The Oklahoma State Cowboys equalized their exhibition record with a 93-85 victory over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane on Friday at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
For the Cowboys, it was a free scrimmage open to all fans. With homecoming this weekend, it was a larger crowd then one might get for a scrimmage between in-state rivals.
Head coach Steve Lutz was not happy with how his team played defense in their first scrimmage against New Mexico. He also wasn't happy with the large number of fouls that were called on his team. Either Oklahoma State got more compassionate officials, or the Cowboys got the message. They were called for just 21 fouls in the game.
With one more scrimmage next week in Wisconsin, here are three observations from Friday's victory.
Kashie Natt is Worth the Waiver
Guard Kashie Natt is one of two Cowboys available on a temporary injunction or temporary restraining order provided by a court as part of a suit against the NCAA for an extra year of eligibility. The other is forward Parsa Fallah, who is still recovering from a torn ACL.
Well Natt put on a clinic against Tulsa of why he's important to the Cowboys and why head coach Steve Lutz hope he hopes he remains eligible for the rest of the season.
Natt led both the Cowboys and the Golden Hurricane with 26 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists, eight made field goals and eight made free throws. He also had a game-high five steals. He got the memo about the better defense.
Natt drew the start with Kanye Clary still recovering from an injury, which he talked about at Big 12 media days. When Clary is healthy, Natt should give them two ball handlers on the floor on a regular basis, something OSU struggled with at times a season ago. Natt’s performance is beyond encouraging. The Cowboys just need him to remain eligible.
Did The Defense Get Better?
Lutz bemoaned his team's defensive performance in their first scrimmage last week. So he was certainly keeping an eye on his defense against the Golden Hurricane. It got incrementally better.
The Cowboys held the Golden Hurricane to 43% shooting, including 42% from the floor. Oklahoma State came out of the game with seven steals and three blocked shots while Tulsa only had four steals.
The one area he won’t be happy with is the offensive rebounding. While OSU walked away with a 34-29 rebounding edge, Tulsa had 13 offensive rebounds. That was an area Lutz was frustrated with after the first scrimmage because it allowed New Mexico to extend possessions.
Fortunately, Oklahoma State shot 63% from the floor for the game so those offensive rebounds didn't come back to haunt them.
But the Cowboys aren't going to shoot that well every night. Winning the defensive rebounding game is still a work in progress.
The Intriguing Freshmen
Lutz is working different rotations and lineups. Notably, freshman Anthony Felisi joined the starting lineup on Friday with Clary out. He logged 29 minutes, with Latrell Allmond coming off the bench for 24 minutes. Allmond scored 14 points while Felisi scored 10.
Both received considerable playing time against New Mexico, with Felisi scoring 18 points in 28 minutes and Allmond scoring four points in 20 minutes.
It's premature to read too much into how Lutz is using those two freshmen during scrimmages. He has said repeatedly that he wants to get those freshmen as much playing time as possible. But given how these two freshmen are scoring and have consistently gotten 20-plus minutes per game, it's hard not to believe that Lutz isn't going to use the pair at least a little bit when they open the regular season.
The question is how much and how they perform when the stakes get higher? How they play against Texas A&M, the Cowboys’ third game of the season, should give us a barometer for how much Lutz trusts the pair in mid-November.
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