The Preview You Must View: Oklahoma State at Missouri State
by Evan Pfaff on Dec 7, 2011 9:00 AM CST
in Oklahoma St. Cowboys Basketball
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PrintDuring our preseason previews, I predicted the Missouri St. Bears to defeat the Oklahoma St. Cowboys tonight. It was under the category of "Surprise 2011-12 game Oklahoma State will lose."
Well, at this stage of the season, I'm not sure how much of a surprise it really would be.
At the time, I thought MO State's Kyle Weems would have improved upon his 16 ppg last season "while Ok State is trying to get its sea legs." I was half right. Weems' scoring has dropped to 12.5 ppg this season, good for only second on the team, while shooting a paltry 30.1% from the floor... but the Cowboys are still trying to find their sea legs.
The Le'Bryan Nash era, which was supposed to take the Big 12 by storm, has been more of a tropical depression than hurricane. Nash, the fifth rated high school senior last season, is averaging only 11.7 ppg, good for second on the team, and is now coming off the bench. Jean-Paul Olukemi's scoring is also down, from 11.1 ppg last year to 8.6 this season.
The real story for the Cowboys is the improved play of Markel Brown, who has nearly doubled his scoring average from last season to 12 ppg and might be the best dunker in the conference. Brown IS Cowboys basketball leading the Pokes in ppg, rpg, apg and spg.
Soon enough Ok State will get their act together. Nash will play up to his potential, JP will also. But for the time being they are relying on Brown, Keiton Page and freshman Cezar Guerrero to lead them to victory. If they want to win tonight in Springfield (Editor's Note: home to some great Chinese food actually!), they need soon to become now.
The game tips at 8pm CST and can be seen on ESPNU.
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solid win
for my cowboys. Your preview was on point. I turned it off at half time, but this team didn’t quit and stole a victory from a mid major that needed/wanted the game badly. How about Nash? 19 and 8. Things only get tougher from here (pitt, new mexico, alabama), but very nice to start this strectch with a W.
Funny
I was at another game (Denver v Iona) and watched a little of the Ok State game during half of the game i was at. Convinced they were going to lose — my game came out of halftime when OK state was down 10 — I forgot to even check the results this morning. And boy was I shocked and glad.
You’re right about the next few games.
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