Five Thoughts: Iowa State Sends Oklahoma State Home From Big 12 Tournament

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Oklahoma State fell on Thursday morning in Kansas City as Iowa State won its 10th straight against the Pokes 92-83. It was a bummer of an ending to the Big 12 season for OSU which ended the year on a three-game losing streak.

Iowa State hit 50 percent from three and needed 21 fewer shots than the Pokes to score nine more points (stunning). Jawun Evans had a nice 29-4-4 line, but Monte Morris matched him with 21-10-9 as the Cyclones move on to face Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals.

I knew it would be, but the degree to which this felt like a home game for Iowa State was staggering. It felt like they just put Hilton on a flatbed truck and drove it to KC!

Five thoughts on Thursday’s game.

1. Importance of offensive rebounding

Let’s hit the positive first. OSU out-rebounded Iowa State 19-6 on the offensive end. Nineteen to six! Mitchell Solomon alone had more offensive boards (eight) than Iowa State did. This is part of the reason OSU took 77 shots to Iowa State’s 56 — it missed a ton of open looks (more on that in a minute) but kept getting boards. This is something the Cowboys have done well all season (No. 8 in the country in offensive rebounding percentage).

I’m going to go ahead and say this will be vital in the NCAA Tournament. Or at least I hope it will be.

2. All Those Misses

Iowa State missed 26 shots. Oklahoma State missed 21 layups and tip-ins. Not a typo. You have to hit bunnies. OSU missed them in bunches and shot 39 percent which ranks No. 29 out of the 32 games it played this year. Additionally, it didn’t hit threes. It shot just 34.8 percent which would rank No. 23 out of 32 games.

Asked Underwood if he could recall a game with 20 missed layups. "Sixth-grade intramural game might have that. I wish I could explain it."

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) March 9, 2017

Only Evans shot better than 50 percent from the field (12-21). This is part of why the Cowboys took so many more shots than the Cyclones and still lost.

3. The Defensive Sieve

I don’t even know what to say about this anymore. OSU’s defense has more holes right now than the Manitowoc County case against Steven Avery. Its interior defense has been all right (given the personnel), but that perimeter defense is just (lots of monkey covering his eyes emojis).

Iowa State made 14 of their last 17 shots on Thursday and shot 12-24 from three-point range. In the last three games, OSU has given up the following numbers on defense when it comes to points per possession.

• 1.26
• 1.25
• 1.23

To put this in perspective, Oklahoma State had one of the worst defenses in Big 12 history this season and averaged giving up 1.15 points per possession. The last three games have been far, far worse than that.

I saw innumerable tweets about how Iowa State only ever hits shots against Oklahoma State. Yeah, that’s what great teams with great shooters do against teams that don’t guard them.

Also, a thread.

I love Brad Underwood, and I think he’s awesome. And maybe OSU’s issues are as simple as they don’t have the athletes to compete defensively in the Big 12. But this three-game close is not how you contend for Big 12 titles or make runs in March. The offense is great — and fun as hell — but the defense must get better.

4. OSU Never Out of Games, But ISU Struggles Continue

This was a tweet from the first half that I wholeheartedly agreed with. Despite being down 12 early on, I had zero doubt OSU would come all the way back and either tie the game or get close to doing so. It did so even more quickly than I thought and trailed 39-36 at the half.

It's weird to watch this team get in a huge hole and never doubt they'll get back in the game. I do wish they would stop digging holes.

— Tara Zaloudek (@tarasuez) March 9, 2017

Here’s the thing, though: You expend so much energy fighting to get back in games, there is often nothing left in the tank to close. How many times have we seen this against Iowa State in the last four years? ISU has now won 10 straight over the Pokes — most seemingly in the manner it did so on Thursday.

In its 12 losses this year, OSU only won the first 10 minutes of those game four times (Maryland, Texas, at Kansas and Kansas State at home). In the other eight, it trailed after the first 10 minutes. That’s not a good place to be.

On the ESPN broadcast, Holly Rowe reported the following:

Holly Rowe reporting on ESPN that Underwood told his team: "We've been practicing harder than we're playing right now."

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguys) March 9, 2017

What’s up with that?

5. The reprieve

Oklahoma State went 1-8 against the top four teams in the Big 12. The good news there? All four are ranked in the KenPom top 21 (where OSU is also ranked). They are likely to see a much worse team than that at least in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Iowa State,” said Brad Underwood after the loss on Thursday. “They were the better team today. I’m ecstatic looking forward to postseason play, and I’m ecstatic to get away from Big 12 teams because this league is so good. I look forward to that opportunity next week.”

Next game: First round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday or Friday.