OSUFan
07-07-2008, 01:21 PM
Mon July 7, 2008
Pokes are getting shorter By Andrea Cohen
OSU Basketball Insider
Oklahoma State's roster got smaller last week. Six feet, 8 inches smaller, to be exact.
With Martavius Adams' departure, the Cowboys lost their second-tallest player, and after 6-foot-11 Ibrahima Thomas the next tallest player is now 6-foot-6.
It also left OSU short on bodies in another way as the Cowboys are down to just 10 scholarship players.
(This excludes Malcoln Kirkland, a junior college transfer who said last week that he is orally committed to OSU. Kirkland isn't officially considered committed until he is enrolled next month).
At first glance, losing Adams seems like cause to panic, or at least have center abandonment déjà vu (remember when Kenny Cooper headed home just before the season started last year, leaving OSU without a single big man who had played a second of Division I college basketball?). It's not that Adams lit the world on fire as a freshman — in 12.8 average minutes played over 30 games last season last season he averaged 3.1 points and 2.1 rebounds — but like Cooper, he was a big body with potential.
And while it's still a loss, for a couple reasons losing Adams shouldn't be the same calamity losing Cooper was less than a year ago.
For one thing, OSU's new offense with Travis Ford as the conductor isn't terribly dependent on a big man who posts up in set offenses. Ford wants to push, push, push — seriously, you should have heard the practice he held during camp a couple weeks ago. The guy is yelling "Get the ball out of the basket! Go! Go! Go!” before a guy even takes a shot.
An inside-outside game is less necessary at that pace, and that kind of emphasis on the transition game means a guy like Adams might not fit as well as a faster, perimeter-friendly center like Thomas. In fact, Adams told several people Ford's style of play — along with a desire to get closer to home — contributed to him hitting the road.
And like everything else in life, timing is everything. When Cooper left last year, he left the former coaching staff in a big-time lurch. The only returning big man headed home to Louisiana just days before school started, so there was no way to offset the loss. In this case, because Adams told the staff he would be leaving at the end of June, Ford & Co. were able to go out and find a junior college big man (Kirkland) to come in and complement Thomas, Anthony Brown and Marshall Moses inside.
So while Adams' departure leaves OSU short for now, the Cowboys should still start out in better shape inside than they did last fall.
Pokes are getting shorter By Andrea Cohen
OSU Basketball Insider
Oklahoma State's roster got smaller last week. Six feet, 8 inches smaller, to be exact.
With Martavius Adams' departure, the Cowboys lost their second-tallest player, and after 6-foot-11 Ibrahima Thomas the next tallest player is now 6-foot-6.
It also left OSU short on bodies in another way as the Cowboys are down to just 10 scholarship players.
(This excludes Malcoln Kirkland, a junior college transfer who said last week that he is orally committed to OSU. Kirkland isn't officially considered committed until he is enrolled next month).
At first glance, losing Adams seems like cause to panic, or at least have center abandonment déjà vu (remember when Kenny Cooper headed home just before the season started last year, leaving OSU without a single big man who had played a second of Division I college basketball?). It's not that Adams lit the world on fire as a freshman — in 12.8 average minutes played over 30 games last season last season he averaged 3.1 points and 2.1 rebounds — but like Cooper, he was a big body with potential.
And while it's still a loss, for a couple reasons losing Adams shouldn't be the same calamity losing Cooper was less than a year ago.
For one thing, OSU's new offense with Travis Ford as the conductor isn't terribly dependent on a big man who posts up in set offenses. Ford wants to push, push, push — seriously, you should have heard the practice he held during camp a couple weeks ago. The guy is yelling "Get the ball out of the basket! Go! Go! Go!” before a guy even takes a shot.
An inside-outside game is less necessary at that pace, and that kind of emphasis on the transition game means a guy like Adams might not fit as well as a faster, perimeter-friendly center like Thomas. In fact, Adams told several people Ford's style of play — along with a desire to get closer to home — contributed to him hitting the road.
And like everything else in life, timing is everything. When Cooper left last year, he left the former coaching staff in a big-time lurch. The only returning big man headed home to Louisiana just days before school started, so there was no way to offset the loss. In this case, because Adams told the staff he would be leaving at the end of June, Ford & Co. were able to go out and find a junior college big man (Kirkland) to come in and complement Thomas, Anthony Brown and Marshall Moses inside.
So while Adams' departure leaves OSU short for now, the Cowboys should still start out in better shape inside than they did last fall.