Tramel's ScissorTales: Avery Anderson's injury keeps OSU basketball 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.
The Monday ScissorTales look at the NCAA women's bracket, check in on the Thunder after a win at San Antonio and offer up a March Madness game for readers. But we start with OSU not making the NCAA Tournament.
More:Tramel: How Brett Yormark's TV deal is already paying off for Big 12 Conference
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.
More:Bracket tips for men's NCAA Tournament: Everything you need to dominate your March Madness pool
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.
More:Tramel: Tanner Groves reminds us that even in defeat, you can find joy in basketball
Cowgirls, Sooners treated too fairly
Both Bedlam women’s basketball rivals were NCAA Tournament bound. Of that there was no question.
The questions about the Sooners’ and Cowgirls’ brackets were where and who. Where would they be seeded? Who would they be matched against.
The selection committee treated both Bedlam rivals fairly. Probably too fairly.
OU is a 5-seed and likely would be better off as a 6-seed. OSU is an 8-seed and likely would be better off as a 10-seed.
Such is the nature of the top-heavy sport.
The Sooners, 82-72 losers to Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals Saturday, were handed a 5-seed in what I suppose we ought to just call the South Carolina Regional. OU will play Portland on Saturday in Los Angeles, with the winner playing Monday night against the UCLA-Sacramento State winner.
The Sooners won’t be favored if they play fourth-seeded UCLA in Pauley Pavilion, but that’s not an insurmountable mission. However, the next round is. Whoever comes out of Pauley almost surely will play defending NCAA champion South Carolina in the regional semifinals, in Greenville, South Carolina, no less.
Women’s basketball has made some major strides in parity, but it hasn’t made those kinds of strides. The Gamecocks represent a brick wall for good teams like OU and UCLA.
OU would have been better served being a 6-seed, like Creighton, which in that regional opens against the First Four winner between Illinois and Mississippi State. Then would come third-seeded Notre Dame and potentially No. 2 seed Maryland.
OU’s first two opponents ostensibly would be tougher, but in the Sweet 16, the Sooners might have a puncher’s chance.
That’s the lot of the NCAA Tournament draw.
More:Tramel's ScissorTales: Porter Moser knows OU men's basketball needs a talent upgrade
Meanwhile, OSU is an 8-seed, a dreaded number on NCAA brackets, because that means a No. 1 seed in the second round, not the regional semifinals.
But at least the Cowgirls avoided a behemoth like South Carolina. OSU opens against Miami on Saturday in Bloomington, Indiana, home of top-seeded Indiana. The Hoosiers I assume have a powerhouse team, but nothing like South Carolina.
Maybe OSU would prefer to have been matched with 2-seed Utah in the second round, but the Cowgirls can live with it. Anything but South Carolina is the 2023 mantra.
OSU’s 62-61 victory over West Virginia in the Big 12 Tournament – courtesy of Terryn Milton’s remarkable buzzer-beater – ended a Cowgirl slide and was a notable win. The Mountaineers ended up a 10-seed in the women’s field.
“Coach (Jacie Hoyt) has done a great job with that group,” Texas coach Vic Schafer said of the Cowgirls after UT beat OSU 64-57 in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals. “They have given us three very, very tough games. There won't be anybody lining up excited about playing them in the NCAA Tournament, I can tell you.
“They got great players. They play extremely hard. Her and her staff do a great job and we have tremendous respect and admiration for them and wish them the very, very best.”
Same with OU and Iowa State. Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly has competed against Sooner super seniors Taylor Robertson and Madi Williams 11 times over the last five seasons. He lauded them, along with sixth-year Sooner Ana Llanusa, and knows well how to beat OU.
“Obviously, when you play Oklahoma, the thing that we said a thousand times, if we didn’t say it 10,000 times, is you have to keep scoring,” Fennelly said. “You have to keep scoring. That sounds silly, but against them, you do.”
Neither OSU nor OU is a Final Four contender. They’re the kind of teams that could get bumped out in the first round, or teams that could get hot and win a few games. But the ceiling is lower, courtesy of the seeding.
More:Tramel: How did Terryn Milton and Oklahoma State beat West Virginia? By defying physics
Thunder rebuild supercedes Spurs’
The Thunder is in a four-way tie for ninth place in the Western Conference. You could look it up.
