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Posted

Last Season 22-13 (.629)

Conference Record 6-10 (t-7th)

Starters Lost/Returning 2/3

Coach Sean Sutton (Oklahoma State '92)

Record At School 22-13 (1 year)

Career Record 22-13 (1 year)

RPI Last 5 years 16-5-5-95-63

COACH AND PROGRAM

For the 10th straight season, a Sutton coached in the NCAA Tournament. Alas, for Oklahoma State fans, the Sutton of record in 2007 was Oral Roberts head coach Scott Sutton. As for little brother Sean Sutton, he guided the Cowboys to 22 victories and an NIT invitation. At first glance, that's a pretty solid debut campaign for a first-year head coach, but considering on the morning of Jan. 10 that OSU was 15-1 and ranked No. 9 in the country, the result was terribly disappointing. The 7-12 finish wasn't as simplistic as Oklahoma State playing an easy non-conference schedule, as some of the pundits claimed. That's actually false, as the Cowboys defeated Syracuse, Auburn, Missouri State, Pittsburgh and Baylor en route to their impressive start. The lone loss came to Tennessee, 79-77, in Nashville, and it took Dane Bradshaw's tip-in at the buzzer to do it.

It was more a combination of a key injury, a few close defeats, perhaps a confidence issue on the road and most of all, turnovers. The defense had issues along the way, too, but if the turnovers were held in check, Oklahoma State had enough offense to compensate. In this space last season, Sutton who previously had served as the associate head coach at OSU under his father, the legendary Eddie Sutton spoke of turnovers costing the 2005-06 team at least three or four wins. ''There's no way you can turn the ball over at that rate and expect to be successful,'' he said. ''That's the thing that's got to be corrected.''

When reminded of his comments this summer, Sutton chuckled and said, ''Guess that plan didn't work out, huh?'' Going left to right on Oklahoma State's season stat sheet, one might wonder upon approaching the final few columns on how the heck this team finished 6-10 in the Big 12. OSU finished third in the conference in field-goal and free-throw percentage, at 46.7 and 72.6, respectively, it out-rebounded it opponents, racked up assists & wait for it & and here we are, the ''TO'' column. The Cowboys committed 562 miscues, most in the Big 12. That's 16.1 per game, which was actually an improvement from 2005-06 when they placed 296th out of 326 Division I teams with 17.3 per.

''We have to motivate our players not to turn the ball over, so we're going to bring a treadmill to practice and put it right there on the court,'' Sutton said. ''When they throw the ball away, they run a minute on the treadmill. Hopefully, that registers with them.'' Sutton never considered slowing down the offensive pace. Outside of the Bryant ''Big Country'' Reeves Era in the mid-1990s and even then to a degree the Cowboys have run an attacking system since Eddie Sutton arrived in Stillwater in 1990. ''No, we're not going to slow the offensive pace,'' Sutton said. ''We don't have a lot of experience this year, thus, it's to our advantage to speed the game up. We actually want to press more than last year, too.''

Pressing wasn't really an option for Sutton last season, and not so much because the talent wasn't there to do it; the Cowboys actually had some quick guards. The problem was depth. Just nine players saw more than 17 minutes of action last season and when 6-5 sophomore guard Obi Muonelo (10.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.0 spg) broke his leg on Dec. 9 against Ball State, an already thin bench more or less went two-deep. This season's squad offers more depth -- how could it not? -- but the majority of that is unproven. The roster includes nine players who have never played a minute of Division I basketball.

OSU also lost its top two scorers and top two rebounders from a season ago, as forwards Mario Boggan (19.0 ppg, 7.6 rpg) and David Monds (6.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg) exhausted their eligibility while guard JamesOn Curry (17.3 ppg, 3.7 apg) departed the college ranks a year early for the NBA. He was a second-round selection (No. 51 overall) of the Chicago Bulls. While Curry's perimeter defense and all-around offensive ability will be missed -- he logged 37 minutes a game -- his departure could help the turnover issue. Curry committed 109, more than three a game, last season. Even with the top-heavy losses, OSU appears improved. There's Muonelo, who was producing one of the top freshman seasons in school history before the leg injury. His shot selection wasn't stellar -- he shot 39.1 percent from the field -- but he has range (24 three-pointers at 33.8 percent) and the ability to take his defender off the dribble. Having returned late in the season, he poured in a career-high 24 points at Nebraska in the regular-season finale. It would surprise no one if Muonelo led the Cowboys in scoring this winter.

