Notebook on Oklahoma State-Pittburgh: Jeffrey Carroll Sets Career High With 29

Jeffrey Carroll scored a career high 29 points on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after going 2 for 12 from the field and scoring just 4 against Texas A&M. Carroll finished 10 for 17 from the field on Tuesday and led the Pokes to a 73-67 win over Pitt to put the Pokes at 4-1 on the year.

Clip looked locked in from the opening tip, but he stayed patient in his shot selection and broke his previous record of 27 against Kansas last season with two free throws to ice the game with just a few seconds left.

The two-game run in Brooklyn went about most people thought it would. OSU got drubbed by a pretty solid A&M team and beat a pretty lousy Pittsburgh team. You would have liked to have seen more like a 15- or 20-point win on Tuesday, but OSU struggled defensively in the second half. Here are my notes from Tuesday’s game.

• ESPN’s announcers for this tournament, Bob Wischusen and Sean Harrington, were great. The anti-Tubervilles.

• This was great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCi0EVVrUec

• How much crap does Dizzy talk if he’s playing pickup at the Colvin? More or less than KG in his prime in a nationally televised game?

• I guess I’ve noticed this before, but Carroll has to have one of the 4-5 prettiest shots in school history, right? Behind maybe Gottlieb and Desmond.

• Mitch leads the country in head shakes per minute played. Love the guy, but it’s pretty rough at times.

• I love this view ESPN tossed out there. Gives you a better idea of what teams are doing offensively (which, at times for OSU, isn’t much!)

• OSU doesn’t have anybody to run high screens with. Who’s your best option there? Maybe McGriff? I think this is part of the reason the offensive possessions can get so sluggish at times. Come to think of it, it’s been a long time since OSU has had the type of player you could run a good high pick and roll with. Joey Graham, where art thou?

• After a poor performance from the line against A&M, OSU went 16 for 19 from the line, and that included a 10 for 11 close in the last minute or so. Clutch.

• I thought it was interesting that Zack Dawson didn’t play in either game. Not a great sign, either, considering OSU is short-handed without Davon Dillard and Yankuba Sima.

• One thing that has been a holdover from the Brad Underwood era is that OSU gets up more FG attempts than its opponents. They shot 13 more times from the field on Tuesday and were able to win despite shooting 38 percent to Pitt’s 51 percent.

Volume shooting as a descriptor doesn’t always sound great, but the way you get there — offensive rebounds and forcing turnovers — is a path to success in college hoops. I was impressed in both games with the way Tavarius Shine and McGriff rebounded.

• OSU gave up a lot of backdoor cuts in both games. I think Byron Pringle scored at one point.

• Dizzy is 17 for 31 from 3-point range on the season.

• There was a “screaming illegal screen” guy at the game! Does he travel with OSU?! I have a lot of questions!

• This was a fantastic play, although I still prefer OSU getting out and running a little bit (more on that in a second).

• I’m still not totally sold on OSU’s defense. Getting Dillard and Sima will help, for sure, but I would have liked to have seen a better performance against the No. 147 offense in the country. Pitt came in with a 102.9 adjusted offense rating, and OSU held them to 96.3 (points per 100 possessions). Not bad, but not amazing considering that’s what you’re hanging your hat on as a team.

• I love Cam McGriff. Might be a dude.

• OSU’s offense is incredibly dependent on making 3s. That’s a risk-reward strategy. Could go either way. They’re going to look really good when they hit ’em though. And they’re going to look really bad when they don’t.

• The other thing the offense is also dependent on creating off the dribble. My issue with this is that good defensive teams are going to be able to stop both this and take away 3s. I wish they would get out and run a little bit. Good things seem to happen when they do.

• When I think Thanksgiving, I think “Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis” every year.