NIT-PICKING
Anderson’s injury keeps Cowboys out of NCAA Tournament
On Valentine's Day, Kansas busted the OSU basketball bubble. The Jayhawks came to Stillwater and beat the Cowboys 87-76.
Good game. OSU just came up short. No big deal. It's Kansas, after all.
That night, Jayhawk coach Bill Self called OSU a “second-weekend team.” Which is coaches code for the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16.
A month later, we know the unfortunate truth. The Cowboys weren't even a first-weekend team.
Selection Sunday dealt OSU hoops another big blow, not only omitting the Cowboys from the 68-team bracket, but revealing that OSU was the first team out. The Cowboys missed the bracket by the scantest of margins.
Many are the theories and reasons why OSU's March Sadness continues. But here's the reason.
Avery Anderson. His broken wrist submarined the Cowboy season.
Anderson, OSU's best perimeter defender and OSU's only effective penetrator, missed the final 11 games. The Cowboys, woefully thin outside, weren't the same without him.
OSU went 5-6 without Anderson, and while the selection committee takes into account teams that are missing a key player, it also takes into account teams that will be missing a key player.
There is no reason to believe Anderson would be back this week, so the committee is commissioned to take that into consideration. And the Cowboys without Anderson were not NCAA Tournament caliber.
OSU won its first three games without Anderson, but that was a mirage.
In the week after Anderson's injury in Bedlam, the Cowboys beat shorthanded Texas Christian 79-73 and shorthanded Texas Tech 71-68, both in Stillwater. Both the Froghorns and Red Raiders played without their starting
point guard and starting center.
Then OSU went to Iowa State and won 64-56. Best win of the year and a victory that should have cemented the Cowboys into the NCAA Tournament.
But no. A five-game losing streak ensued, starting with that Kansas game. The Cowboys finished the season with wins over last-place Tech and OU, before a 61-47 loss to Texas in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals.
Rutgers, the NCAA's announced second team out, also was missing a key player, versatile wing Mawot Mag. The Scarlet Knights were 16-7 with Mag. He suffered a knee injury in early February, and without him, Rutgers went 3-7, finished 19-14 and missed the NCAA field by a couple of whiskers.
The eastern version of the OSU story. Committee chairman Chris Reynolds, athletic director at Bradley, cited OSU's 6-12 record in Quad 1 games, as determined by the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool). But a 6-12 record in Quad 1 games actually is a badge of honor. That's 18 top-shelf games out of 33 OSU games overall
Heck, if Quad 1 is a hangup, why did the committee select North Carolina State, which is 1-6 in Quad 1 games?
Quad 1 wasn't the problem. Anderson's absence was the problem. The Cowboys were a flawed team even with Anderson. Then they became more of a flawed team without Anderson. The results showed it, and the committee knew it.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.