March Mastermind Underwood Cannot Escape 3-Point Madness From Michigan

When Brad Underwood was hired March 21, Oklahoma State basketball fans’ minds drifted almost exactly one year down the line, but March is a madness that is appeasable, not often conquerable.

Yes, someone has to win each game, but, for example, Underwood’s Stephen F. Austin team probably wasn’t better than VCU in 2014 and it definitely wasn’t better than West Virginia in 2016. In March, shots go in that pain the soul so deeply that they leave you wondering what legal action you can take against them, especially when those shots come behind the 3-point line.

There were 11 of those in the second half and 16 overall of OSU’s 92-91 loss against Michigan in the round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament. At SFA, Underwood’s teams did things like that. Against VCU, the Lumberjacks were a No. 12 seed and won in overtime. Against West Virginia, they were a 14 seed and won by as many points.

Michigan's 16 3-pt FG against Oklahoma State tied the Big Ten record for an NCAA Tournament game pic.twitter.com/ZCyBhY8e3p

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 17, 2017

“You go 11-of-15 from the 3, that’s hard to do in a gym by yourself,” Underwood said.

Some March happenings are inexplicable, and it was probably unfair for OSU fans and others alike to expect those supernatural events that happened for Underwood at SFA to come with him to OSU.

Of course there will be comparisons to Travis Ford’s first year with the Cowboys in which his team beat Tennessee to make it to the round of 32. Then he got a 10-year contract, and now he is at St. Louis where he just posted the same 12-20 record he did at OSU last year, plus one more loss. Looking back, Ford’s tournament victory was probably as much a miracle as Michigan’s second-half shots Friday.

Michigan’s 16 made 3-pointers were as many as the Cowboys tried in Indianapolis. Wolverines point guard Derrick Walton Jr. was 6-of-9 from 3. He was absolutely phenomenal in the second half. After the game, the CBS crew said Michigan and Walton are playing better than any other team and player in the nation.

“We had to make shots,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “Early in the game, we settled way too much. This is like seven games in a row, everybody switching every ball screen. We’re used to it, but we settled a little bit. Their pressure bothered us early. Once we settled in, we were fine.”

Walton made 3s from Phil Forte range.

“I just tap into the fact that I know I’ve worked really hard and trust my mechanics for the most part,” said Walton after hitting his first five 3-pointers in the second half. “It’s just the mindset and the trust these guys have in me, it makes me go out and just play much more free just knowing they have a lot of confidence in me.”

Zak Irvin dropped four of his six 3s. And there were six other 3s that rained on the Cowboys. It was a barrage. A shower. A pain-staking burial for a team that was otherwise playing like it did when it won 10-of-11, not the three-game skid it was on.

That’s madness.

“It’s one of those deals,” Underwood said. “We shot 55 percent in the NCAA Tournament and just lost in the first round. The game is evolving into this. This goes against basically every stereotype you know.

“It’s one I’ve got to grasp, out-rebounding an opponent 40-21 and lose. The game’s changing. The 3-point line is changing that way. … You talk about 50 points in the paint and you lose. The game’s changing.”

Jawun Evans had 23 points and was only bested by the man he guarded, Walton, who had 26. Evans missed a critical one-and-one free throw with 1:25 left down five, and his layup was blocked with 23 seconds left down five again.

If those free throws and that layup went in, he would have had 27, and OSU hypothetically would have won by 3. There a number of scenarios just like this. Mitch Solomon fouled on a 3-pointer with four seconds left in the first half. Michigan made all three. Phil Forte had a 3-pointer go all the way down and come all the way out.

HOW? pic.twitter.com/JQZqVYg08r

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguys) March 17, 2017

You get the picture.

Underwood’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament with OSU was not a letdown. No one should have expected him to win just because he won twice in the tournament at SFA. Expectations are void in March.

It’s madness. OSU was just another victim of it.