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Desperation Setting in for Oklahoma State Hoops

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There’s no need to dwell on the free fall of the Oklahoma State basketball program as a whole. At this point, we’re all aware of what OSU’s history is and where Travis Ford is taking this thing. We also all know how it’s going to end. There’s no point in going over and over and over that.

This season has been not great. It hasn’t even been good. Jawun Evans is the lone bright spot for the future of Oklahoma State hoops. I’ve even delegated half the conference games to Kyle Boone to cover.[1. He’s doing a great job with them, btw.] Can you imagine the 1999 version of me doing that? Heck no, I’d be locked into every single one.

And it’s not going to get better anytime soon. Ford sounded desperate (and with good reason) in his pre-Kansas meeting with the media.

“Our team can’t be great if every individual player doesn’t reach his potential and effort level and everything that’s involved with that, and that’s what we’re looking for right now,” Ford told Go Pokes. “We’re just fluctuating too much in our individual play, which obviously hurts your team. … We need every individual playing to the highest ability they have in their body.”

That’s not how you want to construct a high-level college basketball team. There should be contingency plans if “every individual isn’t playing to the highest ability they have in their body.” There aren’t with this team. Ford was talking about beating Kansas, but he could have been talking about beating Iowa State or West Virginia or Baylor.

The problem with his statement is that he’s right. Ford has found himself in a position where, if OSU isn’t playing TCU, he has to get nine guys to have the game of their lives for OSU to have a shot of winning. That’s a recipe for a couple of upsets against big teams every season … and that’s about it.

OSU has beaten Kansas in three of the last five times they played inside GIA. Barring another Herculean performance from Evans or a deep glut of players having career nights, that won’t be four of six.

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