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Cowboy Basketball Positional Previews: Power Forwards

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For the next edition of our basketball positional previews, we’ll check out the power forwards for the Cowboys in 2016-2017. We’ve touched on this before, but one look at the basketball roster tells you all you need to know about the bigs for the Cowboys.

Cowboys roster

The Cowboys are undersized. They may just have the best backcourt in the Big 12, and some experienced, talented wings to boot. But they have next to no size, which may be a fairly, uh, big concern in the rugged Big 12.

They were obviously hurt by the tragic death of Tyrek Coger, but the good news is this — the Cowboys will run a motion spread offense, so whoever plays at the “4”, or the “power forward” position, will play a lot more on the perimeter and a lot less in the paint than your typical power forward. This comes as somewhat of a relief for the current roster, which will feature several athletic but undersized forwards playing at this position. We’ll focus on two forwards in particular since we threw Leyton Hammonds into the small forwards bucket: Will Lienhard and Cameron McGriff.

So. Will Lienhard, 6’7 255 lbs.

Will Lienhard is a sophomore walk-on who only appeared once last year, in the TCU game briefly. Lienhard was a standout high school player at nearby Bishop McGuinness in Oklahoma City, being selected to the first-team All-Conference for 6A in 2015. Lienhard has more girth than any other big on the roster, and may be called upon if depth becomes a serious issue, but should not feature often for Underwood’s Cowboys in 2016.

Fr. Cameron McGriff, 6’7, 210 lbs.

McGriff (photo above) is a physical specimen coming out of Grand Prairie, Texas. As a high school senior, McGriff was named to the Dallas Morning News All-Area First Team, averaging 14.3 points a game and 7.4 rebounds a game. Head Coach Brad Underwood is stoked about the freshman.

“Well, when the good Lord handed out basketball bodies, Cam was in that line,” Underwood told Go Pokes. He’s an extremely motored-up, hard-playing basketball player. I think that one thing about these freshmen, and I’m going to say this about Cam as well, all of them are terrific people.

“Cam is competitive, he’s fiery, [and] he’s a great, great competitor. You can tell a guy who’s been exceptionally well coached, [and] has a lot of the basic fundamental things down. He can step out and shoot it, and that will continued to get better and he matures and gets older. Physically, he’s ready to play major college basketball. That’s only going to get enhanced with what we do in the weight room because right now he’s just spitting nails; he’s eating up the weight room. He’s a versatile guy. He can guard three spots on the floor easily. His athleticism and body are going to allow him to be very productive.”

McGriff will obviously bring a nasty streak to the front court with the Cowboys that they quite frankly have lacked in recent years. McGriff loves to crash the boards on both ends of the floor and is a phenomenal athlete for his size. As Underwood alluded to above, McGriff is coming in with a college-ready body with even more room to grow as he spends more time with the training staff in the coming months.

Cam McGriff will be able to play several positions, and is most likely suited to a small forward position in the traditional offense, but Underwood won’t employ your traditional offense. The 4 position will have the ability to play on the perimeter in the motion spread, free to dribble and drive and set screens for the lightening quick backcourt of Jawun Evans, Phil Forte, Brandon Averette, Lindy Waters III, and others.

Defensively, McGriff will need to be able to bang in the post with bigger forwards in the Big 12. There is not a lot of size on the roster, with only four players over 6’7, and that’s including walk-on Will Lienhard. What he lacks in height, McGriff can compensate in competitiveness, athleticism, and positioning. He has all the tools to grow into a star in his time in Stillwater, and will be called upon early and often this season for the Pokes.

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