Oklahoma
As Oklahoma State basketball enters Big 12 play, what have we learned about the Cowboys?
Oklahoma State basketball coach Steve Lutz previews Bedlam showdown
Oklahoma State basketball coach Steve Lutz previews Bedlam showdown
STILLWATER — Back before the season, new Oklahoma State coach Steve Lutz joked about the day the preliminary Big 12 men’s basketball schedule arrived in his email.
“Hey, I have a top-five team at home, then I go on the road for two, and I come back and there’s a top-10 team coming here,” Lutz said with an exasperated look. “But everybody in the league is saying that. That’s why we do this, right? Play in the best league in the country.”
Well, maybe the schedule doesn’t look quite as tough as it did in the preseason. Only five Big 12 teams are ranked in the top 25 — as opposed to November when five were ranked in the top 10.
But that doesn’t mean the conference is suddenly a pushover. It’s still in the conversation for the toughest conference in the country, though the Southeastern Conference may have the edge now.
Coming off an 8-3 non-conference schedule, the Cowboys enter Big 12 play with 15th-ranked Houston at 7 p.m. Monday at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
That’s followed by a Saturday trip to West Virginia, which is receiving votes in the latest poll.
Just how the Cowboys will fare in Lutz’s first trip through the league is hard to predict. But here’s a look at three things we learned about the Pokes during non-conference play:
Bryce Thompson found a new gear
As a fifth-year senior, OSU guard Bryce Thompson seemed to be well-established as a player who fit the offensive styles of the coaches he had played for — Mike Boynton at OSU and Bill Self for a year at Kansas.
It was unclear if Thompson would excel in the up-tempo pace of Lutz.
But through 11 games, Thompson not only has shown he can do it, he has thrived in it.
He’s shooting the best field goal percentage of his career, 42.0%, being more choosy with his 3-point selection, rebounding more and sharing the ball just as well, even though he’s not being asked to play point guard nearly as much.
“He’s a good basketball player,” Lutz said. “The way I look at the way we play is if you’re a good basketball player, you’re gonna be fine. Ultimately, we don’t run a million set plays. So if you know how to play basketball, we’re gonna put you in positions to be successful and I knew he’s a good player, so I never had any doubts there.”
To this point, Thompson leads the Cowboys in minutes played at just under 24 per game, is third in scoring and third in steals, which is a key development of his game as Lutz pushes the envelope of how his players defend.
Marchelus Avery needs to be focus
As important as Thompson’s presence on the court is, Marchelus Avery — you might’ve heard him referred to as Chi Chi — needs to be the offensive driving force of this team.
Avery knows it. Lutz knows it.
But getting it to happen has been a learning experience.
“We’ve just got him to be more disciplined,” Lutz said. “There’s a couple times out there tonight where we’re not trapping the ball and he’s just kind of running all over.
“And I love it that he has ambition and fire and he’s playing hard and he’s having fun. But we also have to be disciplined with what we’re doing. But we need him to score.”
A 6-foot-8 wing who transferred from Central Florida, Avery is the team’s leading scorer at 13.0 points per game, and he’s second in minutes played at 22.9 despite coming off the bench every game.
Among Cowboys attempting at least two 3-pointers per game, Avery is their best shooter at 39.2% (20 of 51) and leads the team in rebounding at 5.6 per game.
Frontcourt size will be a struggle
The most challenging area for Lutz in building his roster from the transfer portal last summer was finding capable big men.
The Cowboys have just two players on the roster taller than 6-8. One of them is 6-10 Serbian freshman Andrija Vukovic, who has dealt with injuries as well as the challenge of getting in the kind of shape required to play extended minutes in Lutz’s system.
Vukovic didn’t appear in a game until mid-December and has played just 18 minutes in three games overall. He has nine points and one rebound in that span, but saw increased usage against Oral Roberts in the Cowboys’ final non-conference game.
If he can continue to develop and play meaningful minutes, it’ll be an important boost to the guys who have shared the bulk of the work at the center position thus far.
Abou Ousmane, who is 6-10, and 6-7 Robert Jennings II have been asked to carry the load there, and both have their strong points. But in a conference with a string of talented big men, they’ll need all the help they can get.
