This installment of KNOW THY ENEMY should come in handy, because the Oklahoma State Cowboys have a bevy of new faces this year.
Hit the jump for a preview of this mystery team.
The Story So Far
The Cowboys are 10-1, with the only blemish coming at Tulsa (by 21 points), but none of the wins really stand out as signature victories.
Seattle, Southern, North Texas, Prairie View A&M, Bradley, Utah, UTSA, UAPB, La Salle -- this is a soft non-conference schedule, and with games upcoming against Pacific, Rhode Island and Coppin State, it's not getting any tougher.
The win at Stanford is the only "W" of note, but even that is tainted -- Oklahoma State blew a 15-point lead to a 5-6 Stanford team to win by one point. For all the preseason love they were getting, the Cowboys should be better than that.
So, we won't truly know what this team is made of until mid-January at the earliest, and perhaps not even then.
They could tank once they play good teams in the Big 12, or they could rise to the occasion and make consecutive tournament appearances. It's hard to say. They seem to have some talent, but they haven't really put it all together yet.
Current Oklahoma State RPI: 39
The Coach
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Travis Ford 33-13 (9-7) at Oklahoma State |
The Departures
Starters
- Byron Eaton (31.7 minutes per game | 14.3 points per game | 3.7 rebounds per game)
- Terrel Harris (31.7 minutes per game | 13.9 points per game | 4.8 rebounds per game)
Reserves
- Blaine Booher (2 minutes per game | 0.7 point per game | 0.7 rebound per game)
- Anthony Brown (13.2 minutes per game | 2.4 points per game | 2.1 rebounds per game)
- Nolan Cox (1 minute per game | 0 points per game | 0 rebounds per game)
- Greg Hughes (1 minute per game | 2 points per game | 0 rebounds per game)
- Malcolm Kirkland (9.7 minutes per game | 2.3 points per game | 1.9 rebounds per game)
- Ibrahima Thomas (20.6 minutes per game | 8.3 points per game | 3.9 rebounds per game)
- Scott Warner (1.3 minutes per game | 0.3 point per game | 0 rebounds per game)
The Veterans
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#2 Obi Muonelo 24.9 minutes per game | 10.4 points per game | 5.4 rebounds per game |
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#12 Keiton Page 32.8 minutes per game | 10.7 points per game | 1.5 rebounds per game |
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#15 Nick Sidorakis 4 minutes per game | 0 points per game | 0.3 rebound per game |
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#22 Teeng Akol 0 minutes per game | 0 points per game | 0 rebounds per game |
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#23 James Anderson 33.7 minutes per game | 21.8 points per game | 6 rebounds per game |
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#25 Garrett Thomas 1 minute per game | 0 points per game | 1 rebound per game |
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#33 Marshall Moses 27.3 minutes per game | 11.8 points per game | 9.6 rebounds per game |
The Redshirt
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#41 Steven Cantrell 0 minutes per game | 0 points per game | 0 rebounds per game |
The Newcomers
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#1 Jarred Shaw 2.1 minutes per game | 0 points per game | 0.9 rebound per game |
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#5 Reger Dowell 3.7 minutes per game | 0.7 point per game | 0.7 rebound per game |
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#10 Torin Walker 2 minutes per game | 0.5 point per game | 0 rebounds per game |
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#14 Ray Penn 29.8 minutes per game | 8.5 points per game | 1.7 rebounds per game
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#21 Fred Gulley 18 minutes per game | 1.4 points per game | 2.5 rebounds per game |
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#31 Matt Pilgrim 15.7 minutes per game | 7.5 points per game | 6.1 rebounds per game |
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#32 Roger Franklin 12 minutes per game | 3.9 points per game | 2.2 rebounds per game |
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#43 Lee Ledford 0 minutes per game | 0 points per game | 0 rebounds per game |
My thanks to the Oklahoma State sports information department for the photos.
The Analysis
Wow, talk about cleaning house.
Travis Ford lost two starters off last year's team to graduation, and seven other players who were on last year's roster are not on this year's. Some, such as Ibrihima Thomas, chose to transfer out due to the coaching change (although Thomas strangely started seven games first). Others probably were asked to leave or were walk-ons who grew tired of "all work, no scholarship."
So to replace the irreplaceable Byron Eaton and his partner in crime, Terrel Harris -- as well as all those other warm bodies -- Ford turned to a complex group of freshmen and transfers. It was by far the largest Big 12 recruiting class this year.
Of those, incoming freshman Ray Penn was the most highly touted, and he has lived up to his promise, starting nine of 11 games and averaging nearly double digits. Though small, Penn has the potential to be pain in the Big 12's ass for years to come.
But Penn's primary role is as a distributor, and does he ever have some weapons to whom to distribute the ball: Guards Keiton Page, Obi Muonelo and James Anderson, and forward Marshall Moses, all are averaging double digits -- and Anderson is the leading scorer in the Big 12, even ahead of Jacob Pullen.
Page made a splash last year as a freshman sharpshooter. Muonelo, this young team's only senior, always had promise, but finally is beginning to show some consistency. Anderson is nothing short of phenomenal -- he should be mentioned in the same breath as Craig Brackins, but rarely is. And Moses really broke out last season and is the closest thing to an effective post this team has.
That's because OSU is, first and foremost, a team of guards. Muonelo, Page, Nick Sidorakis, Anderson, Garrett Thomas, Reger Dowell, Penn, Fred Gulley, Lee Ledford -- all guards, some of them rather small.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Ford basically is running a four-guard system. The strange thing is, he's really only operated with an eight-man rotation so far, which is unusual, given the kind of up-and-down-the-court style he likes to play.
The only exceptions to this categorization are Moses and Matt Pilgrim, a forward transfer from Hampton by way of Kentucky. Oh, sure, there's Teeng Akol (but he hasn't played yet this year for some reason), Steven Cantrell (a transfer from Oklahoma City who likewise hasn't played), and freshman centers Jarred Shaw and Torin Walker (collecting spare minutes, but don't really fit the system yet).
But my sense is that Moses and Pilgrim will collect the majority of significant minutes once Big 12 play begins.
Coupled with the two starting guards, who both are shorter than six feet tall, that will leave the Cowboys undersized in most games they play this winter. They'll have to shoot well to overcome that.
Projected Big 12 Starting Lineup
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| Ray Penn | Keiton Page | Obi Muonelo | James Anderson | Marshall Moses |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Projected Top Big 12 Reserves
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| Reger Dowell | Fred Gulley | Roger Franklin | Matt Pilgrim | Jarred Shaw |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
The Final Verdict
Due to the smaller and less deep frontcourt presence, the slew of new players added to the team this summer, and the team's reliance on short guards to shoot the 3-ball, Oklahoma State does not strike me as the sort of team that will secure a bye for the first day of the Big 12 tournament.
That said, it's hard to scoff at four scorers in double figures. That's what K-State has, after all. The difference is that K-State has played a slew of good teams, and O-State largely has played nobody.
It's hard to know what to make of this team. I think you have to give a nod to Ford and what he was able to do with Sean Sutton's leftovers -- which was make the NCAA Tournament.
Oklahoma State is an upper-division team, but probably not much more than that. A repeat appearance in the Big Dance would be a remarkable success and set the stage for brighter things to come next year, when all of these freshmen become battle-hardened sophomores.
Big 12 preseason prediction: 6th
My predicted finish: T-5th (with Texas Tech)
Best-case scenario: 3rd
Against K-State?: Loss in Manhattan