Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 94-67 Victory against Prairie View A&M

BOX SCORE
PHOTOS

STILLWATER — The Cowboys are 3-0 and haven’t yet had to sweat out a result.

Oklahoma State beat Prairie View A&M 94-67 on Wednesday night in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

It was sort of a choppy start, as the Cowboys missed their first six shots, but after the Panthers took a 15-14 lead with about 10 minutes to play in the first half, Steve Lutz called a timeout before the Cowboys rattled off a 17-3 run and never really looked back.

Here are five thoughts on the game.

1. Vyctorius Miller Is a Walking Bucket

For the second time already this season, Vyctorius Miller set a new career-high for points in a game.

Miller, a sophomore transfer from LSU, finished Wednesday’s game with 30 points, doing so uber efficiently on just a dozen shots. He started the game 5-for-5 from the field and didn’t miss his first shot until the final minute of the first half.

“I feel like they (his team) believe in me,” Miller said. “They trust me. They see my work, so I appreciate them.”

Miller became the first Cowboy to score 30 in a game since Javon Small put up 34 at BYU on March 9, 2024.

Miller was hitting from 3, finishing 5-for-8 from deep. He also had an impressive early midrange bucket against the Panthers’ 2-3 zone, where Miller cut to the elbow and hit a little fader.

“Obviously I’ve always talked about what a good shooter and good scorer he is,” OSU coach Steve Lutz said. “I thought that he let the game come to him. Maybe took a couple shots, but when you’re playing like that, I don’t usually say a whole lot to you because he was playing well enough that he deserved maybe a little bit of an extra shot or two.”

Miller also gets to the line at a high, high rate. He got fouled on two 3-point shots Wednesday and finished the game 9-for-11 from the charity stripe. Thus far this season, he’s taken 24 foul shots. Andrija Vukovic is the next closest on the team with nine.

2. Points, Points, Points

OSU has scored 80 or more points in its first three games just three times in the past 10 years: this year, last year and the Brad Underwood year.

That’s a stat that’s made all the more impressive by the fact that one of this season’s 80-point outings came against high-major Texas A&M. None of those other seasons had a high-major foe in those first three.

It seems like everyone on this particular team can score. All 12 players who got on the floor Wednesday night got on the board, and the wealth was spread fairly evenly outside of Miller’s big game. Ten Cowboys made at least two field-goal attempts.

3. Best 3-Point Shooting Night Thus Far

If you have eyeballs, you’d know this group is better at 3-point shooting than last year’s, but the stats haven’t exactly reflected that to this point. But Wednesday was this group’s best 3-point night of the young season.

OSU went 9-for-25 from deep. That marked the most makes and the highest percentage (36%) of the year. A lot of that credit obviously goes to Miller, as he was the only guy to make multiple triples, but Christian Coleman, Ryan Crotty, Robert Jennings II and Kirk Cole also hit from 3.

Jennings has looked more comfortable on the perimeter this year. He’s now 1-for-2 from deep after going 6-for-26 from 3 last season.

4. Little Bit of Zone Offense Prep

The Panthers surprised the Pokes a bit by running a lot of zone, something Prairie View hasn’t done a ton of this season.

Lutz said they hadn’t put a ton of time into zone offense to this point, but 94 points will play.

“I was surprised because they haven’t zoned like that,” Lutz said. “It’s on me to be very frank with you. We’ve gotta do a better job preparing against a zone. We’ve gotta work on it. We don’t play zone. We play man-to-man in 98, 99% of practice. I’ve gotta start carving out some time to work against a zone.”

5.  Still Not Even at Full Strength

The Cowboys have done all this while still not being at full strength.

Anthony Roy still hasn’t played this season, as the flamethrower scorer has been day to day with a groin injury since the season started.

Jaylen Curry, who started the first two games, was also absent Wednesday with an illness.

It’s been a bit of a game of early season musical chairs with Isaiah Coleman, Lefteris Manzoukas and Daniel Guetta all also missing a game this season. And yet, points everywhere and blowout wins.

“I’d like to have them all available and figure out the rotations that work together, and I’d like to be able to have a good substitution pattern,” Lutz said. “Some of the lack of offense, or even the lack of defensive consistency, is due to substitutions, and that falls on me. I’ve gotta do better there. … I’m looking forward to having all of them. I want to see what our team really looks like.

“I think that we’re gonna continue to get better and better. We’re still learning to play with one another. I think that we’re learning each another’s strengths and weaknesses.”

Up Next

Opponent: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
When: 1 p.m. Sunday
Where: Gallagher-Iba Arena
Watch: ESPN+