Connect with us

Hoops

Five Thoughts on Baylor’s 67-56 Win Over Oklahoma State in GIA

Published

6 years ago

on

BOX SCORE

Well … that wasn’t great. Following a fantastic performance against Kansas on Saturday, the OSU fell on its face against Baylor, which got its first road win of the season 67-56 on Tuesday night in GIA.

Baylor went on a 16-0 run to end the first half and start the second, and it put Oklahoma State in a 14-point hole it just could not dig itself out of. The Cowboys were led by Kendall Smith — 15 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist — and Mitchell Solomon — 13 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals.

The Bears’ Manu Lecomte was a Cowboy killer once again. He had 18 points on 7 of 12 shooting, and the Bears shot 54 percent from the field overall (OSU shot just 37 percent).

Five thoughts on a lackluster outing from the Cowboys.

1. A tale of two droughts

The 16-0 drought over eight minutes at the end of the first and beginning of the second was obvious. You can’t go 9:26 of game time without scoring a point and expect to win at the Colvin Center, much less the Big 12. But the 3:37 drought after OSU cut it to five with just under five to play was just as much of a killer.

It’s not like Baylor ran away and hid over the final 20 minutes. They were just 9 of 21 from the field (including 1 of 6 from 3-point range). They also took just nine free throws. OSU did what it needed to do defensively, but it had nothing to back that up on the offensive end. Getting stops is great. Not knowing what to do with them is not (more on this in a minute).

2. Mitchell Solomon continues to impress

There were stretches — some might say uncomfortably long stretches — where OSU ran its offense through Big Mitch. He sipped from a Big Daddy™ mug down low, had a ridiculous four steals and generally did everything you could possibly ask from him in a Big 12 game. He had little help. Smith got his points, but he needed a ton of shots to get them. Carroll had just 9 points on 4 of 12 shooting.

But Solomon, well, he was fantastic.

3. Manu Ginobili Lecomte

Get that guy out of my life!

He’s 18 for 29 on the season against the Pokes with 48 points, and two of his four best shooting percentages have come at the hands of Mike Boynton’s defense (Texas Southern and Central Arkansas incurred the other two). The bright side (I guess?) is that he ended the game on a 3 for 7 stretch with Smith hawking him. Unfortunately it was about 73 minutes of game time too late.

4. Can’t score, can’t win

Name a category of scoring, and OSU probably did it poorly on Tuesday.

Overall FG percentage: 37 percent (second lowest of the year)
3-point percentage: 24 percent (second lowest of the year)
FT percentage: 47 percent (lowest of the year)
Assists: 10 (third lowest of the year)

Need I go on? OSU did enough on the defensive end, didn’t turn the ball over and rebounded with the Bears. They corrected a bit to the middle after Saturday’s way-above-average offensive performance, though, and it cost them.

5. Opportunity lost

It really felt like OSU flipped its season on Saturday. Now we have to consider the possibility that 1. That might have been an all-time out-of-body experience from the Cowboys 2. Kansas might stink or 3. Both. With a chance to keep the ball rolling forward and March Madness likely just four wins away, OSU laid a massive egg against a team that hadn’t won on the road all season.

They’re back at it on Saturday morning at WVU where they need another road miracle.

More notes and thoughts on Tuesday’s game.

• I like the neon shoes a couple of Baylor players were wearing. Would wear.

• I honestly thought McGriff might kill somebody tonight. If you’re an opposing player, what about his physique says, “yeah, that’s the dude I’m going after”?

• Kendall Smith is 12 of 27 from 3-point range in Big 12 play. That’s … pretty good.

• Yankuba Sima, love him, but he has one move. Literally one.

• If the Big 12 was a SAT question, Baylor : small, annoying white guards as Texas : large, annoying white bigs.

• More!

• McGriff and Solomon have underrated baseline games

• I’m convinced every team in the Big 12 is the same team with slight variations and different-colored uniforms. I bet the league doesn’t get a single team in the Elite 8.

• Yup.

• Baylor shot 63 percent in the first half. They also shot 63 percent from 3-point range. Weeeee!

• I like Carroll’s post-up game. I think it’s kind of underrated. I do not like ESPN’s in-app music during timeouts. How are you ESPN and you can’t sell that space to somebody, anybody? Literally anybody.

• This is still awesome.

• Announcers matter in college hoops. That was apparent in the way Saturday’s game was called and the way this game was called.

• With Chip and Jo in attendance at GIA, I’ll go ahead and say it: Fixer Upper is overrated. While we’re here, Chick-fil-A is also overrated. Come at me.

• Averette and Smith played a lot together on Tuesday night. Boynton stuck them on Lecomte and Lindsey. I feel like Boynton is pretty good at figuring out who his best five are in a given game and sticking with them.

• OSU was 7 of 15 on free throws. Seven of fifteen! Baylor shot 43 percent from 3-point range. OSU shot just 47 percent from the free throw line!

• This was awesome.

 

Related Topics:

Most Read

Copyright © 2011- 2023 White Maple Media