KenPom: A Deep Dive Into Advanced Stats Reveals Extreme Defensive Deficiency

What is Oklahoma State’s identity as a basketball team this year? Last year, the Cowboys had the most efficient offense in the country. Literally No. 1 out of 351 teams. Their defense was awful — at times, historically awful — but they knew what they were. But this year, what are they? And more importantly, do they even know?

Here are their KenPom adjusted efficiency numbers with just three games remaining in the regular season. This is points scored per 100 possessions and points given up per 100 possessions. Both are decent numbers, but neither is all that spectacular.

When you dive a little further into the Big 12-only numbers it gets worse. Oklahoma State’s offense has, interestingly, held up will in Big 12 play. The Pokes are No. 5 in Big 12-only games in offensive efficiency, which is not a thing I expected in the post-Jawun Evans era.

But when it comes to defense, well … ?

The worst part is that this is what OSU has prided itself on for the entirety of the season. The grind. The man-to-man principles. And they’ve been a sieve. More holes than a fishing net. Here are the numbers.

Good gosh. This would be one of the worst Big 12 numbers since KenPom started measuring them in the early 2000s and the worst since TCU allowed 117 per 100 possessions in 2014. Last year’s OSU team, which finished last in the Big 12 in defensive efficiency, gave up 113.1 points a game. This year’s team has been … worse!

So what’s the issue? Well, there are (as you would expect) many. OSU is No. 267 in the country in 3-point percentage allowed (37 percent), last in the Big 12 in effective field goal percentage allowed (54 percent) and its four factors numbers aren’t great, either. Yes, the Pokes create a lot of turnovers, but their defensive rebounding has been terrible, and they foul at too high of a rate.

All three of those issues scream “lack of discipline.” And yet, OSU still has five wins against top 25 teams. It’s clear the talent and coaching are in there somewhere. It’s also clear the consistency is not.

“We played Oklahoma State basketball today,” said Boynton on Wednesday after OSU held Texas Tech to 1.09 points per possession, while scoring 1.22. “It was grinding out on defense, forcing them to be uncomfortable and offensively being very unselfish.”

Hopefully they can figure it out for three more regular season games as Year 1 of the Boynton era starts to wind down.