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Offseason To-Do List: Figure Out The Big Man Rotation

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Photo Attribution: US Presswire

Welcome to what should be a lengthy list of things Travis Ford needs to knock out this offseason in preparation for a 2013 tourney run. You might disagree with a few (or if your name is Nate, all) of these…but that’s what the comments section is for. Let’s get to it.

If the point guard position is a college basketball team’s Don Draper (many Mad Men references coming), because you’re nothing without one, then producing a low post scorer is definitely its Pete Campbell. You can probably survive sans one, but what’s the point? You’ll never be great.

In fact, the last team to win a title without a player 6’8 or taller averaging at least 10 PPG was UConn in 1999 (and Kevin Freeman averaged 12 PPG at 6’7).

Last year OSU got 8.0 PPG combined from its four players 6’8 or taller. One of the myriad of issues that led to that mangled 15-18 record, no doubt.

The solution for all of this, unfortunately, is currently awaiting a May 7 court date and will potentially never arrive. Just as an aside here, if/when Williams is proven innocent and inserted back into the starting lineup, opposing student sections will probably be understand and forgiving of that situation, right? He probably won’t hear from the half-drunk lunatics in Morgantown at all, correct?

We haven’t forgotten about how good Darrell is yet, have we? He had four double-doubles before the suspension last year, including two in his last two games against Mizzou and OU (with an 18-13 spot in 19 (!) minutes against OU).

For the sake of this post, let’s assume Williams is cleared and a starter next year (and if he’s cleared, he WILL be a starter next year). Ford has to decide what to do with his lineup.

God bless his offensive production, even if Jurick fully recovers from his blown achilles, he’ll never start again. That’s fine though, he really shouldn’t be one. He’s a 10-minute backup who protects the rim, roughs people up, and provides you with five fouls a game on a good team. He starts and plays 15-20 minutes on a bad team (which is what OSU was last season).

Offseason To-Do List: Hoops

Establish a PG

So that leaves us with Darrell, Cobbins, Heat Czech, and a bottomless well of shooting guards (assuming Kamari Murphy either plays very little (2-3 min/game) or redshirts).

My suggestion:

Let Darrell start with four guards (call Le’Bryan a big/wing if you want, whatever) and have Cobbins come off the bench to spell him or, more intriguingly, play with him. You could put Cobbins (6’8) in for Smart (6’4) or JPO (6’6) to go a little bigger and play alongside Darrell (6’8), Nash (6’7), Williams (6’5), and Markel (6’3) and lose very little overall from an athletic perspective. The memories of our beloved 5’7 Pistol would be such a distant memory with that five out there. We would look like a genuine basketball team!

Cobbins should be playing 20-25 minutes a night anyway next year with Darrell back, not the 30-35 he was playing last year. We can save that for his junior/senior years when he has a discernible post move or three (hopefully.

Honestly, unless you’re worried about depth (and I guess you kind of are after this season), you have to redshirt the Czech. Let him find his legs, perfect that gushy sky-scraping J, introduce him to a lat machine, make him look like this.

So that’s the rotation: Darrell starts with four guards and plays 30 minutes, Cobbins comes in for him and with him for 20-25, and Jurick gets a 10-spot a night and tries to use all five of his fouls which, really, shouldn’t be that hard.

The scary part is that all of this hinges on what happens in court with a guy who allegedly raped more than one person.

Oklahoma State basketball: are we having fun yet?!

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