Five Thoughts On Oklahoma State’s 102-65 Win Over Campbell

Brad Underwood got his first win as the Oklahoma State basketball coach on Friday night inside Gallagher-Iba Arena over the Campbell Fighting Camels (a real name!) Jawun Evans did Jawun Evans things and ended with 34 points while Phil Forte and Jeffrey Carroll added 22 a piece (which was a career high for Carroll).

It wasn’t the prettiest game — an annoyed Underwood said in his halftime interview that he wanted to see Oklahoma State “try to do something we practiced” — but Oklahoma State’s talent simply overwhelmed the Camels.

Five thoughts on the first game of the Underwood era.

1. The offense as a whole was … not good

I know Oklahoma State scored 102 points and shot 48 percent from the field, but Underwood was right, they ran zero sets on offense. OSU ended the game with five freshman who ran the offense more effectively than Jawun and Co. did in the first 35 minutes.

Look, I get it. Jawun could probably beat Campbell with me and three other PFB contributors, but I already knew that. I already knew Jawun could score 35 at ease against Campbell. Everybody else did, too.

The point is that to make noise in the Big 12 you’re going to need a motion offense (as discussed here by Thomas Fleming) that gets you easy buckets and gets your shooters looks when Jawun can’t just blow by people. I saw none of that tonight.

OSU had 10 assists. Underwood’s SFA teams never had a super high assist percentage on made field goals, but it was certainly better than 29 percent which is what it was on Friday night.

On the other hand, at least I didn’t see three players hold on to the ball around the three-point line for 29 seconds in a possession like they were going to get their team-issued shoes taken away if they attacked the rim. Evans, Forte and Carroll all went hard to the bucket all night. That was fun.

Evans’ layup is GOOD! #okstate https://t.co/MbUcRhdGK6

— Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) November 12, 2016

2. Jawun Evans is staggeringly good

It wasn’t even a fair fight. Evans had 34-6-3-5 with just two turnovers and completely overwhelmed the rest of the players on the court. He has unbelievable body control for someone his size, and used it to shoot 11-18 from the field including a handful of twisting-turning floaters in the lane.

I’d like to see him get the offense flowing better overall (and Underwood will too), but again, you’re playing a team that has a camel as a mascot — if they’re going to give you the lane, you’re probably going to take it.

3. I like the defensive intensity

OSU was swarming on defense. They created 23 Campbell turnovers by denying their players the ball and swatting at every pass around the perimeter. I didn’t love the push out towards halfcourt (I don’t think you have the athletes to do that right now), but I did love the discipline of sitting back and fighting for stops on every pass and possession. It was a delight. Underwood was barking and his dudes were responding.

On the flip side of that, the interior defense is thinner than Teeng Akol after three-day fast. Mitch Solomon had one board and five fouls (not great!) That’s going to be a massive issue considering it looks like Lucas N’Guessan isn’t exactly a force to be reckoned with on defense (yet).

4. There is a scoring void on offense

Forte, Evans and Carroll combined for 78 of the 91 points score before Forte came out with five-ish minutes left. That’s fine, but what about when those guys aren’t hitting? What happens when you need 30 from Leyton Hammonds, Davon Dillard (who didn’t play) and Solomon? Can you get it?

You don’t have to be super loaded with elite players to compete in the Big 12, but you have to get at least a little contribution. Players other than those three for OSU went 7/23 from the field on Friday. With so much attention being paid to Forte and Evans, that’s not going to be good enough against better teams.

5. Cam McGriff is a dog (dare I say, a crime dog!)

He had the perfect first box score — 13 boards, two assists, a steal, a block and just five points. We’re going to see a lot of those out of him on the season. He’s a little awkward when he dribbles and you can tell he’s trying to keep his body under control, but he moves like someone who has a chance to be an All-Big 12 defensive player.

He also looks like an absolute man.

MCGRIFF WITH THE DUNK!

Cowboys lead 54-40 #okstate https://t.co/JUcsChQ3ZG

— Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) November 12, 2016

Other notes

• It’s impossible to think about Big Country’s son playing a college basketball game and not feel old.

• It’s not a given to win these early games at home. UConn lost to Wagner and Texas nearly fell to Incarnate Word (!) OSU laid the hammer down at the end of the first half which was refreshing to see (hopefully Gundy was watching).

• I imagine Brad Underwood is super understanding of botched alley oops.

• Oklahoma State shot 8/26 from three and still scored 102. That’s a good thing.

• OSU had three 20-point scorers for the first time since 2009.

• Campbell has a player from Lawrence. I would imagine he feels like a wrestler who went to Stillwater High School and ended up wrestling at North Texas.

• OSU has won 41 straight GIA openers.

• I watched the game on an illegal streaming site — shoutout to the Twitter follower who aided me (I don’t want to sell you out). Happens pretty much every year during the first three games.

• This is good, and it is more efficient than I thought.

#OKState scored 102 points on 87(!) possessions. Via https://t.co/ayp8GvFhVf, most possessions for OSU in a non-OT game since 2009-10 opener

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) November 12, 2016

Full box score