Cowboys Are in an Ugly Cycle That Continued at Kansas
Something has to give because Oklahoma State is in a cycle. Sure, the Cowboys have won games and even broke into the A.P. Top 25 on Monday, but the Cowboys are one of the ugly ducklings of college basketball. After the 78-66 loss to Kansas on Big Monday, the record drops to 12-6 and 5-6 in the conference.
The second half wasn’t so bad as the Cowboys heated up from three-point range late. Cade Cunningham knocked down a trio of three-balls and he had some help. Ferron Flavors hit one to make it a four-point game at 51-47 and later Avery Anderson III, who had 13 points behind Cunningham’s 26, hit a three to keep the Cowboys in contention.
In the end Oklahoma State shot 34.9 percent from the field hitting 22-of-63 shots. They came way up from the first half on threes as they finished 7-of-26 for 26.9 percent. These numbers were better and the six turnovers in the second half cut the first half number in half!
“Numbers don’t lie but they don’t always tell the whole story,” head coach Mike Boynton said after the game. “There are probably one or two less dribbles he can take,” Boynton added on Cunningham’s seven turnovers on him alone. “The problem he had tonight, he was trying to make the offensive scoring play because the baskets he was passing weren’t being hit. He was hitting guys open and they weren’t finishing them. He was trying to take a more aggressive offensive scoring stance.”
The first half was awful. ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla cracked a joke when Flavors came in and made a jumper with 44 seconds left in the half.
“There’s 31, 31 flavors with Ferron Flavors. I’ll take rocky road and that’s what this first half has been for both teams so far,” chuckled Fraschilla.
UGLY, that is what it was and honestly, the Cowboys have been in that cycle since the win over Arkansas and there were parts of that game that wouldn’t have fit in a basketball time capsule. Honestly, the best played half by the Cowboys may go back to Jan. 23. Playing without Cade Cunningham, Oklahoma State led Baylor at the half and played well into the second half. They actually grabbed at the time the largest lead any team had owned that deep in a game this season with the Bears. They were playing sound basketball. Nothing like last week at TCU, or Saturday in a double dip game of sloppy basketball with the Longhorns. It may have hit the lowest of lows in the first half with Kansas.
A good thing a full capacity at Allen Fieldhouse is not allowed. Watching the first half there would have been a lot of clean up needed. Oklahoma State turned the ball over 12 times, two badly missed passes into the post, a pair of backcourt violations off missed passes, and an ugly travel highlighted the lowlights. Kansas had 10 turnovers of their own.
“I don’t know when we scored our first basket, but I know we turned it over on three of our first four possessions and we didn’t score for awhile, but we were getting stops,” Boynton said of the start of the game. “We were having opportunities and in the second half we scored, but we still didn’t get stops. Our defense never caught up for our offense to get into rhythm.”
The shooting percentages were pretty. No, they weren’t. Oklahoma State hitting 8-of-24 for 33.3 percent and a sizzling 1-of-8 from three-point range for 12.5 percent.
“I don’t think we lack confidence,” Boynton said of the three-pointers. “We have guys that are capable.”
Kansas was 10-of-31 from the field for 32.3 percent in the first 20 minutes. The Jayhawks doubled up the Cowboys from three at 2-of-8. Thank goodness for free throws because the Cowboys were killing it there at 88.9 percent. I was surprised the score got up to 31-27 at the halftime.
The team plays hard. They really do as in all but a few moments the effort is top level.
The best attribute during this stretch is the Cowboys seem to influence their opponents to be ugly too. Unfortunately, Kansas broke that trend the second half, mainly thanks to 23 points from big man David McCormack. Until now it has been that way or maybe the opponents are spreading the ugly to the Cowboys. The best part of Monday night was free throws as the Pokes finished 15-of-18 for 83.3 percent. That was good, but this team needs to improve in a lot of areas and the time to turn into a swan is shrinking. There’s about a month left to get to that point. The swans will go to swim in Indianapolis and the ducks, they will go home.