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Forty reasons why Keiton Page's All-Big 12 campaign just gained steam
Published: 2/19/2012 12:18 AM
Last Modified: 2/19/2012 12:18 AM

Keiton Page picked a good time to have an epic game: Just before folks start deciding who they should put on their All-Big 12 ballots.

Page scored a career-best 40 points in a victory over Texas. It was the fifth-highest point total ever for an Oklahoma State basketball player and the third-most points ever scored by a Cowboy at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Texas basketball coach Rick Barnes, for more reasons than I can list, is one of the classier men in his profession. After watching Page torch the Longhorns, Barnes sought out the senior guard during a postgame handshake profession and they shared kind words.

Said Page, “He just said he enjoyed coaching against me the past four years. He said it has been fun to watch me play and he appreciated how I play and how hard I work. It means a lot coming from a coach like coach Barnes who is that well-respected.”

During a postgame press conference, I asked Barnes if Page was an All-Big 12 player. Here’s what Barnes said:

“I’m not a good one to ask that because I get so locked in. I do take it serious and I will go back and look at the end of the year and look at everybody. But based on what he did today, he played as well as anyone we have played against all year. And, based on today, he would be an All-American because he was terrific.”

Because of Page’s career-best point performance, he vaulted from eighth place to fourth place among Big 12 scorers in conference-only games. He is averaging 17.4 points per game, trailing only Texas’ J’Covan Brown and the Kansas duo of Tyshawn Taylor and Thomas Robinson.

If Page (who ranks sixth among Big 12 scorers when you include nonconference games) can maintain his place among the league’s stat-stuffers, he’ll get consideration for postseason 12 honors.

Page likely won’t make first-team all-league because the victors get the spoils and OSU is in seventh place in the standings. Fair or not, voters consider those things.

Probably, the best case scenario would be for Page to be a second-team All-Big 12 selection. But if he can produce another huge game down the stretch (and especially if he has a big game at home against Kansas in the final home game of the season), he will at least give voters some fresh evidence to evaluate.


Reader Comments 1 Total
Phil in OKC (12 months ago)
If the Cowboys win out in Big 12 play they will finish as a 4th seed in the Big 12 tournament. Anything is possible. I watched KeitOn drop off 54 points in the finals of the Class 2A state tournament. I was expecting a scoring machine when he came to oSu, but his game evolved into a very conservative one, where he looked to pass before shoot. I hope he returns to his roots these last four regular season games and in the Big 12 tournament. I would like to see him average about 30 ppg, which he is very capable of doing if coach Ford gives him the green light. At this point in the season I see no reason why Ford should not throw in all the chips and go for it!
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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