STILLWATER, OKLA. ? Oklahoma is not OK with Kansas University’s men’s basketball team.
Big 12 Conference schedule makers require the Jayhawks to make just one trip per season to the Sooner State, and that has been one trip too many the last two seasons.
Did KU’s 80-60 loss Monday night to Oklahoma State remind you of the Jayhawks’ 77-70 loss to Oklahoma last February in Norman, Okla.? It should have. The two defeats were basically the same game — at least the first halves were.
Curiously, when KU and OU met in 2003, Oklahoma was ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press poll, and Kansas was No. 6. Monday night, those numbers were doubled. OSU was No. 10, and Kansas No. 12.
Last year in Norman, the Sooners hit the Jayhawks with a first-half haymaker, bolting to a 47-26 halftime lead. This time in Stillwater, the Cowboys stormed to a 44-26 bulge at the break. Dejvu?
There is a difference, though. Last season, the Jayhawks rallied from a deficit that reached as many as 32 points and closed within five points of the Sooners — thanks mainly to Oklahoma’s inability to make late free throws — before bowing by seven.
In Gallagher-Iba Arena — aka “Pumpkinland” or “Ear Plugs City” — the Jayhawks never mounted a viable charge, more or less playing the Cowboys even during the last 20 minutes. That may have been the most disappointing aspect from a KU perspective.
Anytime Kansas goes on the road to play a ranked team, it can expect the foe to come out higher than the upper deck in OSU’s arena, where some seats are so high a mountain goat might suffer vertigo.
Sure enough, the Cowpokes came out in a shooting inferno, drilling 10 of their first 12 launches, including six of seven from three-point range. The Jayhawks were down by 18 before they knew what hit them.
No basketball team can maintain that torrid pace — OU couldn’t last year, for example — and the ‘Pokes didn’t. Yet the Jayhawks played the second half, for the most part, like they couldn’t wait to fly home to go to class this morning.
Or as ESPN motor-mouth Dick Vitale babbled: “I can’t remember the last time I did a Kansas game and they weren’t competitive. Tonight the Jayhawks were non-competitive.”
As you know, this was a homecoming for first-year KU coach Bill Self, a former Oklahoma State player. During introductions, a man wearing a burnt-orange shirt stood at his seat behind the scorers’ table and hoisted a sign that read: “Welcome Back Bill Self.”
In retrospect, as poorly as the Jayhawks played, Self is even more of a persona grata in Stillwater now. Of course, if Kansas had come to Stillwater and won, the welcome mat certainly wouldn’t be out when the Jayhawks have to return to Gallagher-Iba Arena in 2006.
Oklahoma State exposed the Jayhawks’ weaknesses. By now, it’s clear Kansas is not a dangerous outside-shooting team. KU hit just five of 15 three-point attempts, and that 33.3 percent is very close to the Jayhawks’ season average. Too, Oklahoma State snatched 15 offensive rebounds, and Kansas has had a nagging — make that a disturbing — tendency to surrender double-digit offensive boards this season.
Perhaps the strangest statistic was points off turnovers. According to the official stat sheet, Oklahoma State outscored KU, 29-8, off turnovers. Yet O-State was docked with three more turnovers (21) than the Jayhawks (18). Go figure that one.
The other surprise was how John Lucas, Oklahoma State’s point guard, outshone KU counterpart Aaron Miles. Lucas, who played at Baylor last year, outscored Miles, 21-3. Lucas made seven of nine shots, including three of five from three-point range.
Almost exactly a year ago, when Lucas was playing for the Bears, he made only five of 14 shots against the Jayhawks, missing eight of his 11 three-point attempts. Kansas won that game, 79-58, in Waco, Texas.
But that was then, and this is now. Oklahoma State isn’t Baylor. In fact, the secret it out, if it wasn’t already. The Cowboys are the team to beat for the Big 12 Conference championship.