A Closer Look at the Little Things Big Mitch Does for the Cowboys

Lindy Waters, Kendall Smith and Cam McGriff have – deservedly – earned a bunch of praise during the Cowboys’ pair of impressive wins at Kansas and West Virginia.

Behind the plethora of clutch 3-pointers and putback dunks, however, is senior forward Mitchell Solomon. A fan-favorite in Stillwater, Solomon does the little things that seem insignificant to the casual fan. His game is fundamental without the flash that has widely become the staple of the game of basketball.

He’s not splashing 3s from 28 feet, and he isn’t putting anybody on a poster. Those things stick out to fans, so I’m here to show you things that don’t.

We’ll start in Lawrence, Kansas.

Let’s take a look at the first sequence. This gif is longer than most, but bear with me. Solomon is heavily involved right out of the gate. It can be argued he’s one of the main catalysts in OSU’s set offense.

Solomon receives the ball at the left elbow and waits for Cam McGriff to set a down screen for Kendall Smith, who gets the ball. McGriff stays for another screen and Solomon does the same, creating a wall for a wide-open Jeff Carroll jumper. It didn’t fall, but Solomon’s slight step to the right caused the defender to close out half a second late. Carroll got a great look.

Solomon then sprints down the floor, signals for someone to pick up a man on the left wing and closes out on a corner 3. Kansas gets another shot up, so Solomon quickly finds someone to box out. Again, it wasn’t the result OSU wanted, but little things like that are pivotal to winning games against top teams. Second-chance points can kill a team. Boxing out stops that.

Solomon might as well teach an intro-level boxing-out course at OSU. This is another textbook example.

What happens on the next possession? Smith forces an errant pass to Solomon. It looks like it’ll be a turnover, but Solomon has other plans. Smith should buy Solomon dinner for keeping a turnover off of his stat sheet here.

Now let’s take a look at the WVU game. We all remember when Solomon dove onto the white maple of GIA against OU, but that wasn’t an anomaly. He does this almost every game. Here his is with less than three minutes remaining, down four.