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Five Thoughts: Tennessee Tech Game

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OSU rolled in its last non-Gonzage/non-conference test today at GIA. Thankfully the snooze-y portion of the schedule is over (if you don’t count TCU) and we can start filling in the resume for early March. Here are five thoughts on the win over Tennessee Tech…

1. Amilian made a good point today about this team’s watchability — even last year when we were drumming teams, it wasn’t really that fun to watch. Plus last year’s squad would play down to its opponent. This year’s team is exciting for one reason — because of how intense they are on defense. I hope they don’t forget this when January rolls around.

2. Speaking of defense, here are the amounts OSU has held its last five opponents to below their season average in points (from most recent to lease recent):

26 | 18 | 15 | 16 | 18

Spectacular work from a coach and a team not expected to make waves on the defensive end.

3. I tweeted this in the second half but Kirby Gardner is probably better than any starting point guard OSU has had since Eaton and he’s the backup, a bit player, a role guy who could see time when Smart gets hurt or needs a blow.

I got a few tweets back about how the bar isn’t high etc. etc. I get that but Gardner is also legit. Think old Maynor to Smart’s Westbrook.

4. I got an anonymous text from a former player[1. This is not hard to figure out.] saying that he thinks Murph is better than Cobbins. I think I agree. I’m all in on Murphy as a legitimate Big 12 presence. Cobbins might be more athletic (and he definitely has his role) but Murphy is almost always in the right position in the court. It’s uncanny.

5. Good Nash/bad Nash scares me heading into the Big 12. It’s almost like if we dont’ revolve the offense around him, he just checks out. I don’t think he’s a bad team player or necessarily selfish but we need him to chip in even when he’s not getting easy buckets or having fun isolating former high school all-stars.

Smart is fantastic, one of the best players in the country, but for this team to be truly great Nash is going to have to figure out how to fit in even when it’s not flowing.

 

 

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