Five Thoughts on Texas Tech’s 71-61 Win Over Oklahoma State

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Texas Tech beat Oklahoma State 71-61 on Saturday night in Gallagher-Iba Arena. It was its first win in Stillwater since 2003. That’s a real stat. It’s also the first time since the late 70s OSU has lost six or more games at home in a single season.

Leyton Hammonds had 15 points and seven boards and Jeff Newberry netted a 16-4-3-2 line, but it was no match for Tech. Toddrick Gotcher had a career-high 22 for the Red Raiders who moved to 7-7 in conference play.

The Pokes actually shot 47 percent from three tonight. They made seven threes in the first half and seven threes in the second half. They also only turned it over four times. The problem? They only made seven twos total for the entire game.

Here are all the teams in the last 6 yrs to shoot 45% from three (min. 30 att.), turn it over four times or less and lose: #okstate tonight.

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguys) February 21, 2016

OSU is clearly just overmatched in conference play. If they shoot well, the defense is nonexistent. If they play D, they don’t shoot. Everybody is hurt. It’s just all the same stuff. And now they’ve lost six games at home. Six! And still have Texas and West Virginia coming up.

Five thoughts on tonight’s loss.

1. The (a) problem on offense

There are many problems, but a specific one I noticed tonight is that Oklahoma State doesn’t have enough talent on offense (and this is a large understatement) to do anything without a slashing PG other than yank threes. This is obvious with Jawun Evans. And when Tyree Griffin does it, it works. But he doesn’t do it (or isn’t capable of doing it) enough.

So what happens is guys just sit at the three point line, stare at the shot clock and count down the seconds until it’s not irresponsible for them to chuck. This is pretty much the entire offense over and over again. It’s excruciating to watch, and I can’t think it’s any more fun to play in.

Tech went zone in the middle of the first half and OSU’s offense reacted like Mike Gundy had just streaked through the gym with Mason Rudolph riding piggyback. They went glassy-eyed and barely even pretended to attack what was in front of them. It’s a tough watch.

2. John Wooden wouldn’t make the tournament with this team

It’s like Doug Gottlieb said on our podcasts over the last week or so. You gotta have dudes. We can nitpick Ford running this play or using that defense or whatever. The reality is that their dudes are better than our dudes. Would that be different if Jawun Evans and Phil Forte weren’t hurt? It probably would. But that’s not going to bring them back. I actually think I wrote that I felt like Eddie could get this team to the Tournament a few weeks ago but that was with No. 1 intact.

So if you’re going to criticize Ford (and I have gigabytes of evidence that many of you are willing to do such a thing), criticize him for not having dudes rather than not being able to coach the ones he has.

3. I’m still a Leyton Hammonds truther

Hammonds had 15-7-2 on Saturday night, and I swear he could be a nightly 15-8-5 No. 2/3 dude on the right team with the right coach. Maybe I’m wrong about that and maybe those are empty stats, but he can stroke it, knows generally where he’s going and what he’s supposed to be doing and has some legitimate talent. I feel the same way to a much lesser degree about Tavarius Shine.

(I shouldn’t have to dig this deep to figure out which players I still like watching this many games into the season).

4. These are sad nights more than anything

There are innumerable emotions you could feel watching Oklahoma State hoops. A “my two year old is screaming in a grocery story and I am hapless to do anything about it” level of frustration is one. Anger is another. Gloominess. Annoyed. Whatever. I feel like the one I find myself going to most often is sadness.

@pistolsguy I agree man. In the day, a Saturday night conference game was gold

— Pokes (@loaf23) February 21, 2016

Not even necessarily for the situation but for the individuals. Travis Ford doesn’t want to suck. He didn’t sign a contract and then say, “you know what would be great is if I drove this program into the ground and took their money!” Jeff Newberry didn’t sign up to play in front of an empty gym.

The culmination of 100 or 300 or 600 small events over the course of two or five or seven years has left us with this situation. And it’s sad for the individuals. GIA will be back at some point. OSU will rock again in hoops at some point. But these dudes will never get college over. Ford will never get this job over. Maybe it’s the “I’m 30 and I have kids now” part of me talking, but I’m not mad or frustrated. Just sad.

5. This is likely the end

Unless Western Kentucky schedules a home and home with Oklahoma State in the next few years, Travis Ford is about to coach his last two games in GIA over the next two weeks. Sad. True.

Next game: at OU on Wednesday