Kalib Boone’s Been Doing the Dirty Work in Kansas City

Cade Cunningham and Avery Anderson have carried the scoring load, and the headlines, for the Cowboys during this Big 12 Tournament run, but Kalib Boone has been doing the dirty work.

He may not be filling up the bucket like we’ve seen him do at times this year, but he’s filling up other fields in the box score, and Boone’s been a huge reason his team is one win away from a conference trophy and has become a trendy Final Four pick for later this month.

He led the Cowboys with 10 rebounds (four off the offensive glass) in the win over West Virginia and set a new career high with six blocked shots. Then he grabbed six more boards against Baylor — and blocked six more shots.

Those 12 blocks puts Boone at No. 2 all-time in a single Big 12 Tournament run. Baylor’s Isaiah Austin had 18 in four games back in 2014.

If Boone keeps up his average of six per tourney game tonight, he’ll tie that, in three games. No on else in the field this year had more than four.

The previous OSU career record for blocked shots in the Big 12 Tournament was Ivan McFarlin’s 11, but it took him eight games over three seasons to do it. Boone topped that total in less than 48 hours.

Boone’s been a perfect picture of self-improvement. A raw, undersized forward as a freshman has turned into one of the league’s best low-post scorers, to go along with his ability to make plays on both ends of the court.

Boone is on pace to break Chianti Roberts’ single-season program record of field goal percentage (62.5 percent). He’s all but locked that record up, currently sitting at 64.4 percent having made 105 of his 163 shots.

But he hasn’t been his normal efficient self in Kansas City.

Boone went 2-for-6 from the field each against WVU and Baylor, though he got to the line eight times against the Bears and made six of them, including a pair of big ones with the even the score with 2:45 left.

And this might go down as the most momentous dunk in OSU history, that wasn’t. It’s a shame this didn’t count.

The last time Boone and the Cowboys faced the Longhorns, he posted career highs with 22 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks (until this week) in a double-overtime win. Whether it takes another career-high or 10 blocked shots, or just a solid hustle performance, I expect Kalib Boone to whatever it takes to ensure his team takes home the conference crown from Kansas City.