Oklahoma State ends non-conference play 12-1

BOX SCORE

It’s over. Mercifully.

Conference play starts on Saturday and OSU ends the non-conference schedule 12-1 after throttling Bob Morris 92-66 on Monday night in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

The Cowboys didn’t get much from Marcus Smart (I say 7-4-9 like it’s just a regular old thing) but they didn’t need much from him as Markel Brown, Stevie Clark, Kamari Murphy, and Phil Forte filled in the gaps.

Forte hit five threes and Brown put on a dunk festival (12 of his 18 points came on dunks) while Murphy chipped in 10-7 with Cobbins sidelined from early in the first half (more on that in a minute).

Stevie also added nine points and eight assists in addition to some Joe Adkins-like bombs that made thinking about how good he’s going to be as a senior my main second-half task.

It wasn’t a terrible performance from Bob (they’re pretty competent on offense) but when you get out-rebounded by an OSU squad sans Cobbins 40-30 and out-assisted 27-9 by the No. 6 team in the country, you have zero chances at winning in GIA.

More thoughts…

• Things I didn’t know: Bob Morris is located in Pennsylvania.

• Our interior defense is just…not very good. How many points will Joel Embiid have on us? How about Cory Jefferson? Melvin Ejim? They’ll have a lot, and the Cobbins injury (whatever it is) isn’t exactly helping things.

• Speaking of Cobbins..

On radio, John Holcomb says Michael Cobbins has been dealing with sore Achilles and at halftime was wearing boot with crutches. #okstate

— Kelly Hines (@KellyHinesTW) December 31, 2013

• Question I thought of during the game (because what else am I to do during terrible blowouts like this?): Who has the quickest first step on OSU? Probably Stevie, right? Maybe Markel but probably Stevie.

• Doug Gottlieb once told me the following:

There are like five guys in the history of hoops who can give a shooter the ball on the seams every time and I think i am one of them, but I may be exaggerating.

I don’t think anybody on this team is in the top 500,000 in college basketball history. Not bad passers, just nobody that does the little things like that.

• I thought the GIA crowd was pretty decent for a December 30 game vs. Bob Morris.

• I noticed tonight that Forte shoots deep threes like he was born int he 1940s. Set shots. They’re hideous from an aesthetic perspective but I suppose three-point titles aren’t won with aesthetics.

• Le’Bryan has become very good at drawing unnecessary contact inside. Basically, fouls that wouldn’t be fouls if he wasn’t as big as he is. It’s definitely a skill and he’s pretty great at it against smaller guys (which is most guys he plays).

• This was absurd:

• Bob was actually pretty decent on offense, 96th in Ken Pom’s adjusted offensive efficiency. They made a few mini-runs. I’d be terrified to play them in the first round of the tournament if I was a 2-seed that had trouble scoring.

• Travis Ford’s hair, let’s talk about it. It’s weird, right? He cuts the bottom like he’s going to buzz the whole thing but then the top is long enough to be a hipster haircut but none of it works. Am I the only one who notices? At least it’s not a toupee like Bill Self?

• Stevie Clark had eight assists!

• Unrelated to this game but this photo is great:

• I love the phrase “the lead has swelled.” I don’t know why, it’s just awesome.

• He’s a point guard!

• I’m so glad non-conference football is over. Games like this are just total nonsense. Markel was trying to be all 10 of the SportsCenter top 10 in the second half and nothing at all was accomplished. I understand why you schedule them but I don’t have to enjoy it.

• Love the Friday/Saturday back-to-back with the KSU game and Cotton Bowl. Should be a fun weekend.