Cowboys failing to finish
LUBBOCK, TEXAS — Gallagher-Iba Arena rumbled Wednesday night, rising to provide a push as Mitchell Solomon threw in two free throws with 5:02 remaining against Kansas State, pulling Oklahoma State within four at 80-76. Closing time? More like folding time. The theme on this OSU basketball season has shifted decidedly, away from an earlier optimism growing out of wins over UConn and Georgetown and Wichita State and now focused on this team’s failure to finish.
The Cowboys are 0-6 in Big 12 play heading into Saturday’s game at Texas Tech. And the last five have all been games that teetered up-for-grabs with five minutes to play; all seized the other way.
“That’s winning time,” said OSU coach Brad Underwood. “It takes toughness and grit. You’ve got to fight and compete. “It’s frustrating.” Some of the games felt different, looked different. Yet a common thread has spun through all five: limp defense.
Opponents were shooting a combined 63.6 percent from the floor in those final five
minutes in the four games before Wednesday night. K-State upped the percentage, going 6-for-8, with two layups and two dunks.
By the 1:39 mark, the Wildcats had pushed their lead to an 11-point bulge, 90-79, on their way to a 96-88 win.
At winning time, one team played some defense.
“We got stops,” said K-State coach Bruce Weber. “We said if we got the stops we could push and take advantage of the easy ones.” The easy ones … At Kansas, 20 of the Jayhawks’ final 22 points came on layups or at the foul line, with the other bucket a short jumper in the lane in an 87-80 verdict.
And so the story goes — has gone now since the calendar flipped to January — with a few subplots, like foul trouble and panicked late offense and turnovers all contributing to the late fades.
Defense, though, is the major culprit.
It’s an everyday emphasis in practice, garnering more and more time and attention. Yet, for whatever reason, any improvements are not translating when it counts.
“We play defense in practice pretty hard every day,” said OSU junior Jeffrey Carroll, “but we just have to carry it over to the game. For 40 minutes, just do it, and play tough.”
And for Underwood, a defense-first proponent, what’s happening to his teams, by his teams, late is maddening.
The Cowboys are fundamentally flawed, with a lack of a true post presence and small guards who are under attack in a league that features many of the nation’s best, particularly at the point. The league’s premium point guards are one reason OSU hasn’t been as effective pressing, as they were in the nonconference schedule.
Teams are still finding it difficult to run offense against the Cowboys, yet have thrived putting the ball in hands of their point men, most notably at crunch time.
“We’ve become susceptible to certain things,” Underwood said. “Elite point guards make a difference. And those guys have made plays.”
And the Cowboys have not.
Underwood offered another issue facing his team: “Right now, we don’t know how to win. We don’t.”
More than anything, this might be OSU’s biggest issue. And it’s nothing new.
Consider these stark numbers: since 2013-14, in games decided by eight points or less, winnable games, the Cowboys are 14-32.
In the Big 12, it’s worse, at 6-25.
And as Underwood and his staff attempt to change that culture, a culture of losing, he’s doing it with veterans who know little of winning these kinds of games and are entrusted with leading the next wave.
“Winning is really, really hard,” Underwood said. “I mean, it is hard. And at this level, it’s really hard. You have to pay a price to win. And you have to sacrifice to win. And you have to have a swagger to do it. It’s confidence. And we haven’t paid that price. We haven’t.
“When it gets really, really hard, are we going to buckle in and get it? Somebody has to step up for us. We’re not trying to sugarcoat anything with these guys. We’re being factual. And we’ve got to fight.”