HOLIDAY BOWL: Live game blog
Gundy competing with Miles for next defensive coordinator?
By Scott Wright
I found it interesting that Mike Gundy gave himself a timetable for the hiring of a defensive coordinator, saying he hopes to have it done about 10 days after the bowl game. In case you’re scoring at home, that’s Jan. 9.
That tells me that he’s working through this process already. Maybe he isn’t taking every call from every potential candidate, but he’s calling back the ones he’s interested in.
I also find it interesting that he’s competing with his old boss for some of these candidates. Les Miles is in the market for a defensive coordinator at LSU as well. Former Auburn DC Paul Rhoads is among Miles’ targets, and he’s one of the best available.
As for the OSU opening, former New Mexico coach Rocky Long is becoming a hot commodity as one of the most highly regarded defensive coaches around. Washington is interested. So is UNLV. But OSU would be a better job than either of those. However, Long could be a candidate Gundy misses out on if he holds off too long.
Gundy speculated this week that he could promote someone internally. Obviously, the only candidates would be Joe DeForest or Glenn Spencer. If I had to guess, DeForest probably gets the first look because he’s been around the longest, he stayed loyal to Gundy when Miles left, and he has worked in some capacity as a coordinator at OSU, albeit special teams.
Of course, Spencer has been both a defensive coordinator and head coach in the past, both at West Georgia.
We’ll have to see how it plays out, but there are a lot of good defensive coordinator candidates available right now. Not sure how many of them will still be available by Dec. 31.
Scratch one name off the list for the next DC
By Scott Wright
Former Clemson defensive coordinator Vic Koenning won’t be the next DC at Oklahoma State. The Owasso native landed on Bill Snyder’s new staff at Kansas State today.
There are still plenty of good candidates available, but if OSU coach Mike Gundy is really set on waiting until after the bowl, he’ll miss out on most of them. But just because Gundy isn’t taking calls on the job doesn’t mean he isn’t aware of who called, or that he isn’t calling back the ones he likes.
We’ll see how it all plays out, but it’s not exactly slim pickings if you’re currently in the market for a defensive coordinator.
Also, New Mexico found its man in Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley, so Curtis Luper is most likely staying put. I don’t see Luper leaving OSU to be a coordinator somewhere else. He’ll work his way up and take a head job if he can get it.
Ford: ‘This is not acceptable. This is not acceptable at all’
By Andrea Cohen
Staff writer
But perhaps even more significantly, the Cowboys missed effort and missed shots.
Thomas, whose standing with the team is unclear, did not make the trip to
Piecing together a post presence, Ford started Anthony Brown, gave significant minutes to Malcoln Kirkland and played Marshall Moses. Teeng Akol, who was cleared by the NCAA on Monday, did not make an appearance. So it wasn’t a surprise that
But OSU also didn’t play well in the areas it could control, and OSU never threatened the
“I’d like to apologize to our fans for having to watch that back home,” Ford said. “I’m very disappointed in our competitiveness. We didn’t compete tonight. We just didn’t have much leadership on the court… This is not acceptable. This is not acceptable at all. I didn’t like the way we played tonight and we’re going to change it.”
A guard-oriented team, OSU hasn’t gotten much production out of its big guys even with Thomas this season (Thomas averages just 3.9 rebounds). Against Washington OSU’s guard play was sub-par as well.
James Anderson had a bad shooting night (he was 3-of-12 from the floor) and got into foul trouble. Byron Eaton was aggressive and made it to the free throw line, but he was just 6-of-11 from the line. Terrel Harris only took seven shots and missed five free throws, finishing with 10 points.
The only bright spots were Obi Muonelo, who led the Cowboys with 18 points and six rebounds, and freshman Keiton Page, who added 12 points and made 3-of-5 3 point attempts.
NOTES
*Changes coming?: In postgame comments Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford indicated that he might make some changes to the Cowboys style of play. OSU has more than a week before its next game at
“We’ve got 10 days to correct this and it will be corrected,” Ford said. “Things are gonna change. I’ve gotta make some changes maybe to adapt to what we have.”
*Sidorakis minutes: Ford, who has stuck pretty firmly to a six or seven man rotation this season, played Nick Sidorakis 11 minutes. The sophomore hit a 3 in the second half and didn’t turn the ball over.
OSU showing a little life midway through the half
A little run for the Cowboys with an interesting lineup — Page, Sidorakis, Harris, Muonelo and Brown. Back-to-back Page field goals but Washington still leads by 16 with about eight minutes to play.
Harris is doing a good job of being aggressive and getting to the free throw line, but (like all the Cowboys tonight) he’s missing his free throws.
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43-29 Washington at the half
Some halftime thoughts:
-Oklahoma State looks slow. Slow to loose balls, slow setting screens, slow on defense.
-Ford mentioned during his halftime radio minute that OSU is struggling to set up its offense and basically playing one-on-one. “We’re not a one-on-one kind of team,” he said. The main “one” for OSU has been Eaton, who leads the Cowboys with eight points and has been aggressive driving to the basket. However, the senior has missed half of his eight free throws and got into foul trouble.
-Sans Thomas Anthony Brown started and both Malcoln Kirkland and Marshall Moses have gotten a couple minutes on the floor. Kirkland has three rebounds. But here’s the ugly line on OSU’s big men. The three combine for two points and three rebounds.
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No. 1 needs some shots
Eaton needs to get Terrel Harris involved. Harris hasn’t taken a shot in about 8 minutes and that is not ideal. Harris has done a much better job this season of not disappearing for long stretches, but watching this game you’re starting to wonder where he is.
Now that James Anderson is on the bench with three fouls (and wow, was that last foul a bad decision), Harris and Keiton Page are the best scoring options on the floor. Eaton needs to get them some shots.
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Guard rotation
Washington is definitely trying extra-hard to rattle Keiton Page a little bit. After the freshman lost that last ball Ford practically ran down the bench to tell Eaton to get back in the game.
I think we’re about to find out if Nick Sidorakis can fare any better. If you remember, Nick had a really good game against the Huskies last year.
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Not the best day to face a big man like Brockman
There really couldn’t be a much worse guy to face without your starting center. Brockman is a very large man, and he’s led this 7-0 run the Huskies are on at the moment.
Sidenote: What the heck is going on with Eaton’s free throw shooting? He used to be automatic from the line — even if he was struggling anywhere else on the floor, he made his free throws. He was 28-of-41 heading into tonight’s game and already missed a pair.
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Hmm, that doesn’t sound quite right.
OK, I can’t imagine how tough it must be to broadcast multiple games per week, and try to quickly learn enough about these guys to talk about them for a whole game. That said, I’ve gotta hit mute because these guys are killing me. Time to turn on the radio. I know for a fact Hunziker and Holcomb know what they’re talking about.
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