Jeff Carroll Sparking The Cowboys Off The Bench In 4-0 Start

In Monday night’s 98-90 win over UConn, Jawun Evans was the unquestioned star again for Oklahoma State which is now 4-0 on the year. Evans dropped 35 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, and 5 steals. He’s been arguably the best point guard in the nation through the first four games, invoking comparisons of CP3 from Jay Bilas, Dino Gaudio, Doug Gottelieb, and other national basketball analysts.

He also got the line 17 times, and carried the offensive load down the stretch a la Frank Mason at Kansas. He’s the floor general, the creator, the guy who will make play after play after play for this team. Check these numbers out:

Through four games, Jawun Evans is averaging 26.3 points, 6.3 assists, 4 rebounds, 3.5 steals. #okstate

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) November 22, 2016

Senior Phil Forte III did his thing again too, putting in 18 points. He’s averaging 21.0 points per game on the season and will be right there with Jawun Evans all year long in scoring, shouldering the load and creating offense.

Coming into this season, this was what was expected — Jawun/Phil create offense, the other starters hit open shots, and play defense like maniacs, turning the ball over and buying extra possessions (and shots) for their offense.

Well, Jawun and Phil have generated plenty of offense, to the tune of a combined 44 points per game so far, and the on-the-ball defense probably has Eddie Sutton swooning like the rest of us. But there’s been one player that has improved more than any other returning player from last year’s team: Jeffrey Carroll.

Beautiful. https://t.co/sMUOJA0iXl

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguy) November 22, 2016

The 6’6 junior forward has emerged as the third scoring option that this team desperately needed, seeing his numbers skyrocket across the board from last year to this year. He’s averaging a ridiculous 18.5 points per game in 19.5 minutes a game, shooting 66.7 percent from the field, including 60 percent from 3. That’s almost a point per minute!

Carroll apparently picked up 15-20 pounds of muscle in the off season, and it shows. Clip is hitting the glass harder than Roy Williams hits a Brooks Brothers Black Friday sale, to the tune of eight rebounds a game — exactly double his average from a year ago.

Carroll isn’t just a spot-up shooter anymore- –he’s a bonafide threat on offense and a force that teams will need to game plan for if they want to hold this team under 80 or 90 points. He’s playing more confident, aggressive, and has embraced his role as the 6th man with pride, giving the Cowboys a weapon off the bench that few teams have.

Lindy Waters III has been very solid starting at small forward as a true freshman, averaging 6.3 points per game on 50 percent shooting and spending more time in passing lanes than Justin Bieber in a Ferrari. But Carroll takes this team to another level with his productivity and versatility off the bench.

Clip also provides plenty of value on the defensive end, with his ability to switch on screens and guard almost any position on the floor. He has more than held his own in the paint, bothers smaller forwards/guards with his length, and has been all over the floor in his 20 minutes/game. Hitting open threes, creating shots for himself, rebounding like a man possessed, and playing very strong defense at multiple positions.

This team simply has not had a scoring threat off the bench like this in years, and completely changes my outlook for Brad Underwood’s first year. Jay Bilas mentioned on the broadcast that if this team is the seventh best team in the Big 12, they must have six teams in the top 10, and he might be right.

It’s way too early to label them a serious contender in the conference, but with Jeff Carroll averaging 18 a game off the bench, this team could finish top four in the Big 12 THIS season.