Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 69-48 Win Over TCU

BOX SCORE

Oklahoma State easily handled TCU 69-48 on Saturday afternoon in Gallagher-Iba Arena in the Big 12 conference opener (and first game of 2016). Jeff Newberry led the way with 23 points and eight boards as OSU outscored the Frogs 43-24 in the second half. Five thoughts on the action.

1. OSU is a different team when Jawun Evans plays

Evans got in foul trouble early in the first half and Ford replaced him with Tyree Griffin. Griffin is an OK player who had a bad game. A healthy Oklahoma State lead dwindled to two by halftime before Evans took the reins in the second half and OSU blew out a team it should definitely have blown out.

Evans’ numbers were modest — 13 points, three boards, three assists and three steals — but he’s a solid engine for a below average basketball team. You can’t strap the thing on his back like you could with Marcus Smart, but without him Travis Ford would be in pretty deep (or a lot deeper than he currently is).

2. Jeff Newberry is good, but can we fix the shot selection

Does Travis Ford just not care if his team takes 17-foot two-pointers? It’s 2016, we all know the absolute worst shot you can take is a long two, and yet that’s all some of his guys seem to want to take.

Around the world, TNT style. #okstate https://t.co/E0gIxSaNmq

— Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 2, 2016

That being said, Newberry hit a bunch of them on Saturday and tied his career high with 23 points. He also went 3/5 from three, had eight boards and three steals. No. 22 is a solid player who, like everyone on the team, is being asked to play about two notches above his actual skill level. That works nicely against TCU. I’m not sure it will elsewhere.

3. I hope my kids look at me like this team looks at Travis Ford

We have nearly a decade of empirical evidence that says Travis Ford is, at his very best, a slightly above average basketball coach. Most years, he’s average or worse. And yet he somehow gets everyone who plays for him to go lights out for 40 minutes.

I have two kids who shut down on me if I accidentally skip a page in One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

How does Ford do this? It speaks to something I’ve thought all along — that he’s a good dude who gives a crap and is just in over his head a little bit.[1. OK, a lot at times.] But still, I would rather have that than a team that quits on its head guy halfway through a dismal season.

4. TCU shot 5.9 percent from three

They also shot a solid 30 percent from the field overall and 68 percent from the line. How does this happen? You are being paid money not being forced to pay for college to do one thing: put a basketball in a cylinder twice its size. It would be like if I went to grad school to become a physicist and regularly screwed up using a calculator. It just seems bizarre to me, especially given how many open shots TCU (and OSU) took and missed.

5. Phil Forte sounds cooked

Bryndon Manzer and Dave LaMont sounded pretty convinced that No. 13 won’t be coming back this season. They didn’t say that Travis Ford had confirmed that but LaMont noted multiple times that he would be stunned if Forte returned this season. That’s surprising to me given that the injury initially didn’t seem that bad.

It also begs the bigger question: Travis Ford isn’t going to be able to do jussssst enough in Big 12 play without his best player to keep his job for another year, is he? I know TCU is beyond lousy, but OSU looked competent enough on Saturday afternoon to win a few ballgames in conference play. I don’t even know what I’m rooting for at this point.

Next game: at Baylor on Tuesday

Programming note: Kyle Boone and I will be alternating covering these games (for obvious reasons). He will have Tuesday’s game in Waco. Follow him on Twitter.