Editorial: Why Baylor? Where did the Bears Succeed that the Rest of the Big 12 Didn't?

STILLWATER – If I had a dollar for every time I heard some sports talk show host, mainly national, ask a basketball expert why the Big 12 and the Big Ten floundered in the NCAA Tournament with only one member each, Michigan in the Big Ten and Baylor in the Big 12, in the “Sweet 16” then I would be a very wealthy man. In location like ours in Stillwater, Okla. we lament what could have been. My show on Wednesday was at Audio Midwest and Rob the owner is a big Cowboy basketball fan.

“I was starting to believe we had it going. I saw Illinois lose and before that Tennessee had lost,” Rob said. “I was thinking we had lucked into a great situation.”

My friend Rob is not alone, most Oklahoma State fans were a little, maybe a lot giddy inside before the second round game even tipped off late Sunday as the last game of the day in Indianapolis. Surely, the Pokes could get past Oregon State and then it was Loyola-Chicago and Sister Jean. At that point maybe Syracuse would have dumped Houston. Stop me if this doesn’t sound familiar.

The Cowboys picked a bad time to go cold offensively. Those were the numbers that hurt the most in the game were offensive, Oklahoma State’s offense was offensive. Look around the at the Big 12 Tournament carcasses like Texas, Kansas, West Virginia, and Texas Tech. Oklahoma State for sure in with that group. They all had tough games on the offensive end. Of the team eliminated only Oklahoma produced a pair of solid games on offense. In the end they just got beat by the best team in the tournament, at least it looks that way.

All season long fans talk about the offense. Cade Cunningham with his passing and his clutch shooting. He is really good and deserving of being named the best freshman in the nation with the Wayman Tisdale Award. They talked about Avery Anderson II as his game developed to where he could fill the gap of a missing Cunningham and lead the Cowboys to a road win at West Virginia. He could rise up on a sub par night for Cunningham and pick up the offensive slack. There were others on random nights that filled the basket with enough points to get the job done.

Rob Ferguson-USA TODAY Sports

Likekele played strong defense but not always great offense.

What the Cowboys did consistently as most of their Big 12 brethren that made it into March Madness was play defense. Sure, this group of Cowboys didn’t lock down in man all the time. They played plenty of zone, but the hustle with which they played their zone made defensive-minded fans that grew up in the Iba or Sutton days of both feel good about this team defensively.

However, as the ink dries on the final stats sheet the Cowboys were ninth in the conference in scoring defense at 72.7-points allowed per game, but they were second in field goal defensive limiting opponents to 41.1 percent from the field. They were second in three-point field goal defense limiting opponents to 31.9 percent from beyond the arch.

The offensive numbers were fine, all in the upper half, except scoring margin. The Cowboys played close games and we all knew that. The problem was in the NCAA Tournament the offensive numbers all came in low in both games. They were able to overcome against Liberty, but not against Oregon State. Full transparency, the Cowboys did not rebound well and were beat on the boards bad.

Looking at the other Big 12 teams, besides Baylor and Oklahoma, the offense was awful.

I believe in Mr. Iba and Coach Sutton as both taught defense wins games and also wins championships, but in modern day college hoops you had better bring the offense because if you don’t then you will find yourself like most of the Big 12 going home early from the dance.