Going inside a pretty interesting box score against the ‘Clones from a dandy on Tuesday night.

1. Was he hot last night, or no? Shooting 38% on the year and he hit 5-7 in the second half.

2. White was ridiculous in the first half. He basically did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to do it. He was listed at the four but pretty much playing the one and Iowa State was running their entire offense through him. It was amazing to watch, thankfully he picked up foul #3 with 12 minutes left and had to sit for a while. The game definitely shifted at that point.

3. The last time OSU got out-shot from the line was their road trip to Ames. They’ve been destroying teams at the line in the last five games, one reason they’ve been playing so well of late.

4. Markel got a nice swat on a three tonight to which I though, “man, I haven’t seen that very much this year.” Sure enough: last year – 33 blocks as a freshman…this year – 17 blocks as a sophomore. Strange.

5. You guys realize OSU is a Scott Christopherson prayer from being tied for 4th in the Big 12, right?

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BOX SCORE

There I sat, in my brown leather chair that sinks a little too much in the back. My computer sprawled out in front of me, my hoodie over my eyes, only the sound of Mark Jones calling the last four point seven seconds filling the room.

I couldn’t watch.

Iowa State has done everything they can possibly do to OSU this year short of literally lighting Heritage Hall on fire and melding the molten bronze from Barry Sanders’ Heisman into marbles for their Cyclone Chinese checkers club.

So to say a great win over the fourth best team in the Big 12 felt good would be an understatement. It felt like somebody took a university-sized Jason Keep off our backs and tossed him in Theta Pond (don’t worry…he floats).

Royce White dominated the first half for Iowa State notching seven points, six boards, and five assists in an effort that made it seem like he was going to cruise to his second triple double of conference play. He came upon a little foul trouble in the second half though and that’s when Lob Stilly took over.

First there was the one-handed Markel smash that brought Desmond Mason to his feet at the 15-minute mark, then there was the oop from Brian Williams to Markel (see below), and finally a pair of open-court slams from Williams and Markel to finish off the run. At the end of the madness, OSU had a 60-55 lead to protect with five minutes to play.

The Cowboys went 4-8 the rest of the way on a series of jumpers from Williams, Nash, Keiton, and Markel and Nash’s leaping swat of Chris Allen (who hit SIX threes in the second half!) ended things 69-67, good guys.

FINALLY, a win over Iowa State.

12 more thoughts from Tuesday night…

1. Marek Soucek is 6-10 from the field on the year. He’s also 7’0, a freshman, and plays a defense that only Steph Curry could be proud of. His shot though? WET.

2. Prediction: Cobbins will lose at least one rebound in his career because he does that weird wrist palm thing after he snags them. I used to do that in the 5th grade, I have no idea why he does it.

3. What’s the record for minutes per game in conference play from the same five guys? Whatever it is, OSU is going to shatter it this year. The starters played 187 of 200 minutes tonight.

4. I don’t understand why Ford insists on Keiton handling the ball at the end of games. Last two possessions: 1. Keiton takes the air out of the ball and gets it to Markel with like .00003 left on the shot clock, Markel misses. 2. Markel starts driving with seven seconds left on the shot clock, runs a nice pick and semi-pop with Nash, game-winner. Not sure why this is so difficult.

5. Great point by Nolo during our chat tonight. A loss in Stillwater keeping Iowa State of the dance wouldn’t be full on retribution for them keeping us out of the title game in football, but it would probably feel pretty good for this team.

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You guys care to see why I love Desmond so much? He’s calling game-winners (see bottom left of screen) for a 12-12 team on a random Tuesday in February when he undoubtedly has about a million better things to do. Dude gets it…

The best part is his “I don’t give a crap, I’ll do it again next possession” reaction. That or he was scared of getting Td up.

Photo Attribution:Emily Nielsen

I really shouldn’t write this before OSU plays Iowa State, Texas, and A&M at home, but golfing jinxes be damned (and my longtime followers will know what I’m referencing), I’m going to anyway.

At some point during the Baylor game, everything clicked for me. I realized the Missouri win wasn’t a function of Gallagher-Iba’s magic (it’s hard to make magic with only 6,000 people) and that the game in College Station was absolutely an anomaly.

Missouri was about this team. And this team is going to be good. And soon**.

Think about it, are there four freshmen/sophomores on any one team in the Big 12 you’d rather have over the next three years than Markel, Cobbins, Wiliams, and Nash? Okay, yes there are: you’d rather have the Perry Jones-Quincy Miller-Cory Jefferson-Deuce Bello-Brady Heslip fivesome but I’m banking on the fact Bryce Drew’s brother is going down before then, and besides, Miller and Jones are basically already running sets for the Raptors and Cavs respectively at this point.

Back to our guys. In some ways, this has all worked itself out in a terribly wonderful way. If it weren’t for the shredded knee of JPO, gimpy ankle of Jurick, and uhh…acrimonious charges against Darrell Williams then Brian Williams and Mike Cobbins wouldn’t be getting the invaluable playing time they’ve been getting.