Oklahoma State vs. Houston
TIPOFF: 7 p.m. Monday at Gallagher-Iba Arena, Stillwater (ESPN+)
Oklahoma
Oklahoma 7-Eleven clerk, mom of 3, fired after shooting customer who attacked her: ‘I need to be here for my kids’
A brave Oklahoma 7-Eleven clerk was fired for shooting a customer, who tried to strangle her and threatened to “slice her head off” — because she used her own gun, violating the convenience store’s policy.
Stephanie Dilyard, 25, said she was working alone at the Oklahoma City 7-Eleven just after midnight on Nov. 14 when a man came in and tried to pay for a trove of junk food with a counterfeit $100 bill, KOKH reported.
The mother of three said that when she called the man out on the bill being bogus, he began threatening her and became erratic.
“He threatened me, and said he was gonna slice my head off, and that’s when I tried to call the police,” she recalled.
Dilyard said the brute started hurling objects at her before he rushed behind the counter and put his hands on her.
“I tried to run off, but he grabbed his hands around my neck, and pushed me out of the counter space, and that’s when I pulled out my gun and I shot him,” she said.
The suspect, Kenneth Thompson, fled the store after he was shot in the stomach. The 59-year-old made it a few blocks away from the 7-Eleven before calling 911.
The alleged violent fraudster was taken into custody at the hospital and charged with assault and battery, threatening acts of violence, attempting to pass counterfeit currency, and violating parole on an outstanding felony warrant.
Investigators ruled that Dilyard’s actions were justified under Oklahoma’s stand-your-ground law, which allows people to use deadly force when confronting an imminent threat of death or serious harm.
While authorities have cleared the 25-year-old mom, her employer fired her just days after the frightening ordeal on Nov. 17.
“They said that they were going to separate from employment because of a violation of policy,” Dilyard, who had been working the overnight shift alone from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. for more than two years, said.
Dilyard, who still had a scratch on her neck and burn marks on her finger from firing the gun, told the outlet that all she cared about when she was getting attacked was getting home to her kids.
“This was a situation where I felt like I was put into a corner between choosing between my job, and my life, and I’m always going to choose my life because there’s people that depend on me. Just, I’m going, I’m going home, you know. I need to be here for my kids,” she said.
She hopes what she endured will drive changes that better protect clerks — especially women — and ensure they aren’t afraid to defend themselves when facing a life-or-death threat.
“If I’ve known that there’s a potential that somebody is for real on taking my life away that I will do whatever it takes, and I hope that women see that, and they’ll do the same thing,” she said.
“You have a right to defend yourself.”
Since losing her job, Dilyard has launched a GoFundMe to help her family with expenses while she’s out of work and said she had zero regrets for defending herself.
“We have no security, and we are not allowed to carry self defense weapons, including mace,” she wrote. “That’s is why I decided to carry in the first place.”
“I never expected for me to be in this situation, but I did what I had to do to go home to my kids. I was a good employee, committed and determined, but in-between a rock and a hard place I had to make a quick decision—lose my life, or lose my job,” she added.
The Post has reached out to 7-Eleven for comment.
Oklahoma
Why Oklahoma HC Brent Venables Said John Mateer Was ‘Really Good’ vs. Missouri
NORMAN — There were plenty of lowlights from John Mateer’s outing against Missouri on Saturday.
Of the 30 passes the Oklahoma quarterback threw, 16 of them went incomplete. He also nearly threw an interception early in the second half, when the Sooners led by just one score.
His final passing line — 14-of-30 for 173 yards and two touchdowns — wasn’t flashy. But it was good enough for No. 8 OU to beat the No. 22 Tigers 17-6.
“(He was) really good,” OU coach Brent Venables said. “Had to earn everything he was given. Made some really good plays. Every single one of his yards were earned, hard-earned yards.”
While Mateer was inconsistent, he made key plays when the Sooners needed them most.
Oklahoma punted on its first three drives and had minus-7 total yards of offense after the first quarter.
The Sooners were in danger of going three-and-out again on their fourth drive. But on third-and-7 from OU’s 13-yard line, Mateer hit wide receiver Isaiah Sategna in stride on a slant route, and Sategna took it 87 yards to the end zone for a touchdown.
