Daily Bullets (Feb. 6): Gundy Will Love the 2020 Offense, Transfer Talent Will Change the Game

Two of the sweeter words in the English language put together – Pokes win. Congrats to Coach Boynton and his guys for pushing through!

Bullets Rundown

• Offense aligns with Gundy’s preference in 2020
• OSU held back TCU’s best player (relatively)
• Transfer talent is impact of the class

Scores

• MBB: Cowboys 72, TCU 57
• WBB: Iowa State 74, Cowgirls 63

OSU Bullets

• This is an interesting point – does Mike Gundy finally have the best offense that he wants to have?

Mike Gundy’s mullet is a trojan horse for a coach who would rather give his fullback double-digit carries than run anything out of the shotgun. Gundy gets a dream team (for him) in 2020 because they can run it every down, play a little defense and still probably win 75 percent of their games.

This is fun to joke about, but it’s also a good formula for winning games. There’s less variance in this style. That is, you know what you’re getting, and you know that you’re getting it with the best tailback in the country. [PFB]

It’s one thing to be frustrated when OSU won’t use it’s best player in creative enough ways – it’s another when the head coach is chomping at the bit to see how many different ways you can conservatively hand the ball off to the nation’s best running back. There’s no conflict in that scenario.

• Some part of OSU winning last night had to do with holding TCU’s alpha dog from dominating the game as he’s done recently.

(Desmond) Bane finished with a quiet 14 points and the Cowboys’ defense prevented him from taking over. OSU forced Bane to go nearly 14 minutes without scoring a point on their way to handing TCU (13-9, 4-5) its third consecutive loss.

Likekele was the main reason for Bane’s limited production.

“(Likekele’s) defensive effort tonight was outstanding,” OSU coach Mike Boynton said. “He was the guy I asked to guard Bane most of the game, and to be able to do it on both ends of the court is what makes him unique.  [TulsaWorld]

If we can’t have somebody go off for 20, that makes it pretty important that no opponent does, right? Losing a double-digit scorer before tipoff didn’t seem to fair well but it turned out fine.

• While this recruiting class will likely be remembered most by Shane Illingworth (and his success or demise in Stillwater) and whichever skill player pops in the class (probably Rashad Owens), the transfer talent in the trenches will have the largest impact. 

The bulk of the new class of Cowboys was already recruited and signed before the team went to Houston, but Gundy did fulfill his promise to the team as he quickly added a pair of jumbo new Cowboys in West Virginia offensive lineman Josh Sills and former Putnam City High School defensive end Collin Clay that has transferred from Arkansas. [Pokes Report]

So much of differentiation between mid-tier teams happens upfront and if these guys come in ready to be difference makers, this class will be the difference between eight wins and double-digits.

• Bummed to see the Big 12 Baseball tournament leaving OKC (at least temporarily)

• This is elite – #dadgoals

My father-in-law mows the OSU logo into his lawn. Here's it in the snow tonight. pic.twitter.com/dzeb9gCYvE

— Seth Duckworth (@Seth_Duckworth) February 6, 2020

• I’d love to see OSU use a recruiting spot on a guy like this from Auburn  – translating from Gus Malzahn’s offense shouldn’t be too rough and he’d have a year to adjust. Sitting behind Chuba for a year is a great deal.

Non-OSU Bullets

• It’s not enough to be right – you also have to be kind (really good)
• Why stress turns hair gray
• Again and again and again