Consider the following about OSU’s three best freshmen…

• Williams already has three 20-point performances this season, something JamesOn, Terrel Harris, and Obi only did four times in their freshman seasons combined.
• Cobbins already has three 10-rebound games this season, something Marshall Moses didn’t accomplish until his 12th game…of his sophomore year.
• Nash is going to pass James Anderson for the second most points by a freshman in school history as long as he reaches his season average (13.4) in each of OSU’s last eight regular season games plus whatever they do in the Big 12 tournament.

The real question for Le’Bryan*** is going to be if he can make the same leap James made his sophomore year when he jumped to averaging 18 points, six boards, and two assists a game.

So what happens going forward?

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Going inside the box score of yesterday’s game. Conclusion: the more players this team loses, the better this team seems to play. That has to stop at some point, right? I mean we can’t lose Markel, Cobbins, and Page and beat KU, can we??

1. There is not a planet upon which Baylor, and its multiple future first round picks, should ever shoot as many three pointers as OSU when OSU is as depleted inside as it was for this game. That was one of the two things that kept OSU in it during the second half (Brian Williams being the other).

2. Second half rebounding stats: OSU offensive boards – 5, Baylor offensive boards – 6, OSU defensive boards – 11, Baylor defensive boards – 13. Again, OSU has one viable player over 6’7. ONE.

3. Not his best game but you can see good things happen with the ball in his hands. In fact, since the Iowa State game he’s had assist totals of 11 – 1 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 4. It’s not great, but it’s better than OSU has gotten from its point guards in the last two seasons.

4. Again, ONE player over 6’7 and they double up the longest team in the country in blocks.

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I tested a “Baylor is favored by seven, how do we feel about that?” tweet before the game started to which I got a number of “bet the house you lost against Missouri on them to cover this thing” snarky remarks (that I deserved) back.

And who wouldn’t have? The #6 team in the country coming off a scare in College Station to face a dwindling OSU squad (Cezar – out, Jurick – out) fresh off its easiest Big 12 win of the year? Sounded like a recipe for disaster for Ford’s squad.

They hung around though and every time you thought “okay, here’s where Baylor shows why it’s an elite team” OSU would hit a pair of threes, AJ Walton would hoist an errant shot, Scott Drew would do something dumb, Brian Williams would get to the line, something would happen to reel OSU back in the game.

After Le’Bryan hit a layup with 14 minutes left in the second half and the game tied at 39. He then picked up his 4th foul and Baylor went on a 13-4 run capped off by a Perry Jones tip dunk with just 7:13 left to play.

But Brian Williams and Le’Bryan led a 14-4 counter-run and a three-pointer by Keiton with 1:47 left gave the Pokes their first and only lead of the game (it lasted 0:16).

Quincy Acy answered with, what else, a dunk and Keiton missed two threes, the second of which involved a pump fake and more contact than you’ll see in half the Super Bowl plays tomorrow night…but no call.

Side note here: I didn’t have a huge problem with him not getting the call there, but it was almost the exact same play he got a call on earlier in the game. So either don’t call it either time (probably my preference) or call it both times (would have helped OSU) but don’t call it once and not the other.

Brady Heslip and Anthony Jones (who’s shooting 53% from the line) iced Baylor’s season sweep of the Cowboys from the line and put them back on the incorrect side of .500

Here are 15 more thoughts from the game:

1. I was in love with Nash playing the high post in the middle of Baylor’s “zone.” He can do so many things from that area of the court and had all of them on display today. Not that Baylor’s defensive set is something to be reckoned with but I thought Ford did a great job showcasing Nash’s skills.

2. Brian Williams, friends. Brian Williams was 9-15 while the rest of the team was 11-35 combined (thanks to Slater for that stat). He might not ever be an all out star, but his ceiling is going to be re-raised numerous times over the last third of this season. Think a more athletic Obi. That’ll play as the second or third best guy on a tournament team.

3. Speaking of Obi, Nolo and I were wondering who had a higher three-point for their careers between him and Keiton. The results: Obi – 38.6%, Keiton – 35.6%, and for reference, Desmond (who wasn’t a great shooter) – 37.2%. At what point do we stop thinking of Keiton as a great shooter, or is that low % just the result of the fact that he’s been on bad teams and carried the load for 2+ years?

4. Three of the charge calls – Miller on Nash, Nash on Heslip, and Acy on Nash – were ridiculous. And the officiating overall, not really for one side or another, was just horrendous, and has been all season. It makes Big 12 games not very fun to watch.

5. Unfortunate for Keiton, but these games stopped being about this year a while back. OSU is playing for next year and even the year after right now, I Ford realizes that and coaches accordingly (see: at the one, Markel).

6. Commercial note: is Papa Murphy Papa John’s brother?

7. Scott Drew is like a little bit better looking Sean Sutton with fewer personal issues. I found myself wondering during the game if he yells and waves his hands everywhere like a maniac he has no idea what the crap to do with this embarrassment of riches and he’s just trying to cover that fact up. That’s probably not what you want me wondering if you’re a Baylor fan.

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