Roundtable Friday: are we more excited about football or hoops?

We haven’t done this in a while but with Marcus Smart’s decision on Wednesday we wanted to go another round with Roundtable Friday. Today’s question: are we more excited about football next year or hoops?[1. Question courtesy of @carsonc5 — as well as the photo — he basically did this whole post.]

OKC Dave

It has to be basketball. Football will be fun. We have a lot to look forward to this season. But we’re not going to challenge for the national championship in football. At best, we’ll lose a game or two and be in the mix for a conference championship – certainly something to be excited about in Stillwater, Oklahoma. But I think that’s our ceiling (prove me wrong, boys!).

Smart & company are unequivocally going to be the favorite to win the Big 12 and will be in several pre-season Final Fours. This is the most anticipated OSU basketball season since 2004-05. Being excited about basketball does not diminish my excitement for the football season at all – but if we happen to drop a football game at home this year, as you stumble back to your tailgate all you have to do is glance to the east and gaze upon GIA to lift your spirits.

@CarsonC5

Both should be favored to win the Big 12, let’s get that out of the way. There’s no wrong answer.

Football has more question marks. Will Glenn Spencer be a difference maker? Or just the next name on the list field a leaky defense? And — unpopular opinion alert — I’m not sure OSU is starting the right quarterback. The thing no one wants to talk about is Chelf feasted on the worst Big 12 defenses (Tech, WVU, OU)[1. Not to mention Purdue. I’m convinced Alex Cate could’ve run it up on the Boilermakers.] while Lunt had to face the best (K-State on the road, TCU). While Walsh may have been the most productive. Gundy’s already backpedaling a little bit[2. Per NewsOK.] Certainly a good headache to have.

Despite the QB carousel, it all comes down to the defense and the schedule looks like Gundy drafted it. Big, big season awaits.

But I think it has to be basketball. Strictly because the hoops team should be national contenders, not just league favorites[3. Ford is still doing this in his living room.]. I don’t think they are flawless, though. What happens if Cobbins gets in foul trouble? Gary Gaskins may help, or he may be Jared Shaw.

Marcus Smart aside, OSU fans should be downright giddy about Stevie Clark. I have been covering Stevie since his freshman year of high school and he’s the best player I’ve ever seen. He is going to be incredible[4. Including launching threes from the Pistol Pete logo.].

It’s Final Four or bust and GIA is going to be a monster. [insert “Ford may mess this all up” joke here]

Pistolsboy

Hoops, and it’s not close. Football is going to be great next year but for me there’s still a sense of “hey, we had our dream season of the last decade and that was 2011.” We might have another great one, but I’m not sure anything can measure up to that one — short of us winning a title and Chelf stripping down to his compression shorts in the Rose Bowl and 2,000 USC co-eds descending on him within a matter of seconds.

Know how many NCAA Tournament wins we have since going to the Final Four in 2004, which was nine years ago? Three (we have five bowl wins in the same timespan). Those Tournament wins were against Southeastern Louisiana, Southern Illinois, and Tennessee.

That’s it.

So to bring back a top 10 team with a legitimate national POY candidate leading the charge and a tipsy GIA ready to explode twice a week? Come on, football is great, but Josh Stewart and Jeremy Smith aren’t touching that.

The thing that’s being downplayed is that I don’t think people know how good this OSU basketball squad is going to be. They were a possession away from winning the Big 12 regular season title last year and basically return everybody but the guy who committed one fewer foul (92) than he had points (93).

Not even Travis Ford could screw this thing up![2. (gulps).]

Amilian

Several times we’ve thrown around the question of “Would you rather have a consistent top 20 basketball program with an occasional Final Four appearance or a football program that averages 9-10 wins a year with an occasional BCS Bowl throw in the mix?”.

This question was posed a couple years ago when football was on an all-time high and basketball was on an all-time low (for my lifetime). I’ve always gone with basketball. The memories I have of Gallagher-Iba from the early Eddie days through 2005 far outweigh the success our football team has had in recent years.

Now we have a shot to be really, really good in both sports simultaneously and it’s not close. Give me hoops. Smart is saving more than Travis Ford’s job. He’s preserving the momentum GIA was gaining.

I’ve said it for years: The only way we consistently get the traditional rowdiness back in that arena, is a sustained period of success. I’m so pumped for next season. I just talked myself into buying season tickets. Gallagher-Iba Arena is going to be special again and I want to be a part of it.

You can buy season tickets for only $199!![6. This was not paid for or endorsed by anyone with an okstate.edu address.]