Notebook: Oklahoma State-Auburn

Five thoughts are here. The rest of my notebook from Saturday night at Auburn.

• Auburn-Oklahoma State — pretty awesome 2010 football matchup. Not so awesome 2016 college basketball matchup.

• This is a good tweet.

@pistolsguy Ford to Bruce Pearl later today: "Hey, remember how you're the only guy I've ever beaten in the tournament?"

— Jack Knorr (@jackknorr) January 30, 2016

• Syracuse-Georgetown from the early 1990s thinks the end of Georgia-Baylor lasted a long time.

• I can’t do Joe Tessitore. Not because he’s not great (he is) but more because it just reminds me of the 2011 ISU game.

• Can you imagine what Ford’s tenure would look like if he had not gotten Marcus Smart, Anthony Hickey and Jawun Evans? I know that’s playing revisionist history big time, but has one coach depended more on three PGs than Ford has over the last four years? This team this year might not win five games!

• Auburn is 9-11 and decidedly not a basketball school. What was up with that crowd? It was, like, really good.

• This dunk was impressive.

• I have to confess I started watching Kansas-Kentucky at one point. Or I at least had it on my other TV.

• Real text from my dad: “Why is Jawun Evans at OSU?”

• Jawun Evans’ true shooting percentage is 56 percent. Marcus Smart was 53 percent and 55 percent in his two years at OSU. Smart averaged 7.9 assists per 100 possessions. Evans is averaging nearly 11. Jawun Evans is really, really good at basketball.

• Why do we take longs 2s? Why do we take long 2s? Why do we take long 2s? Why do we take long 2s?

• Sick.

Now you see him… Now you don't.

SPLASH! ?

https://t.co/hT6osrTjQh

— Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 31, 2016

• Auburn, what on earth?

Auburn only had THREE two-point field goals in the entire first half. 3-of-17 inside the arc. Sheesh.

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) January 31, 2016

• Kareem Canty, not afraid to shoot! The announcers said OSU was really worried about him. Like I noted in my five thoughts, he takes more threes per 100 possessions than Phil Forte. He was 1/10 from deep on Saturday.

• Auburn student section dabs after made free throws (which wasn’t often!)

• Bruce Pearl looks like the kind of guy who listens to Creed un-ironically and houses Muscle Milk at the gym between curl sets.

• The announcers were talking a lot about how Evans stays under control when he gets to the bucket. That’s true and only possible because he’s quicker than everyone else.

• Jawun Evans does not accumulate fake no-look passes. They’re all real. They’re all spectacular.

• There was a kid in this game (TJ Lang) whose dad played in that 1992 Kentucky-Duke game. We are old.

• That was Oklahoma State’s first true road win since February 9, 2015.

• Speaking of Pearl, how insane was his pregame speech? Do it for the SEC! If not the SEC, then your school! If not your school, then your family! He thought he was playing for the national title!

• It was 57-52 and OSU needed a big bucket — they ran the ol’ shot clock violation play out of a timeout. Sweet. I also thought it was interesting that Ford went with Griffin at PG in crunch time with Evans off the ball. I didn’t dislike it. I just thought it was interesting.

• When is the last time you saw traveling called on a player diving for a ball?

• Overtime would have been bad. Hammonds fouled out. Solomon, Newberry, Olivier and Shine (?) had four each. And Clip had three. Would have been Jawun against Auburn one-on-five (and I don’t hate our chances)