Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State's 81-70 Loss to No. 3 Baylor

Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/five-thoughts-on-oklahoma-states-81-70-loss-to-no-3-baylor/

A Cade’s game and his ankle.

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I hope they rest Cade with his ankle instead of playing him against WVA, the game means nothing. OSU football, basketball, wrestling, all have had potentially great seasons tarnished because of an unusually high rash of key injuries. Never saw a season like this one for OSU. Some bad mojo going on in Stillwater.

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I’ll start off by wishing all the best to Cade, and hope that of course it is nothing lingering, with everything at least seeming to be ok post game minus a slight limp… I’ll follow by saying that aside from the officiating tonight, which was without a doubt the worst i’ve seen all season, (we had exactly 3 FT’s ALL GAME!) the lesson we continue to take from the majority of our games this season, is that at times Cade either needs to be unleashed or at least learn when to take that leash off of himself!. These slow starts as a team, and specifically for Cunningham, will wind up being our downfall in the tournament unless they are corrected VERY SOON… Even with the abysmal officiating and downright poor play from most of the supporting cast tonight, we went step for step with Baylor all second half but could not overcome the 11 point hole we dug ourselves in the first 20 minutes!.. While Cade has proven time and again that he can turn it on at will and dominate the second half of almost any game, even 20 point halves by the best in the game cannot overcome a double digit deficit to top 10 competition. I’m not unrealistic, and don’t by any means expect 40 point games on the regular, but a No. 1 overall selection needs to be averaging 10 points or so in first half output, which he has only managed in something like 4 games all season. I feel like if he simply maintained his 20 point average, and spread that output across both periods more evenly, it would not only set us up for much better second half play, but would open up the floor for both Cade and the supporting starters, especially once Likekele steps back on the floor and can move him back off the ball… In any case it was a hard fought game, and while I expect another tough one in Morgantown, I’m really just ready to get conference tournament play started and see what these guys have in them when their future play is very literally on the line