Notebook: Brandon Averette’s Career Night Fuels Lopsided Win Over ORU

Oklahoma State moved to 3-0 on the season on Thursday night with a thorough shellacking of Oral Roberts. Brandon Averette led all scorers with 21, Mitch Solomon had 12 of his own and OSU dominated in essentially every facet of the game to claim a 91-48 victory.

Let’s get to my notes from the sleepy Thursday evening affair.

• OSU leads the all-time series now against Oral Roberts, 16-5.

• I totally dig Kendall Smith. Dude’s a slasher with the mindset OSU needs to run its offense. Tough, fierce. I’m excited to see him line it up against the big dogs. Will need to limit his turnovers, but he’s been super solid.

• OSU looks fine … against ORU. But against formidable conference opponents, the Pokes are going to get absolutely buried if they don’t have Jeff Carroll back. You aren’t going to be able to rely on 21 from Averette on a nightly basis to carry you.

• Lucas N’Guessan kind of reminds me of a newborn giraffe. Super tall, totally clumsy, total wild card. Against a team like ORU (or any non-con opponent), I’d really like to see him just take control down low.

• To say I’m worried about what KU and Udoka Azubuike will do against OSU would be an understatement. Let’s hope Yankuba Chamberlain-Sima is a dude down low. I just don’t see OSU’s frontcourt being able to be a net positive in Big 12 play.

• Little Country checked in midway through the first half. Earliest he’s ever played. He was the only player with a negtiave plus/minus. Brandon Averette finished with a plus-42 when he was on the floor!

• Lucas N’Guessan shooting 3s. I’m N’Guessan Mike Boynton doesn’t like that. [sorry]

• The shot clock and game clock went out inside GIA, which forced a 15 minute stoppage. Even worse, poor Larry Reece had to announce the time every 10 seconds. What a nightmare!

Play has resumed without a shot clock or scoreboard. @cowboyvoice is shouting out when there's 10 seconds left on the clock. This is amazing/dumb.

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) November 17, 2017

• Scoreboard malfunction also lead to the best quote you will see all season, from ORU’s Paul Mills: “I’m glad the clock stopped working there the last 12 minutes so I didn’t have to look at the score.”

Same.

• Garbage time Dziagwa is the best Dziagwa. He finished with 11, but 95% of his points were in the final minutes.

Related: I love Dizzy, but his beard might be Kevin Durant level bad.

• If there was an angry-meter on dunks, Cam McGriff would max it out every game. Meanest dunker in the game, man.

CAM with the SLAM AGAIN! #okstate pic.twitter.com/UEgAIHFEaq

— Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) November 17, 2017

Next up: OSU faces Texas A&M in the Legends Classic on Monday night. First big boy game of the season.

We're headed to Brooklyn for @LegendsBBall. The Cowboys take on @aggiembk Monday at 6 PM! #LetsWork #okstate pic.twitter.com/Q65B87kB52

— Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) November 17, 2017