Oklahoma State vs. Oakland men's basketball: Three takeaways from Cowboys' stunning loss to Grizzlies

STILLWATER — From the moment shootaround started Friday afternoon, everything felt off around Oklahoma State’s men’s basketball team.

The aura was not good.

“It was just … it wasn’t what it needed to be,” OSU senior Isaac Likekele said.

That led to a stunning loss just two games into the season.

OSU fell 56-55 to Oakland on Friday inside Gallagher-Iba Arena, faltering early and late against a zone defense while being unable to flip a switch when needed.

“It’s a feel,” OSU coach Mike Boynton said about the aura that Likekele noticed. “Obviously, he’s been around long enough. I’ve been doing this a long time and you could sense it in shootaround. Maybe score watching or feeling too good about Tuesday, I don’t know. There’s a number of things it could be.

“But none of it matters. At the end of the day, we have a job to do when we step out on the court and put these uniforms on, and that’s to perform with the best effort that we’re capable of and to do everything we can to preserve the legacy and tradition of Oklahoma State basketball.

“We failed in that regard tonight.”

The Cowboys (1-1) held a 53-49 lead for nearly 4 minutes down the stretch until Oakland’s Jalen Moore hit a 3 with 1:33 remaining. With 53.6 seconds remaining, he gave Oakland a lead with two free shots.

After OSU’s Bryce Thompson hit a go-ahead floater with 33.8 seconds remaining, Moore struck again, this time getting Avery Anderson III with a pump fake to draw a foul on a 3-pointer attempt. Moore made two of the foul shots.

And Thompson’s game-winning 3 hit off the rim.

“That’s the game sometimes,” Boynton said. “Make them miss, get the ball to a good shooter and it doesn’t go in.

“Again, I want to be clear. Nothing against Coach (Greg) Kampe. He’s a tremendous coach, he’s been around almost as I’ve been alive coaching there. It should not have come down to us having to make a shot in the last possession of the game.”

Here are three takeaways from the game:

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Solid Ice

Likekele was open about noticing the team’s struggles early. He said he did not force anything.

He did not need to. He got pretty much whatever he wanted.

The Cowboys’ senior leader totaled 12 points, nine rebounds, five assists and a steal, nearly pulling his team out of the doldrums to the win.

“I just try to see how the game is going, the flow of the game,” Likekele said, “if I need to be more aggressively scoring or if my teammates are hitting like last game, share the ball a lot more. Just different things like that.

“Every game I go in seeing what the vibes are and just filling in.”

On Friday, the Cowboys needed every part of Likekele’s game. Anderson struggled mightily, making just 1 of 6 shots and committing five turnovers before fouling out on Moore’s game-winning play.

Likekele became the catalyst, especially in the second half.

He attacked the basket. He made precise passes. He scored 10 of his points, grabbed four rebounds and dished two assists in the half.

“He played like a senior,” Boynton said. “He is a guy who laid it on the line tonight and tried to empty the tank and will us there when we were obviously milling around for a lot of the game. He did his best to carry us on both ends, because he was sensational on the defensive end as well.”

The danger zone

OSU knew Oakland’s zone defense was coming. It was still a huge problem.

The Cowboys’ were befuddled by the Grizzlies’ zone defense all night, primarily struggling to play at their normal pace.

That led to 18 turnovers — 14 in the first half — and poor rebounding. Oakland led the way 35-31.

And OSU was also 3 for 17 from 3-point range.

Oakland’s zone defense is not like OSU’s, so it’s not something simulated in practice often.

“They kinda put you on your heels,” Boynton said. “Their zone had nothing to do with us going 6 for 12 from the free-throw line. It didn’t have much to do with them out-rebounding us. Again, it was a good zone, but there are a lot of things that we need to control better.”

Like pace.

After falling behind at halftime, the Cowboys opened the second half using their speed and athleticism. They opened the half on a 15-4 run.

But then Oakland settled back down into its zone, keeping itself in the game for the final blow.

“I just felt like that we played their game and we wasn’t really playing ours,” OSU sophomore Rondel Walker said.

More: Three takeaways from Oklahoma State's rout of Texas-Arlington to open college basketball season

Boynton responds to NCAA

The NCAA issued a statement Thursday evening in response to OSU and Boynton’s reaction to losing the appeal that led to a one-year postseason ban, saying staff members and committee members received “threatening and offensive messages after being identified by name.”

Boynton responded at the end of the postgame news conference.

“I’m not into getting tit for tat,” Boynton said. “I do want to make one thing clear: At no point did I ever threaten anyone, nor encourage anybody to be threatened, nor did I out anybody. I read a statement from a publicly available document.

“And my focus is on A, coaching better, making our team better and those 17 kids in that locker room, whose names are also publicly available. I can read those again, but I’m sure you guys all know them.”

Here is the full statement from the NCAA on Thursday:

“Comments by Oklahoma State personnel regarding its infractions case resulted in NCAA volunteer committee members and staff receiving threatening and offensive messages after being identified by name. This is unacceptable.

“Oklahoma State personnel encouraged individuals to circumvent the NCAA member-created process that every school agrees to participate in as part of their responsibility to each other. Further, there is a troubling trend of misstating facts about the infractions process by schools that disagree with the infractions outcomes. Each member has the ability to seek change to the Division I infractions process, and there is a review group underway looking at how to improve the process.

“This is also a clear example of the work that needs to be done to address issues and behaviors like this moving forward with the new NCAA Constitution and Division I Transformation process. We know that an adverse decision can be emotional, but personal attacks against individuals simply carrying out their responsibilities are inappropriate, unethical and potentially dangerous.”

The NCAA has not responded to emails from The Oklahoman asking for clarification on misstated facts or a general comment.

Jacob Unruh covers college sports for The Oklahoman. You can send your story ideas to him at junruh@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @jacobunruh. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OSU vs. Oakland men's basketball: Takeaways from Cowboys' loss