the Cowboys finished ahead of No. 7, notwithstanding.

Kendall Smith did have a big year, at least the second half of one, and he was fun to watch. You can almost single-handedly credit the grad transfer with the Cowboys’ biggest wins this season.

Boone: Sima is the new Cobbins-Chamberlin.

Way off base here, Boone. He’s a combination of Bill Russell and Kareem. Have you seen that hook shot?