Five Thoughts On Iowa State’s 58-50 Win Over Oklahoma State

BOX SCORE

Iowa State downed Oklahoma State 58-50 on a half staff Monday for the Pokes tonight in Hilton. Georges Niang and Abdel Nader combined for 36 points on senior night against eight scholarship players for the Pokes.

Nobody reached double digits for the Cowboys who shot 32 percent from the field and 15 percent from three. Jeff Newberry had 9-7. Tyree Griffin had 7-4-5-1. Chris Olivier chipped in 8-6-2-1. Five (very brief) thoughts on the evening.

1. The wrong injuries crush

If Mitch Solomon or Joe Burton is hurt, so what? I mean, it’s not great. But it doesn’t kill you. On Monday, OSU was missing Jawun Evans (shoulder), Phil Forte (elbow), Jeffrey Carroll (sick) and Leyton Hammonds (finger). That’s an average of 48 points per game. And you only score 68.

That’s not an excuse for Ford (get more guys), but rather the context through which we have to view tonight’s game. Iowa State wins that tilt 999 times out of 1,000. And in the other one Mitch Solomon turns into Brad Lohaus in NBA Jam and hits 20 threes and mysteriously retires to a Caribbean island afterwards.

2. The offense, what can you say?

I mean that literally. What do you think Travis Ford says in the locker room about the offense without Jawun Evans, Phil Forte, Jeffrey Carroll and Leyton Hammonds? Like, does he just say, “good luck dudes … good luck getting to 50!” Because sometimes it feels like that would be more effective than whatever it is he actually tells them.

OSU made three non-layups in the second half (see below). It shot 15 percent from three. It had Mitch Solomon taking fadeaway threes. It airballed two threes on the same possession!

#okstate’s shooting chart on non-layups in the second half on Monday night is something else. pic.twitter.com/MaJ4na6RZo

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguys) March 1, 2016

3. Which of these more accurately sums up the season?

This is embarrassing: pic.twitter.com/Op6mEETPN2

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) March 1, 2016

.@CycloneMBB's Abdel Nader with a monster dunk in the second half. #Cyclones pic.twitter.com/Vnb9oWCHIj

— Kelsey Kremer (@kelsey_kremer) March 1, 2016

4. Oklahoma State actually played pretty good D

Either that or Iowa State just missed an abnormal number of threes. OSU held ISU to 43 percent from the field and 26 percent from three in a matchup zone for most of the night (which was nice).

The 10:40 stretch from the end of the first half until six minutes into the second half where OSU scored three points ended up being the dagger on a night where you had a real chance to steal one in Hilton.

FINAL: Iowa State 58, #OKState 50. OSU holds Iowa State to its fewest point total since Niang was a freshman, but still loses.

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) March 1, 2016

5. Eight years of Travis Ford

Eight years into the Travis Ford era, and this is his conference road record.

2009: 3-5
2010: 2-6
2011: 0-8
2012: 1-8
2013: 5-4
2014: 2-7
2015: 2-7
2016: 0-9

Total: 15-54

Not sure what to do with that at this point. But if you’re good with that in conference play then it might be time to reevaluate what your expectation of this program actually is.