Daily Bullets (March 14)

Personal Note: Happy birthday to Mrs. M, a lily among thorns. And thanks for never getting (visibly) upset at my early morning alarm waking you up so I can do the Bullets.

Triple Value

They say stellar point guard play is required for a run in March. Underwood can check that box on his packing list for Indy.

“He’s been one of the best point guards in the country over the last half of the season,” Underwood said Sunday. “Not just doing it with scoring, but setting other people up, having a 15-assist game. He’s also doing a very good job defensively.”

The 15 assists came in OSU’s regular-season finale against Kansas. The game before that, Evans poured in 29 points at Iowa State. A week before that, he had a combined 48 points, 18 assists, eight rebounds, five steals and three turnovers in wins over Kansas State and Oklahoma.

And if that flurry wasn’t enough, Evans put up 29 points, four assists, four rebounds and one turnover in OSU’s Big 12 Tournament loss to Iowa State on Thursday.

“I’ve said since the beginning of the year Jawun is the best point guard in the country, and he’s playing like it right now,” Cowboys forward Leyton Hammonds said. “It’s great for us because he’s the head of our snake. He’s doing what he can do to help our team win. It trickles down to everybody else.”

Point guards are your tone-setters the first four months of the season. Then their value triples in March. You go home if you don’t win in March, and point guards are who win for you. [TulsaWorld]

Can you imagine a more inspired Jawun? It’s either his desire to will the Pokes to March-relevance or climb draft boards, but either way, I’m ready to see No. 1 play unhinged against some folks who don’t know all of his tendencies.

Confidence at the Corners

Bobby A. says there’s nothing to see here:

I know that The Oklahoman featured the search for cornerbacks in their Sunday edition. Good call on their part because it is a situation that needs to be answered in the spring. I got my early answer being at the first three practices and seeing what I saw.

Corner is one of the few positions that you can really take a lot away from even when practices are in helmets and shorts. if you can cover and move in helmets and shorts then you likely can cover and move in full pads. I’ve always liked Darius Curry as a big corner playing into the boundary (short side of the field) and against larger, post up receivers. He serves a very good role there.

Now, I really like what I’ve seen from the trio of A.J. Green, Madre Harper, and Rodarius Williams. Two of the three, Green and Harper, got playing time last season and when called upon looked good. They are fast, athletic, have some size, and all three are confident young players. You have to be at the corner. I also like Malik Kearse and his improvement and keep an eye on Lamarcus Morton. Because he is here for the spring and he reminds me of Green and Harper a year ago and also has some size and comes out of a solid high school program like Gilmer, I think he will be able to play some as a freshman.

They will be young, but I think the corners will be fine. [Scout $$$]

First off: With Mahomes gone, the Fayetteville Felon is really the only Big 12 passer that terrifies me.  Darius Curry has been around since 2013, Malik Kearse is a second year juco who should take a jump in his second year and Robert Allen’s trio of Green, Harper and Williams sound like good options.

I’ll be prepared to fawn over Lamarcus Morton in September, irrationally hoping for the next Perrish Cox/Justin Gilbert. But everything’s fine here right?

OSU and NCAA Notes

Yet more unfortunate Baylor news: staffer fired for inappropriate texts…. 10 tips to help you fill out your bracket and an overview on every team in the field….Former LSU QB is visiting Texas as a graduate transfer….A fun overview of 2017 Cowboy football….Yahoo ranks the 68 seeds (Pokes are a top the “Long Shots” category)….Cowgirl Basketball tips off in the NIT on Thursday at GIA

A cool tribute to the King here from a Cowboy great.

Quick morn flight from Jupiter to Orlando for @apinv @pgatour ! Pumped for another week! Had to make the trip by plane, why? Because #arniewould #honortheking #arnoldpalmer @greysonclothiers @breitling

A post shared by Morgan Hoffmann (@morganhoffmannpga) on Mar 13, 2017 at 6:36am PDT

.@OSUCoachBrad brought in 6-time world champ, 5-time NCAA champion coach @JohnSmithOKST to talk about having a "Bullet-Proof Attitude". pic.twitter.com/HoKkrN5NT3

— Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) March 12, 2017

Not a bad value-add for Cowboy basketball. Maybe some thoughts on how to get leverage on a dude who’s 6’10”, 24o.

Congrats to @carsonteel, named #Big12BSB Pitcher of the Week & one of 10 Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Players of Week! #okstate

A post shared by Oklahoma State Baseball (@osubaseball) on Mar 13, 2017 at 12:04pm PDT

A sophomore pitcher to keep an eye on here for the Pokes.

Shout out to ESPN Stats & Info for giving the Pokes the nod as double digit seed most likely to get the furthest.

Oklahoma State has the best chance. #AllstateStatChat https://t.co/IveobFOXAm

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 13, 2017

What You Missed on PFB

• Context on OSU’s recent tourney performance compared to conference peers
• Make sure and join the PFB Bracket Challenge
• How Underwood perceives tournament success
• The weight of Underwood’s first tournament game
• Underwood talks about what makes Jawun Evans great
• Carson and Kyle P. talk everything around the tournament