The Thunder is 33-35, the exact record of the Jazz, Lakers and Pelicans. Using NBA tiebreakers, Utah is in the ninth position in the playoff race, followed by OKC, Los Angeles and New Orleans. The play-in tournament (seeds 7-10) is quite attainable for the Thunder.
The Thunder is one game out of seventh (Timberwolves and Mavericks), two games out of sixth (Warriors) and just 2½ games out of fifth (Clippers).
Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs are 17-50, 13½ games out of 13th place.
The Thunder beat the Spurs 102-90 Sunday night in San Antonio in a renewal of a great Western Conference rivalry from the ‘10s. The Thunder and Spurs showdowned in three fantastic playoff series – 2012, 2014, 2016. San Antonio won in 2012 in six games to reach the NBA Finals; the Thunder reciprocated in 2014 in six games to do the same; the Thunder won in 2016 in six games to eliminate the 67-win Spurs and reach the West finals.
None of those stakes and little of that talent was on display Sunday night.
The Thunder played without its superstar, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The Spurs played without their leading scorer, Keldon Johnson; starting point guard Tre Jones; and their best prospect, rookie Jeremy Sochan.
But it’s hard to tell how much San Antonio missed that trio. The Spurs all seem to run together in ability and likeness.
Johnson is averaging 21.6 points a game but with a true-shooting percentage of .551. Devin Vassell is second on the Spurs in scoring, 18.6. His true-shooting percentage is .550. The Thunder has 10 current players with a true-shooting percentage better than .551.
For years, the Spurs resisted a rebuild in the wake of departing cornerstones Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.
More:Three years after March 11 NBA shutdown in OKC, where are key Thunder-Jazz figures now?
Duncan and Ginobili retired. Parker might as well have. Leonard did the Spurs the favor of forcing a trade; San Antonio sent him to Toronto for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and the draft pick that became Johnson. DeRozan played three San Antonio seasons and was traded to Chicago for Al-Farouq Aminu, Thaddeus Young, a second-round draft pick that became Kennedy Chandler and a 2025 conditional first-round pick. Poeltl was traded in February to Toronto for Khem Birch, two second-round picks and a 2024 first-round pick.
In other words, the Thunder traded Paul George in 2019 and begat Gilgeous-Alexander. The Spurs traded Kawhi a year earlier and still is looking for its SGA.
Get this. The Thunder has been in the playoffs more recently than has San Antonio. The Spurs last made the postseason in 2019. OKC made it in the bubble year of 2020.
The Spurs’ drought has been longer and is still descending. San Antonio has gone all-in on the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes. The Spurs figure to have a 14% at landing Wembanyama in the draft lottery.
Tanking to get a high pick is good strategy. Tanking to get one certain player is fool’s gold.
But San Antonio finally made the right decision to tear it down. Just a few years late.
Sochan was picked ninth in the 2022 NBA Draft. He’s San Antonio’s only top-10 pick of the 21st century. I’m not making that up.
Which explains the talent void Sunday night. SGA sat out the game, and the Thunder still had all the good players on the floor.
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons produces an annual trade-value rankings. It’s not a ranking of the best players, but it’s something similar. It is something akin to future-value rankings.
I wrote about Simmons’ rankings a few weeks ago. I thought of them Sunday night.
Simmons had five Thunder players among his top 91. He ranked 70 players, then had 21 notable omissions. Luguentz Dort was a notable omission.
The other Thunders were No. 51 Santa Clara Williams (who would be even higher, just a month later); No. 35 Chet Holmgren (the prized 2022 draft pick who hasn’t even played for the Thunder); No. 34 Josh Giddey; No. 11 SGA.
Simmons had Vassell and Johnson among his notable omissions.
More:'We laid a foundation': Members of 2008-09 OKC team reunite at Thunder Legacy Weekend
That’s a crazy difference between the potential of these franchises. The Thunder started its teardown after the Spurs started, and already has that kind of head start. What in the name of Gregg Popovich happened?
Well, some stubbornness, of course, but it’s not all dumb luck. The Spurs at least got to trade Kawhi for something. The Thunder got nothing for Kevin Durant and still came out way ahead of San Antonio.
Sunday night, the Thunder played a frankly mediocre game. Its defense was OK, mainly because the Spurs had so little offensive threat. But the Thunder shot horribly – 37.9% overall, 25.6% from 3-point range on high-volume attempts (39).
“Not a great offensive show by either team except they got to the rim a lot more than we did, especially at the start of the game,” said Popovich, still (ostensibly) coaching.
