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Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 80-71 Victory against St. Thomas

The Cowboys are 2-0, but Lutz isn’t thrilled with his team’s defense.

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1 year ago

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[Devin Wilber/PFB]

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STILLWATER — The Cowboys are undefeated, but their new coach isn’t exactly stoked about his defense.

Oklahoma State beat St. Thomas 80-71 on Sunday in Gallagher-Iba Arena. OSU recorded a dozen steals against the Tommies, but for the second game in a row, Steve Lutz wasn’t thrilled with OSU’s defense, saying if they want to compete in the Big 12, it’s going to take more than what this first two games have shown.

OSU held the Tommies to just 23 first-half points, but St. Thomas outscored OSU 48-47 in the second. St. Thomas shot 40% from the field and 42% from 3. Lutz said he liked the defense in spots, but that it would take more consistency to get where they want to go.

“We’re just gonna continue to do it every single day until I find six, seven, eight guys that are gonna consistently preform on the defensive end,” Lutz said. “We’re just not gonna be able to go into the Big 12 and score 80 points a game. Every single game we’ve had, we’ve been 80 or above. People are not gonna allow us to score 80 points in the Big 12. They’re not. If you watched the University of Houston and Auburn the other night, that’s real basketball. That’s grown men playing basketball.

“The way we played at times, we can compete with those people, but the way we played defensively in the second half was very disappointing.”

The Cowboys weren’t as hot from 3 Sunday as they were in their season-opener, going just 6-for-22 from deep, but because of those steals and their 26 fastbreak points that followed, the Pokes still finished having shot 45% from the field. OSU’s lead grew as high as 17 midway through the second half after a 15-5 run that included nine fastbreak points.

Here are five thoughts from the game.

1. Chi Chi Avery Can Be an X Factor

The man they call Chi Chi is 6-foot-8 with bundles of potential and ability.

Marchelus Avery, a fifth-year senior UCF transfer, led the way in the scoring department for the Pokes, dropping 23 on a dozen shots. It was the most amount of points he has put up in a college game against a Division-I team. He also finished a team-best +21 (tied with Patrick Suemnick), meaning OSU was 21 points better than the Tommies when Avery was on the floor.

Looking at him when he committed, I think I expected more of a stand on the perimeter, catch-and-shoot type, but he does more than that on the offensive end. The 3s weren’t falling for the Cowboys on Sunday. Avery was 1-for-4 from deep, but he scored seven two-point buckets and got to the foul line eight times. He runs the floor well, which is big given Lutz’s breakneck pace, and he wasn’t bad in spots when putting the ball on the floor.

With his size and athleticism, it’s going to be tough for bigs to guard him on the perimeter and equally as tough for guards to guard him in the post. You almost have to have another quick, 6-8 guy to put on him.

2. Arturo Dean Is a Menace

Arturo Dean led the nation in steals last season, and it was easy to see why on Sunday.

In the span of 10 seconds in the second half, Dean snatched two steals and scored a layup. Ten seconds — that’s how much time came off the clock.

He finished with a stuffed state line with four points, nine rebounds (team-high), five assists (team-high) and four steals (team-high). There might be a time this season where Dean secures a double-double without one of those double-digit stats being points.

With how deep this group is at guard, it should allow guys like Dean to go all out in their time on the floor because there won’t be a big drop off when another platoon of guards is in. That could be super beneficial for a defensive menace like Dean.

3. Let the Bodies Hit the Floor

If the ball is on the hardwood for any longer than a standard dribble, the Cowboys are diving on it.

The Pokes were spilling all over the place Sunday, but I’ll point out two instances. The first came in the first half. Avery was guarding a Tommie in the corner, and some tough defense forced the ball to end up on the floor. Avery dived over the Tommie and into the corner to grab the ball.

In the second half, Jamyron Keller was hounding a ball-handler at halfcourt. The Tommie momentarily lost track of the ball, but in the time it took him to look down to find it, Keller was sprawled out and had it. He flipped it up to Avery for a quick score.

OSU finished the night with 12 steals after snatching 11 from Green Bay on Monday. For reference, OSU had just two games with double-digit steals last season. Through two games this season, the Cowboys have matched that.

And again, this comes while the coach isn’t super happy with the defense. This end product could be insane.

4. Jennings, Suemnick Get Extended Work at Center without Ousmane

OSU was without Abou Ousmane on Sunday for a violation of team rules. Lutz said Ousmane, who started the season opener at center, would be back soon.

In the meantime, OSU got an extended look at what Robert Jenning and Patrick Suemnick look like manning the middle. Both are more natural forwards, but the Cowboys could benefit from both playing big with Lutz’s up-tempo style. And there will be times throughout the year where Ousmane is in foul trouble and those two are forced to play center.

The two didn’t rebound particularly well (combining for four boards), but Suemnick scored in double figures and had a pair of steals while Jennings had eight points and a big block in the first half.

“I wish that the game would’ve unfolded differently and we could’ve even gotten a look at Andrija (Vukovic) and people like that, but the fact of the matter is we didn’t play well enough to do that,” Lutz said. “We played five-out motion tonight. We’ve kind of brought our bigs away from the rim over the last couple weeks and allowed them to ball screen and double handoff and those sorts of things. I thought both those guys have done well with it.”

5. New Lineup, Expect ‘Ebbs and Flows’

With Ousmane serving that suspension, OSU was guaranteed to have a different starting lineup Sunday, but the player stepping in was a little surprising.

Returning sophomore Connor Dow made his eighth career start after earning seven as a true freshman last season. Dow ended up playing 10 minutes, where he scored three points and had a block and a steal. That came after Dow played just three minutes against Green Bay.

“Abou was out, obviously, and I felt that because St. Thomas is a smaller group and have more guards and don’t really have an inside presence, it just made sense,” Lutz said. “I’ve said this several times, I don’t know that there’s a lot of differentiator maybe between players one, two and 10. It’s who plays the best and who does what we ask them to do and who plays the right way who’s gonna play. There’s gonna be a lot of ebbs and flows with our lineup during the season. I would be shocked if that’s not the case.”

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