By the Numbers: OSU Basketball Through 12 Games

With 12 games down for Oklahoma State and nearly two months of action in the books, there is enough data on this team to draw some early opinions — some good and some bad — about this team.

Here are three notable data points that popped to me when breaking down some of the numbers about this squad.

1. Pushing the pace on O, slowing it on D

Oklahoma State isn’t by any stretch the second coming of the Seven Seconds or Less Suns, but it is playing with more pace than you (OK, me — guilty) probably expected. Its adjusted tempo of 71.6 (possessions per 40 minutes) actually ranks first among all Big 12 teams this season, and its average possession length ranks second among Big 12 teams behind only Baylor.

On defense, it’s an entirely different story. Teams are taking an extraordinary amount of time to churn through possessions, forcing the fourth-slowest possession length (averaging 17.6 seconds) among all Big 12 teams. It’s not anywhere near, say, Virginia, which is forcing teams to have possessions pushing 20 seconds — which is the longest in the entire sport — but it’s a notable disparity that speaks to OSU’s strengths on that end of the court.

2. 3-point shooting remains a weak spot

Speaking of strengths, 3-point shooting this season is … not one! OSU ranks ninth among all Big 12 teams in 3-point shooting percentage and 208 (out of 345) nationally.

The good news, it would seem, is that OSU knows it isn’t the Golden State Warriors. 3-pointers account for just 25.9% of OSU’s scoring this season, compared to 2-pointers, which account for 54.3% of OSU’s scoring. Texas Tech is the only other team in the Big 12 whose 3-point shooting accounts for fewer total points of its offense.

3. Shot quality remains very good

This might be as simple as a two-word summation: Cade good. But the encouraging part about OSU not being a lights-out shooting team and not being a dominant offense is that it’s not because they’re taking wild and ridiculous shots. The quality of shots are actually good!

There’s a website called ShotQuality that tracks these things — the quality of shots taken by offenses and the quality of shots allowed by defenses — and OSU’s offensive shot quality actually ranks 16th nationally. That’s third in the Big 12 behind Baylor and Oklahoma. With OU up next for the Pokes and Baylor on deck the following Saturday, it looks like we should be in for some quality basketball over the next two weeks.