Mark Daigneault, absolutely coaching, agreed: “No one had their A game. I don't think anybody played their best game, especially from a shooting standpoint. We had a really hard time at different times offensively. Didn't shoot the three-ball well, and to that point, I thought we played really hard. And then in the second half, especially on offense, we got connected and were generating really good shots for each other.
“Some went in, some didn't, but we played really on brand there in the second half.”
The Thunder was playing the second night of a back-to-back, with a later-than-usual start time in New Orleans (7:30 p.m. Saturday), then an early start time (6 p.m. Sunday), on Daylight Savings Day to boot. So that’s 2½ hours less rest than the normal back-to-back.
No matter. The Thunder won with ease and finds itself not only with a bright future, but an interesting present, in the Western Conference playoff hunt.
More:How Jaylin Williams and the Thunder perfected the art of the charge
The List: NCAA Tournament bracket game
Let’s have some fun. Let’s play an NCAA Tournament bracket game.
I did this a couple of years ago with readers and we all had a lot of fun. The winner gets lunch on me. If you’re local, great. If you’re an out-of-towner, we’ll arrange to meet somewhere sometime.
Here’s the setup. Each reader picks four teams, one from each regional. You get one point for every NCAA Tournament game won.
But there’s a catch. Your seed numbers have to total at least 32.
You can’t pick four No. 1 seeds. If you pick two No. 1 seeds, then your other two teams have to be no better than 15-seeds.
You can pick four No. 8’s. Or a No. 1, a No. 5, a No. 12 and a No. 14. Whoever you pick, the only stipulations are one team from each regional and the seed numbers have to total at least 32.
Yes, you can pick a team from the First Four. But to add a little intrigue, we’ll count the First Four games in Dayton as half points. That will help with a tiebreaker and potentially limit a logjam of everyone picking similar teams. We can’t all have Texas A&M-Commerce.
The deadline is 11 a.m. Thursday to receive your emails, unless you want a First Four team. Then I’ll need them by 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Send in your submissions to btramel@oklahoman.com. I’ll respond and let you know I received them, and I’ll track the scores as the tournament progresses. When we have a winner, I’ll announce it in ScissorTales and we’ll figure out a lunch.
And to help, I’m including ESPN’s bracket tips. Ten suggestions on how to fill out your bracket:
1. Advance one First Four to the Sweet 16
2. Do not predict a 16-over-1 upset
3. Predict at least one 12-over-5 upset
4. Eliminate at least one 2-seed before the Sweet 16
5. Advance at least one double-digit seed to the Sweet 16
6. Advance at least one team seeded fifth or lower to the Elite Eight.
7. Do not advance a double-digit seed to the Final Four.
8. Advance no more than two teams from the same conference to the Final Four.
9. Pick a No. 1 seed to win the national championship.
10. But don’t pick Kansas to do it.
But those are only suggestions.
More:NCAA Tournament snubs: Oklahoma State, Rutgers North Carolina get burned by being left out
Mailbag: What if on my career
Reader Mike Barret is a frequent contributor and asked a fascinating question.
Mike: “If there never was an OU, and Oklahoma was like Arkansas, and had only one major university, and that university was OSU, would you still have become a sportswriter?”
Tramel: I see no reason why not. I loved sports. And I had a gift of writing, even at an early age.
My dad loved newspapers. He loved them long before the days of Bud Wilkinson. His family in eastern Oklahoma was dirt-poor, but my dad in the mornings would go to the train tracks, where a rail worker would toss out bundled Tulsa Worlds for distributors to pick up.
If my dad beat the distributor to the tracks, my dad would unwrap a copy of the World, read it, then wrap it back. That was the early 1940s.
By the late 1960s, we took four newspapers a day at our house. The Oklahoman. The Norman Transcript. The Oklahoma City Times. The Oklahoma Journal. I’ve spent my career at those first two (and wrote a little for the Times when I was 19).
I played sports. But when Louis Armstrong (the Northwest Classen star) dunked at age 12 during an AAU basketball practice I attended, and when I saw my first curveball at age 13 (kids didn’t throw them earlier than that, back then), I realized my athletic days were not long.
I migrated to writing quickly.
Having a football machine like the Sooners in my backyard certainly helped by connection with sports. But I followed OSU intently, and I was a baseball historian before the age of 14.
An alternative Oklahoma sports landscape wouldn’t have changed my passions or my (limited) talents.
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.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State missed March Madness due to Avery Anderson injury
