Are things looking up in Stillwater?

Photo Attribution: Icon SMI

As a sort of termination to the woeful 2011-2012 OSU basketball season I again asked John Helsley, Jimmie Tramel, and Anthony Slater to join me in answering questions about this (and next) year’s team. You should be following all of them on Twitter.

Hope you enjoy the 4-on-4.

1. Why should OSU fans be excited about next season?

Jimmie Tramel (Tulsa World) – Nothing excites fans more than “next guy” and, in this case, that’s McDonald’s All-American Marcus Smart, who allegedly will bring the Charlie Sheen intangible (winning) that was missing last season. With two All-Americans (Le’Bryan Nash is the other) on the squad, can the Cowboys possibly miss the NCAA Tournament? Only twice in OSU history have the Cowboys had two All-Americans on a basketball roster. James Anderson and Byron Eaton settled for an NIT trip in 2008, but they advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2009.

John Helsley (Oklahoman) – There’s reason for optimism, based on the core of players coming back — assuming Darrell Williams is one of them, too — and the quality of the guys coming in. Marcus Smart is pegged as a big-time winner, the kind of player who make others look better. That bodes well for Markel Brown, Darrell Williams, Le’Bryan Nash, Michael Cobbins, et al. And for the Cowboys.

Anthony Slater (O’Colly) – You had five freshman in the rotation. You had three of them (Nash, BWilliams, Cobbins) show they were capable starters. You had a sophomore (Markel) begin to blossom. You have the top recruit in Texas (Marcus Smart) coming in. You have talent returning from injury/suspension (Olukemi, DWilliams?). Everyone else in the conference is worrying about what they are losing (UT-J’Covan Brown, ISU-Royce White, KU-Taylor/Robinson, BU-entire rotation may go to league). You are getting almost everything back, and then some.

Kyle Porter (Pistols Firing) – Why shouldn’t they be excited? You have the Big 12 Freshman of the Year coming back, an eclectic, if not dangerous supporting cast and a coach frothing at the mouth to win 20 games. Plus all the Ewing Theory potential you can handle with Keiton exiting stage right. I’m more excited for basketball next season than I am football.

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Do you guys remember the scene in the Count of Monte Cristo when Edmond Dantes and Jacopo find their treasure hidden in the bottom of the ocean and try to load it in their life boat in one trip because they’re scared if they leave it somebody else will find out about it and steal it before they can return?

That’s how I’ve felt about this Gottlieb/Joe Adkins story for the last two weeks. Somebody emailed it to me randomly and I was scared someone else with a lot of followers would tweet it or somebody from ESPN would pick it up and mention it on air or Scott Van Pelt would literally just read it on his radio show. That’s how awesome it is.

You should really take the time to read the whole post put together by the good folks over at The Kingsbury Factor, but I had to whet your appetite with this jewel of an answer from Doug about great shooters:

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I’m not going to lie, every six weeks (or so) I’d google “Desmond Mason on Twitter” and gleefully check to see if @DesmondMason had shed his anonymity and morphed into real Desmond Mason or @BrothaDez had given up the “artist mgmt” schtick and put his real photo up.

Alas, neither ever transpired so when I got a text from my buddy, DeShazo on Friday night with a screenshot of @DesmondTMason that said “I think this is real”, I was suddenly in social media heaven.

Social media heaven, by the way, is a place where Ashton Kutcher doesn’t have 10x more followers than the Washington Post and everyone understands that leading a tweet with a person’s handle means the only people who can see it are people who follow both of you. But that’s another post for another time.

I wondered, however, how adept the former Cowboy and Thunder-er would be with the Twitters (it is certainly an art, though not necessarily an advanced one) but he came out of the gates hot with these doozies over the weekend:

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/desmondtmason/status/180491570074746881"]

Welcoming himself to Twitter.

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I watched a lot of college basketball last weekend. Like, a copious amount of college basketball. And as I watched I started noticing these patterns of players I wished played for OSU. They weren’t stars – of course everybody could use an Anthony Davis or Thomas Robinson – but pieces of the puzzle OSU could use in rebuilding what was once a proud institutional hoops program.

I even joked on Twitter…

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/pistolsguy/status/181071970761326592"]

And yes, OSU could absolutely use a Henriquez to swat shots and score, pairing him with Cobbins down low would be outstanding. Here are four other players OSU could use:

A C.J. McCollum (Lehigh) – The Lehigh baller did everything short of pounding the floor in front of Duke’s bench right in Wojo’s face on Friday night. I’m of the belief that OSU already has a McCollum in Markel Brown but somebody needs to bring that out of him. Quickly.

A Tony Fiegen (Soth Dakota State) – The athletic red head does pretty much everything but score for a Jackrabbits team that could have advanced if it wasn’t playing the most talented 3-seed in the last 10 years. He doesn’t turn the ball over, gets every loose board, and helped hold Perry Jones and Quincy Acy to a combined six points. Somebody put Jurick through the Justin Gilbert portion of the strength and conditioning program in Stillwater.

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