Oklahoma State basketball vs. Kansas: Four takeaways from Cowboys' loss to Jayhawks

STILLWATER — Only 68 seconds had ticked off the clock when Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton decided he needed to talk things over with his team.

Third-ranked Kansas had scored three quick baskets and it seemed the Cowboys’ ill fate was already being written.

And nothing Boynton could do was going to change it.

The Cowboys (8-9, 0-4 Big 12) fell behind early and never really challenged the Jayhawks (15-2, 3-1), who won 90-66 Tuesday night at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

“Tough night, really, from the outset,” Boynton said. “I thought they were the more aggressive team. We missed a couple open looks and had a couple turnovers that fueled them early, and a team that good doesn’t need any help.”

Like the last few opponents have done, Kansas attacked the paint — and not just with 7-foot-2 senior Hunter Dickinson, who had a team-high 21 points and seven rebounds.

Kansas used fastbreaks and halfcourt sets to get their guards inside for easy buckets, piling up 46 points in the paint.

Over four Big 12 games, the Cowboys have allowed 184 paint points, countering with just 94 of their own.

“It’s a problem, there’s no question,” Boynton said of his team’s defense around the rim. “Gotta go back and re-evaluate. We’re taking away 3s, but obviously, we’re getting just annihilated there. And literally, it’s at the rim. All the way at the rim. We’re not talking about guys hitting a bunch of runners or mid-range pull-ups. They’re making, in many cases, uncontested layups.”

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Playing against his former team, OSU senior Bryce Thompson had 20 points, which took him past 1,000 points for his college career. OSU's Brandon Garrison and Jarius Hicklen added 10 points apiece.

Yet OSU had no answer for the hot-shooting Jayhawks, who made 62.1% of their field goals and had all five starters with at least 11 points.

“Right from the jump… I thought that was about as complete as we’ve been away from home in a while,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “We were efficient. Our ball-screen defense was good early.”

The Cowboys have lost four straight and life doesn’t get any easier with a road trip to Kansas State on Saturday.

“That’s what you deal with in this league,” Boynton said. “I don’t really follow the rankings, hardly ever, but I did see a stat that for the first time ever, there were nine teams ranked in the conference. That tells you it’s real.

“You just gotta put your big-boy pants on and show up and do the job. You can’t expect any sympathy or sorrow from anybody. You gotta find a way to produce the results that are necessary.”

Here are four takeaways from Tuesday night’s Cowboy loss:

Brandon Garrison shows mettle in big-man duel

Dickinson, Kansas’ senior center, and Garrison, the Cowboys’ 6-foot-11 freshman, found themselves banging bodies on KU’s opening possession.

The Jayhawk veteran couldn’t fight his way around the youngster, but Dickinson stepped back for a soft 7-footer to put Kansas on the board.

Dickinson went on to a productive night, but Garrison made him work for it.

“I think he’s really athletic,” Dickinson said. “He’s really strong, especially for a freshman. I think he has a lot of potential.”

The two frequently battled for rebounds, with Dickinson grabbing seven and Garrison six.

In the end, Dickinson’s 94-game experience edge over the Cowboy rookie was too much.

“Today is just his 17th college basketball game,” Boynton said of Garrison. “His confidence is still growing every game he plays.

“I’m proud of the progress he’s making. He gets better because he’s got humility and he works his butt off and he doesn’t complain. He’s still got a lot of room to grow, a lot to get better at, but he’s on the right trajectory, for sure.”

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Kansas roars out the gate

After Dickinson’s initial bucket, Kansas got two quick scores from Johnny Furphy, a 6-foot-9 freshman guard from Melbourne, Australia.

An intriguing start, but a foretelling moment for the Cowboys. It mattered little what they did defensively over the first 13 minutes. Kansas scored at will, even when defended.

Midway through the first half, Furphy hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions and finished the half having made all five of his field goal attempts for 15 points.

The Jayhawks hit 14 of their first 20 shots from the floor, including three of five from 3-point range, to build a 33-14 lead. Kansas kept near that pace for the rest of the half, taking a 48-33 lead into the locker room.

KU’s hot shooting was powered by Furphy and K.J. Adams Jr., who combined to go 11-of-12 from the floor in the half.

With Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr. as the primary targets in OSU’s defensive plan, adjusting to focus on Furphy, who was making just his second career start, was disruptive.

“You come into the game and a big part of your game plan is Dickinson and McCullar,” Boynton said. “You talk about (Dajuan) Harris and Adams, and then Furphy’s got 10 points at the outset.

“You’re really thrown off balance, because… we have to adjust the game plan to start taking this guy away, and now we’re playing one-on-one against (Dickinson) who most teams can’t cover with just one.”

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Connor Dow plays more, leaves injured

After a four-game stretch in which he played 12 total minutes — not seeing the floor at all in the Big 12 opener against Baylor — OSU freshman Connor Dow has been a bigger part of the rotation recently.

Yet the 6-foot-6 wing from Broken Arrow crashed hard to the floor with just under four minutes to play when he got tangled with a teammate while going hard for a rebound. Dow appeared to land hard on his back.

Dow played 16 minutes Tuesday, following 11 minutes of action Saturday at Iowa State. And the increased action brought his most productive outing since late November.

Dow was fouled on a 3-point attempt moments after entering midway through the first half and hit all three free throws. On the next trip down, he hit a jumper. He finished with five points, two rebounds, an assist and a steal.

The 16 minutes was Dow’s second-most of the season, behind the 21 minutes he played in the season opener. Boynton did not know the extent of Dow’s injury, though he noted Dow stayed on the bench after getting hurt. Still, Boynton likes what he has seen from the freshman.

“He’s getting more confident,” Boynton said. “The thing I like about Connor is he’s not afraid to stick his nose in there and do things that maybe you don’t think he’s capable of.

“That’s part of the reason he got banged up there at the end. He was flying in there for an offensive rebound, which you wouldn’t necessarily think for a guy who’s supposed to be a catch-and-shoot guy.”

Isaiah Miranda no longer with team

Boynton announced in his pregame radio appearance that 7-foot-1 center Isaiah Miranda is no longer with the team.

A redshirt freshman transfer from North Carolina State, Miranda joined the program over the summer and missed the first eight games of the season because of injury. He appeared in three games, scoring eight points over 16 total minutes, and had not appeared in a game since Dec. 20 against Wofford.

Boynton said Miranda left the team to pursue professional opportunities.

Miranda was third in line at center, behind freshman starter Brandon Garrison and veteran backup Mike Marsh.

Miranda’s most memorable highlight came in the practice gym when he broke the rim off a goal with a dunk during the preseason.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State basketball routed by Kansas, remain winless in Big 12