STILLWATER — Think Missouri State and you think of basketball, which is not a good thing during football season.

The institution formerly known as Southwest Missouri State is where Jackie Stiles became national player of the year, and it’s where Charlie Spoonhour and Steve Alford coached before advancing in their careers. Oklahoma native Barry Hinson also stormed the sidelines as the Bears’ coach before being fired last spring.

A 1983 OSU grad, Hinson attended last week’s game between the Cowboys and Houston at Boone Pickens Stadium. He and wife Angie will not be at Saturday night’s game, however.

“I’m still a Missouri State guy, but we’d be wearing orange for that game, and we thought that might get somebody upset,” said Hinson, who plans to return to Stillwater for the Oct. 4 contest against Texas A&M.

Born in Marlow, Hinson began his coaching career at Stillwater Junior High. From there, he was an assistant at Stillwater and Edmond Memorial, head coach at Tulsa’s Bishop Kelley, an assistant at Oral Roberts and then served as head coach at ORU and Missouri State.

As soon as Hinson sells his house in Springfield, he plans to move back to Tulsa. This coming basketball season, he hopes to land a job as a television color commentator.

“I’ll do dog races in Anchorage, Alaska. I don’t care,” Hinson said.

Missouri State football is led by former Kansas coach Terry Allen (1997-2001), who is in his fourth year in Springfield. Hinson and Allen spent the past three years together.

“I absolutely love him,” Hinson said. “He’s one of the most positive, energetic guys I know. I really like him.”

The Bears are coming off a shocking 35-27 loss to Division II Washburn (Kan.) on Sept. 4.

“The game hit him in the gut,” Hinson said of Allen. “It was really hard to listen to that game on the radio. Terry is so limited in what he can do. They have no budget to speak of, but if that school can ever make it football-wise, I think he’s the guy to do it. If they give him some revenue and leave him alone, I think they’ll be OK.”

The greater Springfield area is hardly a prep football hotbed.

Glendale went 7-4 last season, but the other four local public high schools — Central, Parkview, Kickapoo and Hillcrest — went a combined 3-37 in 2007.

“We don’t have any quarterbacks up here, but we’ve got guys who can fish like you’ve never seen,” Hinson deadpanned. “We’re raising kids around here for the Pro Bass circuit, not football.”

An announced crowd of 45,001 was on hand at Boone Pickens Stadium for the Cowboys’ home opener against Houston.

That means there were 14,999 empty seats in the stadium’s new 60,000-seat configuration.

The low attendance total surprised most media members, who estimated the crowd to be at least 50,000.

The biggest OSU home crowd is 51,458, which gathered in 1979 when Oklahoma visited Stillwater. Tonight’s crowd inside the new 60,000-seat facility appears to have fewer than 8,000 empty seats, although there are several sections where fans are spread pretty thin. 

The new west end zone is far more occupied than anticipated. Earlier in the week, one school official estimated the crowd would be around 45,000, but walkup traffic was busier than expected. 

The score is 7-7 after the first quarter and it remains to be seen if the Cowboys will protect their home field. They’ve already surrendered 124 yards to the Cougars.

If OSU ends up stumbling, it won’t be due to a lack of support in the stands.

As soon as the official attendance figure is announced, we will send a blog.

- Between receiving, kick returns and (hopefully) some occasional rushing attempts, OSU sophomore receiver Dez Bryant needs to touch the ball 15-20 times a game. This won’t be Bryant’s last game on Qwest Field. He’ll play here on Sundays sometime after his junior season.

- Mike Gundy’s first half of play-calling was so-so at best (22 rushes; 18 passes). He’s done a lousy job utilizing All-American tight end candidate Brandon Pettigrew, who has four catches for 21 yards. Pettigrew has been used only for dink passes. Send the kid downfield.

- Kendall Hunter looks terrific (63 yards on 14 carries). OSU’s reputation as Tailback U. is in good hands.

- You’d think a game between two no-huddle teams would have some rhythm do it, a fast-pace feel. Not this game.

- After a safety, a team can either punt or kick off from its own 20-yard line. WSU opted to kickoff. I can’t remember the last time I saw a team not punt after a safety. The reason was obvious. Punter Daniel Wagner punts like Dave Winfield used to hit — nothing but line drives.

ESPN’s College Football GameDay begins at 8 a.m. out here, which helped whet the appetite for today’s Oklahoma State-Washington State contest, which starts at 12:30 locally.

The WSU school flag, one of the staples in the GameDay crowd shot every week, was being waved proudly in the backdrop, drawing even more attention to the OSU-WSU opener.

More exposure came when commentator Lee Corso picked the Cougars over the Cowboys as his upset special. Corso ranted he liked WSU’s chances because the game was in Pullman, where the Cougars won four of five home games last season (they actually won three of five).

Trouble is, this game is being held on Qwest Field in Seattle. Classy guys they are, GameDay partners Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit didn’t publicly correct Corso, saving him further embarrassment.

(If Corso picks Oklahoma to beat Texas in Dallas later this season, let’s hope it won’t be because the Sooners are unbeaten in Norman since September 2005.)

Speaking of Qwest Field, it’s an impressive stadium, and should be, considering the project cost roughly $425 million. Across the street is $518 million Safeco Field, home of the Mariners.  These are two big reasons the metro area balked at a proposed $500 million arena project that would have kept the SuperSonics in town.

By the way, I have yet to hear the word “Sonics” uttered by anyone locally since arriving in town.

Safeco has a retractable roof. Qwest doesn’t, but looks like it does. This begs a question: Why design a stadium that looks like it has a retractable roof when it doesn’t? The reason: The partially covered stands on each side of the stadium help prevent the crowd noise from escaping.