Oklahoma State Destroys Ole Miss by 41 in Brooklyn for NIT Championship

BOX SCORE

This — as my colleague Marshall Scott pointed out earlier this week — is now a basketball website.*

*Except for Saturday.

Oklahoma State got some 2016 Sugar Bowl revenge on Friday in Brooklyn as the basketball Pokes took it to Ole Miss 78-37 in the championship of the NIT Season Tip-Off. I checked twice and then a third time, and yes, those numbers are correct.

It all started at the end of the first half. After a very college basketball-y first 10 minutes, Rebels’ guard Breein Tyree made a bucket at 7:53 to make it 16-14 OSU. Then the Pokes outscored Ole Miss 18-1 the rest of the first half.

Ole Miss missed their last eight shots of that first half, while OSU finally got hot from deep. Dizzy hit a couple — including a fitting arrow into the rafters of the Barclays to end the half — and Yor started pouring it on in the interior. The entire thing was an irrational revelation.

OSU did it all. Transition buckets, catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, turnover creation (Ole Miss ended with 20), and it all led to a massive 20-minute head start on an Ole Miss team that handled a strong Penn State squad a few days ago.

At a few points in the first half our game thread got a little out of its world (with yours truly as the chief culprit).

It didn’t get any more rational in the second half.

OSU ran its 19-point halftime lead to 50-23 early in the second, and Trey Reeves started unbuttoning his warmups. The rout was on.

It ended the way all routs like this end, ugly and with a whimper. Ole Miss packed it in and couldn’t even reach 40 points. Ice had another filthy 9-6-4-3 line at point and was the only starter not in double figures. Lindy had 14-7, Cam had 15-5 and Yor — Tournament MVP Yor — had 14-9 with another four swats.

#okstate's 41-point win is the second-largest margin of victory in a non-GIA game in OSU history.

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguys) November 30, 2019

Here’s the reason we got irrational: The entire thing felt very … replicable.

Did Ole Miss shoot it poorly? Sure, if 26 percent from the field and 5 percent (!) from 3-point range is poor. Did OSU get scorching for longer-than-normal stretches of the game? Maybe. But the points were spread out, Yor did Yor things on both ends, and OSU just looked … better. Like, a lot better than an Ole Miss team that came in No. 46 in KenPom with its only loss a 1-pointer to a loaded Memphis team.

It’s difficult to properly encapsulate just how dominant OSU was on Friday, but if I can do it in one play, this would be it. It’s a Yor up and under to start the second. Easy, low stress, magnificent and repeatable.

With the victory, OSU grabbed a two-game sweep over Cuse and Ole Miss in Mike Boynton’s old neighborhood over Thanksgiving. As Boynton noted in an interview with Fran Fraschilla earlier in the week, this life he’s living wasn’t even a dream because the Barclays Center didn’t exist and coaching a program like OSU seemed like another planet when he was growing up.

“It’s unbelievable. I’m so proud of these kids,” Mike Boynton told ESPN. “I’m so proud of our program. I’m so fortunate. I’m not sure there’s anybody more fortunate in college basketball coaching than I am. To have this opportunity to come home and coach these kids who play so hard … Thanksgiving week, right? I’m thankful.”

I’m thankful, too. For a basketball team that’s 7-0 for the first time since 2014-15 with a shot at 8-0 for the first time since the 2006-07 season when the Pokes started 11-0.

OSU might not end up where I think it will end up (or want it to end up) after these two games, but that’s another post or another podcast for another time. For now — after a three-day trip to Brooklyn — these Cowboys look ready to take on a nasty rest of the nonconference schedule and then the always-treacherous Big 12 slate.

Because you can fake a lot of things in this sport and in sports in general. But a 41-point win over a good team on a nice-sized stage in which most of your deep roster contributes on both ends and at least a couple of your guys look like future pros is definitely not one of them.

OSU’s crack at 8-0 comes on Wednesday in GIA against Georgetown.

Even coach got in on the fun ?#LetsWork | #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/a3ranoxpw0

— Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) November 30, 2019