PLAYERS

One of the top defensive players in the Big 12 if not the country is expected back in 6-9 forward Marcus Dove (4.7 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 41 steals, 38 blocked shots). We say expected because Dove was suspended from the team in July after a drunk-driving arrest. He accepted a plea agreement in late August and while he was still suspended as of Sept. 1, Sutton told Blue Ribbon he expected Dove back with the team when practiced began Oct. 15. ''Marcus has learned a lot from the experience,'' Sutton said. ''It's a valuable lesson to learn at a young age.'' Look for Dove to start at the three.

At the point is 5-11 junior Byron Eaton of Dallas Lincoln (7.7 ppg, 3.6 apg, 54 steals). The second player in program history to accumulate at least 100 assists in each of his freshman and sophomore sea-sons, Eaton could conceivable break the program's career mark for steals this winter. However, he takes too many chances on both ends of the court, which could lead to diminished playing time.

Also returning in the backcourt is 6-5 junior Terrel Harris (10.0 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 47 steals). He was second on the team last season in three-pointers made (48) and steals, while his 85.7 free-throw percentage easily led the Cowboys. His No. 1 issue is staying on the court -- he was whistled for 116 personal fouls en route to eight disqualifications last season.

One of two seniors on the roster, 6-6 guard Tyler Hatch (1.4 ppg, 1.2 rpg) isn't expected to see much playing time. Red-shirt freshman Scott Warner, a 6-1 guard, is also in the backcourt mix. A primary concern of Sutton's for this season is the center spot.

Kenny Cooper (4.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg) announced his intent to transfer in early-September. While nothing more than a serviceable backup for 10-12 a minutes game for the majority of Big 12 teams, he was expected to vie for a starting gig with OSU. ''Kenny has chosen to leave our team,'' coach Sean Sutton said. ''It was a tough decision for him, and it was a lengthy process. But eventually, it boiled down to him wanting to play closer to home. His family wanted the opportunity to see him play more, and he felt an obligation to his mom and his brothers to be closer to them.''

While it wasn't immediately announced where Cooper would transfer, considering he's from Monroe, La., the Louisiana-Monroe of the Southland Conference would seem the logical choice. That leaves a trio of players competing for minutes in the middle including 6-11 red-shirt freshman Scott Warner, 6-8 freshman Martavius Adams (20.0 ppg, 12.0 rpg) of Wilkinson Country High School in Irwinton, Ga., and 6-11 freshman Ibrahima Thomas (4.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg) of Stoneridge (Calif.) Prep and Dakar, Senegal. If Warner and Adams can contribute solid minutes, Thomas appears a candidate to red-shirt. Eventually, he could become a one-dimensional shot blocker, kind of a poor man's Manute Bol.

The remainder of the roster is filled with newcomers, including 6-6 freshmen swingmen James Anderson (38.0 ppg, 11.0 rpg) of Junction City (Ark.) High School and Marshall Moses (25.0 ppg, 10.0 rpg) of The Patterson School and Aiken, S.C., 6-6 junior forward Anthony Brown (21.4 ppg, 7.6 rpg) of Carl Albert State College and Brooklyn, N.Y., 6-5 sophomore guard Brad Garrett (15.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg) of College of Southern Idaho and St. George, Utah; 6-4 freshman guard Nick Sidorakis (17.0 ppg) of Jenks (Okla.) High School and 6-1 red-shirt freshman guard Andy Shaw. Look for Brown -- who was a NJCAA All-Region II first-team selection last winter -- to start immediately at the four and in part, replace the production of Boggan. Garrett can shoot from almost anywhere, and having spent two years on a Mormon mission, brings maturity as well.

For Sutton, though, as much as he hopes the newcomers can help in terms of points, rebounds, assists and defense, their greater contribution will probably come in practice by creating competition. ''We stopped improving as a team in early January,'' Sutton said. ''They weren't getting better because no one was pushing them in practice. We lost our best motivator as coaches the bench. The seven guys playing knew we had no choice, they were playing regardless.''

''This should be a fun team to coach and watch. There will be a lot of learning and adjusting, but there's no question, we have more depth than last year.'' When asked about the Big 12 this season, Sutton pretty much echoed Blue Ribbon's take on the league. ''Kansas is the pick to win, they have a legitimate shot at the Final Four,'' he said. ''Texas, even with losing [Kevin] Durant should be good with everyone else back. ''It's a toss up after that; whoever wins the close games and gets on a roll in conference play [will seize the advantage]. The balance between, say three and 10 is as good as any in the country.''

