Good news: Shaw, Williams. Bad news: Forecast could be right.
Published: 11/2/2010 11:17 AM
Last Modified: 11/2/2010 11:17 AM
Oklahoma State, picked to finish eighth by league coaches, has never been forecast lower in a Big 12 preseason basketball poll.
Can the hoops team mimic the football team and rise above expectations? That was a popular question in October, but the Cowboys looked like an eighth-place team in an exhibition opener against Oklahoma City University. They made one field goal in the first five minutes (wherefore art thou, James Anderson?) and trailed the NAIA opponent with 1:54 remaining in the first half.
It was no surprise to coach Travis Ford, who has seen his team struggle to put the ball in the hoop during practices and scrimmages. (Fans saw a mirage when almost every shot fell during a homecoming and hoops event Oct. 22.) The Cowboys forced 27 turnovers to win by 20 and Ford called it a “gream game to learn from.”
“It’s much better than going out and winning by 40,” he said. “Our guys understand now who we are and where we are at. In order to ever talk about where we want to be, we need to know where we are at now.”
As much as Ford would have liked for the Cowboys to play well, he said a little dose of humility “will help us get better and help us learn and see the mistakes that we are making and now our guys can really get down to getting better. We have been preaching on it for two weeks now, but I don’t think they really have grasped it because they are just battling each other. Now that they see it against somebody else, it’s ‘uh-oh, I am doing this wrong.’ And it’s a great (teaching tool) that we can use.”
Following are excerpts from Ford’s post-exhibition press conference:
--On junior college transfer Darrell Williams, who debuted with a stat line (15 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists) that would make him a high draft pick in fantasy leagues.
“He’s got some skills, no question. Darrell had some moments or some flashes of doing some good things. Some of the things that he did wrong are things we have been telling him about that you just can’t do at this level as far as going up soft around the basket. He had 15 points and really probably should have had around 20. In all these exhibition games we’ll be looking at the negatives more than we are the positives. But no question he gave us a lift. In the second half he decided, all right, I’m going to rebound. I’m going to play (like I am) 6-7 and 245. I’m going to play to my abilities. And you saw him go up above the rim and do some of the things he is capable of doing. We are just looking for him to do it for two halves and for 30 minutes a game rather than he did it for about 15 tonight.”
--On sophomore center Jarred Shaw, who exceeded his freshman year point total of 11 points by scoring 14 against OCU:
“He was active around the glass. He gave us a little bit of a spurt in the first half just by being active around the glass. Everything he scored was pretty much a put-back or somebody driving and dishing to him or things like that and he ran the court for a couple of easy baskets. But he was active and, being in the right place at the right time, it says something. When you are playing hard and you are active, you always seem to be in the right place at the right time. But when you are not active and you are just kind of tippy-toeing around and you are just kind of lugging around, you get in foul trouble. You don’t score. You don’t get rebounds. But Jarred was active.”
--On whether he was alarmed about senior forward Marshall Moses going scoreless:
“He knows I expect more out of him. For our team to be successful, he has got to produce more than that, no question. It’s not alarming yet, but I’m shocked that he was able to play only 14 minutes because he would have played 25 to 30 minutes tonight. That would have been deserving to him on our basketball team and where we are at tonight now needing him. But for him to only be able to play only 14 because of foul trouble and in those 14 not do anything, it’s not alarming yet, but he’s better than that and I know he’s better than that. We need him to be better than that.”
--By Jimmie Tramel, World sports writer.
Written by
Jimmie Tramel
Sports Writer
