Originally published at: Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s Overtime Win Against West Virginia
On a great game that had a terrible ending.
Ugh. Even when we win, we still lose. Gut punch losing Parsa. Hope he has a full and speedy recovery 
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Praying for Parsa. What a great testimony in the postgame, and deserved accolades for the young man by Lutz. Glad to have both of them at OSU. [edit to add…I just saw the update on Parsa tearing his ACL. Absolutely heartwrenching. I feel so bad for him. Praying that he finds his way through this, and that the good Lord gives him guidance on how and where to go next. There is always a new door. It was such a joy watching him play for us this year. I’ll be rooting for him wherever he goes next. Would love to see him coaching/mentoring young post players as he has Vukovic.]
Great win for the pokes. Still a whole lot of open threes for WVU until later in the game when we tightened up some. Overall the defense was better, again, more late in the game. Offense looked the best it has since the A&M win.
I’ve been saving this observation for a win, because I really didn’t want to vent about it after a loss and make it look like I was blaming our losses on officiating. I have to say, the officiating in these games of late has been varying degrees of horrendous. I really don’t understand how these officials call fouls so indiscriminately. WVU’s #55 was actively pushing our players around. I don’t mean jockeying for position as most post players do on most plays. I mean “pushing”. On one play, he pushed Vukovic backwards 10 feet right out of the paint and then retreated back down under the basket to catch a pass and put it in uncontested. He did this kind of physical play repeatedly. It was atrocious. I don’t know where the refs were looking, but I don’t see how they can’t call this. Curry was the recipient of another bogus “blocking foul” like Clary’s of late, where the WVU player with the ball ran square into him with nowhere to go. He tried to get an explanation from the ref and it looked like he was completely devoid of logic. The foul calls were so random and for the most part they swallowed their whistles, more with them than us while the game was in doubt in regulation. Case in point: Parsa didn’t shoot his first free throw until the overtime period. How is that possible? Someone else in these comments once said that college basketball has become almost unwatchable. I don’t disagree.
One more observation. I really, really hope a few of the non-seniors stick around to build on what they’ve learned this year, so that Lutz can continue to build chemistry. But no one is more important coming back than Clary. We need him back at the point. Vukovic is a close second. He has really grown in his second year, and I only expect that to continue.
Parsa should have dribbled out the clock. The basketball gods strike again.