Notebook: Carroll Scores Career High With 24 In Loss

Oklahoma State lost a crucial game in Austin to the now 7-7 Texas Longhorns on Wednesday night. Lindy Waters III and Tavarius Shine did not play, but the Cowboys turned Texas over just 11 times and shot just 32 percent from 3. Let’s dive into the notes I took watching the game.

First Half

• The Longhorn Network announcers have already complained about Jawun Evans “selling” two fouls… gonna be a brutal night listening to this broadcast.

• Cam ‘Crime Dog’ McGriff with the heady steal, then taking it all the way to the rack for the and-1 through contact. Dude is a future All Big-12 performer.

• Watching Shaka Smart’s Texas team, you can see why they’re just 6-7 this season. The guards turn it over at will and they don’t shoot it well at all. On the other hand…

• Smart has some absolute dudes. Starting Tevin Mack (Rivals 4-star forward), Andrew Jones (Rivals 5-star shooting guard), Kerwin Roach Jr. (Rivals 4-star guard), Jarrett Allen (Rivals 5-Star power forward) and Shaquille Cleare (Rivals 4-star center). Holy cow they look impressive.

• LHN announcers letting us know Oklahoma State is “bringing the Hollywood” tonight *eyeroll*. Just compared Cam McGriff to Manu Ginobli… may have to mute this one.

• Jawun with the filthy pull up in front of the bench and the smirk as Oklahoma State goes up 20-15. Enjoy No. 1 while you can, because this is probably our last year with him in Stillwater, even in a loaded NBA draft class of point guards.

• By the way, I need to give a shout out to Brad Underwood’s blue blazer/orange dress shirt/dark khaki combo tonight. Incredibly strong, would love to see it more. Blowing away Shaka Smart, whose tie is about 2 inches too short.

• Related: Is Shaka Smart actually Shea Serrano (The Ringer)? I’ve done the investigative journalism on this one. Check it:

• Jarrett Allen just got a face full of Jeff Carroll!! Clip put him on a poster!

Jeffrey Carroll throws it down. pic.twitter.com/1uxv046lUw

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguy) January 5, 2017

• Texas is out here throwing more bricks than Gucci Mane. They look impressive in warm ups, but yikes, these guys were 4 and 5 stars coming out of high school?

• We may have a 5’11-sized problem with our shooting guard. Phil is running all over the floor, but can’t get open off screens and is bothered by any kind of length. It’s going to have to be Jawun and Clip carrying the scoring load going forward, it seems.

•This may not be the end of the world, by the way. Jawun and Clip are already first and fifth in the Big 12 in points per game. I think moving forward the bigger issue will be the lack of interior defense.

• Dizzy with the pull up buzzer beater to end the half- Pokes up 39-37, who fought through serious foul trouble to grab the lead at the break (N’Guessan with 3, Hammonds with 3, Solomon with 2.) Clip leading the Pokes with 13 points.

• The Cowboys out-shot Texas 47 percent to 36 percent from the field in the first half, and bench outscored them 14-2. The reason Texas is in this game? They went to the line 17 times and went 14-17, as opposed to just 7 trips to the charity stripe for OSU (who went 6-7).

Second Half

• Phil coming out hot, with the first 5 points of the half. That’s more like it.

• Speaking of hot — Jawun just hit Jeff Carroll with a downright dirty no look back door pass, leading to a slam. 46-39 Pokes, great start to the half.

Filthy. https://t.co/rJHKNXmj2X

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguy) January 5, 2017

• Now we’re seeing why this Texas team had so many highly ranked recruits. They simply have more size, speed, and athleticism than Oklahoma State, and it’s showing on both ends.

• Hammonds with a big sequence — a steal and dunk, followed by a big board on the defensive end. Hammonds could be the key to this team’s chances of reaching the top half of the Big 12 this season.

• Tevin Mack lead the big 12 in celebrations with his hands after 3s- averages 4.8 hand movements per 3 pointer made. Regardless, he’s a dude and he’s got 16. Down to a 2 point lead, 48-46.

• Tevin Mack has 26 and the Longhorns are up 11, after a 15-0 run. The Cowboys are in big trouble.

• The LHN booth just mentioned this, but Jawun Evans has been bothered by Kerwin Roach Jr.’s length tonight. One of the best defensive jobs on the best point guard in the Big 12 we’ve seen this year.

• Big 7-0 run for the Cowboys to cut it to 61-57, lead by 5 quick points from Jawun. Locking it down on the defensive end, for the first time tonight.

• Eric Davis Jr. is carrying the Texas offense down the stretch, after Tevin Mack was bottled up by Jeff Carroll. Cowboys down 10 with under 4 minutes to go, going to take a lot to come back in Austin.

• That’ll do it — a late Cowboys rally falls short and it’s over, 82-79 Texas.

Postgame Notes

• Phil Forte missed his first free throw since November 21.

• The Cowboys dropped to 0-2 in Big 12 play for the first time since 1997. This is the year before freshman Thomas Dziagwa was born.

• This was Jeffrey Carroll’s fifth 20-point game of the season. His 24 points were a career high.

Oklahoma State falls to 10-4 after what I’d classify as their first bad loss of the season. They needed to win this one to get back on track in what looks to be a rugged Big 12. Instead, with Baylor, Iowa State, and Kansas coming up, this team is staring an 0-5 start in the Big 12 squarely in the face.

There are several big issues to address — Phil Forte was not great yet again, The bigs absolutely cannot stay out of foul trouble and the Cowboys failed to turn Texas over enough.

Lindy Waters III and Tavarius Shine would have helped against the Longhorns’ length, but that was a very winnable game — there’s won’t be many more. It’s time for the Cowboys to dig deep or their once promising season could end missing the tournament. It doesn’t get any easier as the Cowboys travel to Waco to face an undefeated, top-5 Baylor team on Saturday