“Really good job by John standing in there delivering the throw, and then Isaiah just turned on the burners going up the sideline,” OU offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said. “Really good execution on that play.”
Mateer said, “Really good design that Arbuckle came up with and we got man (coverage) like we wanted. And I knew there was a ‘backer underneath I had to navigate, and I did. Luckily, put it on his nose and he was able to run.”
Just a few minutes later, Mateer took advantage of favorable field position.
After a short Mizzou punt, the Sooners started their drive at the Tigers’ 35-yard line. Mateer led a seven-play scoring drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Javonnie Gibson.
Mateer’s two touchdown passes were enough on a day where the Sooners’ defense allowed Missouri to score just twice on two field goals.
“I’m incredibly proud of him,” Arbuckle said. “I’m proud of the way he leads, I’m proud of the way that he plays. Are there always things we can be better at? Absolutely. But John Mateer, he’s a great ball player.”
Neither offense played pretty football in the second half.
Oklahoma compiled only 138 total yards, and Missouri had even fewer at 122. Mateer completed only six of his 13 pass attempts, throwing for just 49 yards in the final 30 minutes.
Still, Mateer was crucial in helping OU salt away its win.
The Sooners scored just three second-half points, but they were able to register nine first downs, thanks largely to short passes and runs for decent gains. Mateer ended the game as OU’s leading rusher, finishing with 60 yards on 18 carries, and the quarterback’s legs allowed the clock to keep moving in the low-scoring contest.
“You just gotta put your head down and take a hit, you know?” Mateer said. “So I did it, and it was fun.”
Mateer still hasn’t been at his best since returning from injury against Texas on Oct. 11. The quarterback hasn’t thrown for more than 250 yards in a game since the Sooners’ win over Auburn on Sept. 20. He has thrown four touchdowns and four interceptions in the six games since the surgery on his right hand.
Still, there has been progress lately.
Mateer threw multiple touchdown passes on Saturday for the first time since OU’s season opener against Illinois State. He has also gone two games without turning the ball over. And, most importantly, Mateer has led the Sooners to three wins in a row, keeping them in the picture for the College Football Playoff.
Mateer has slowly but steadily improved in the back half of the season, and that gives Arbuckle confidence as OU prepares for LSU, its final opponent of the regular season.
“I mean, playing insanely tough, not turning the ball over, doing the little things that it takes to win and being a great teammate and a great leader,” Arbuckle said. “That’s how I’ve seen him progress and I expect nothing different from him as soon as we go back to work tomorrow. And I’m excited to watch him attack it.”
Oklahoma
First Native woman drives Oklahoma’s iconic Sooner Schooner, a covered wagon mascot
For the first time in its 60-year history, the Sooner Schooner, the University of Oklahoma’s iconic covered wagon mascot, is being driven by a Native American woman.
Brianna Howard, a junior at OU and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, first drove the Schooner onto the field during the football team’s season opener against Illinois State.
“I only had a minute to get on the Schooner, get the reins and go,” Howard said Saturday before the Sooners’ game against Missouri in Norman. “I didn’t have enough time to get too nervous. When I went out there, it was amazing. I could not even hear the audience I was so zoned into driving.”
Members of the RUF/NEKS and the all-female spirit group Lil’ Sis take care of the Schooner and its ponies, and they take turns driving it during the game.
First introduced in 1964, the Sooner Schooner is pulled across the field before the game and after Oklahoma scores by matching white ponies named “Boomer” and “Sooner.”
Because the scaled-down Conestoga wagon is reminiscent of those pioneers used while settling Oklahoma Territory in the late 1800s, Howard acknowledged that some see the Schooner mascot as a symbol of oppression against Native people. But she said to her, driving the wagon represents taking ownership of that symbol.
“I know that for me, it’s a representation of taking back something that was used to oppress my people and my culture, and now that I’m in charge, it’s giving us the power,” she said. “Not everyone’s going to see it that way, and that’s OK.”
Jack Roehm, a senior at OU and president of the RUF/NEKS, drove the Schooner during Saturday’s game against Missouri and described the Sooner Schooner tradition as one of college football’s most unusual.
“It’s a historic tradition after every score having the ponies run across the field,” Roehm said. “There’s nothing like it in college football.”
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