The Oklahoma State Cowboys defeated the Texas Tech Red Raiders, 93-91 in two overtimes. Tech (15-10, 4-6) has now lost 5 games in a row, the last two were games that were certainly winnable.
I'm done being mad and upset. At this point, I'm just a little sad about the way this season has turned out. By the second overtime, there was nothing left in the tank and the OSU bigs were just too much to handle.
The most depressing thing was the 7 point lead which disappeared so quickly. A steal here, a free-throw miss that leads to a 4 point play, it's just their year. I don't blame these kids. They played hard, but when Plefka and Dora fouled out and knew that Prince couldn't hold Boggan. There were a couple of plays where it was clear that Boggan out-muscled/fouled Prince (I'm not complaining, I promise) and pushed him out of the way so that he could do his damage. If we had a 6-7/235 rebounding and scoring machine I'd tell him to do the same thing.
Let's get to the numbers:
| Player | Min. | Reb. | Ast. | Pts. | Comment |
| J. Plefka | 36 | 8 | 0 | 16 | Good all-around game, rebounded much better, need better D. |
| D. Dora | 31 | 4 | 0 | 9 | Made stupid decisions when we needed him in the game. |
| M. Zeno | 47 | 11 | 5 | 21 | Another double-double, competes every game. |
| A. Voskuil | 20 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Quiet day, needs to play more aggressively. |
| J. Jackson | 49 | 1 | 3 | 24 | Contributed, but did not shoot well. |
| J Mitchell | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Minimal minutes. |
| M. Prince | 19 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Did well considering his situation. |
| T. Ogden | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Minimal minutes. |
| C Burgess | 45 | 6 | 5 | 17 | Contributed today, excellent all-around game. |
What Tech Did Right:
- There's No Quit: Tech made some horrible plays and bad decisions, especially in the OT's, but this team's not going to quit on you. Despite being outmanned the last 10 minutes of play, Tech went toe-to-toe with OSU. I've got nothing to say bad about their effort. I usually determine effort by looking at rebounding and steals and 34 boards and 10 steals means these guys really tried.
- Zeno Will Be Unstoppable: Zeno had another double-double. By my count, that's 4 this season and 3 of his last 4 games Zeno has had a double-double. Not to mention, he's averaging 3.3 assists per game. I am continually impressed by his game, he's the lone player who can create along the baseline and is the guy who will score inside.
- Burgess Scored: Burgess did play better, but if you had asked me how many points he had today I would have told you that he maybe had ten. Charlie's all-around good game was a nice surprise, 17 points, 6 boards and 5 assists. It would be nice to have that type of production every game.
- Plefka Rebounded: Myself and Pat Knight have given Plefka a hard time for not rebounding the ball, but I think it's been well-deserved. Tech has always needed someone to step up and rebound, and when Plefka does this it makes the entire team better. Jon did a good job today grabbing 8 boards to go alon with his 16 points. Once again, I'd take that type of production every night.
What Tech Did Wrong:
- There's No Inside Depth: Literally, once you get past Plefka and Dora there's nothing there. Now I understand why Knight was so ticked off at OU about Rizvic, that's your rotation. With Rizvic, at least Knight could go with a smaller lineup because Esmir caused issues on the offensive end of the court for the opposing team (he could start Prince at forward). Now, Knight is left with no choice. If the opposing team has the size that OSU has, Knight doesn't have a choice, he's got to start Dora and Plefka, otherwise the game would be over before it starts. Now what does Knight do about this? Hope and pray that Rizvic recovers. Despite the fact he's a project there aren't a lot of other options. De'Bem is certainly an option and Suljagic has got to figure out how to make a layup (so does Plefka after today's game).
- Someone Other Than Zeno: Someone other than Martin has got to score efficiently. Jackson was 6-17, Plefka was 3-10, and Burgess was 6-16. Tech has the ability to shoot, but when there's so much pressure to for these guys to literally create shots on their own, it's difficult to shoot a decent percentage. It would be nice if more kids to create on offense, but I just don't think that we have that kind of talent.
- Can't Close: That first overtime was a back-breaker. With Tech up 78-83 with 42 seconds left Monds was fouled, made the first of two free throws, missed the second, Boggan grabs the rebound, is fouled, makes the shot and the free throw. 83-81. Curry steals the inbound. Layup. 83-83. Instead of someone from Tech (Zeno and Plefka had fouled out by this time) grabbing the Monds rebound and turning around to head down the court, run some time off the clock, etc., Tech is now in a situation where their seemingly safe lead has disappeared. That's the nail in the coffin. The inability to rebound and the inability to cleanly beat a press.
Tech now travels to A&M on Tuesday in what will be a very difficult game.