Oklahoma State is one of those teams in the 3-10 range. If the Cowboys cut down on turnovers, win an early road game, thus erasing the memory of last season's 0-8 mark in opponent's home gyms ''It was an embarrassment how we played on the road,'' Sutton said and play with more passion defensively, they could finish 10-6, 9-7 in the Big 12 and land on the NCAA Tournament bubble come March. The same can also be said of Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas Tech, Missouri and Iowa State. Even Texas A&M and Kansas State, while more talented on paper, have first-year coaches and holes to plug.

The final call, though, has Oklahoma State a season away. The Cowboys should be a top-25 team entering 2008-09, but it's going to take at least half the season for the nine first-year play-ers to not only mesh with the holdovers but each other. Let's say middle of the conference pack around, 7-9, and a third straight NIT appearance.

BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS

BACKCOURT: B

BENCH/DEPTH: B

FRONTCOURT: C+

INTANGIBLES: B

Posted

Last Season 22-13 (.629)

Conference Record 6-10 (t-7th)

Starters Lost/Returning 2/3

Coach Sean Sutton (Oklahoma State '92)

Record At School 22-13 (1 year)

Career Record 22-13 (1 year)

RPI Last 5 years 16-5-5-95-63

COACH AND PROGRAM

For the 10th straight season, a Sutton coached in the NCAA Tournament. Alas, for Oklahoma State fans, the Sutton of record in 2007 was Oral Roberts head coach Scott Sutton. As for little brother Sean Sutton, he guided the Cowboys to 22 victories and an NIT invitation. At first glance, that's a pretty solid debut campaign for a first-year head coach, but considering on the morning of Jan. 10 that OSU was 15-1 and ranked No. 9 in the country, the result was terribly disappointing. The 7-12 finish wasn't as simplistic as Oklahoma State playing an easy non-conference schedule, as some of the pundits claimed. That's actually false, as the Cowboys defeated Syracuse, Auburn, Missouri State, Pittsburgh and Baylor en route to their impressive start. The lone loss came to Tennessee, 79-77, in Nashville, and it took Dane Bradshaw's tip-in at the buzzer to do it.

It was more a combination of a key injury, a few close defeats, perhaps a confidence issue on the road and most of all, turnovers. The defense had issues along the way, too, but if the turnovers were held in check, Oklahoma State had enough offense to compensate. In this space last season, Sutton who previously had served as the associate head coach at OSU under his father, the legendary Eddie Sutton spoke of turnovers costing the 2005-06 team at least three or four wins. ''There's no way you can turn the ball over at that rate and expect to be successful,'' he said. ''That's the thing that's got to be corrected.''

When reminded of his comments this summer, Sutton chuckled and said, ''Guess that plan didn't work out, huh?'' Going left to right on Oklahoma State's season stat sheet, one might wonder upon approaching the final few columns on how the heck this team finished 6-10 in the Big 12. OSU finished third in the conference in field-goal and free-throw percentage, at 46.7 and 72.6, respectively, it out-rebounded it opponents, racked up assists & wait for it & and here we are, the ''TO'' column. The Cowboys committed 562 miscues, most in the Big 12. That's 16.1 per game, which was actually an improvement from 2005-06 when they placed 296th out of 326 Division I teams with 17.3 per.

''We have to motivate our players not to turn the ball over, so we're going to bring a treadmill to practice and put it right there on the court,'' Sutton said. ''When they throw the ball away, they run a minute on the treadmill. Hopefully, that registers with them.'' Sutton never considered slowing down the offensive pace. Outside of the Bryant ''Big Country'' Reeves Era in the mid-1990s and even then to a degree the Cowboys have run an attacking system since Eddie Sutton arrived in Stillwater in 1990. ''No, we're not going to slow the offensive pace,'' Sutton said. ''We don't have a lot of experience this year, thus, it's to our advantage to speed the game up. We actually want to press more than last year, too.''

Pressing wasn't really an option for Sutton last season, and not so much because the talent wasn't there to do it; the Cowboys actually had some quick guards. The problem was depth. Just nine players saw more than 17 minutes of action last season and when 6-5 sophomore guard Obi Muonelo (10.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.0 spg) broke his leg on Dec. 9 against Ball State, an already thin bench more or less went two-deep. This season's squad offers more depth -- how could it not? -- but the majority of that is unproven. The roster includes nine players who have never played a minute of Division I basketball.

OSU also lost its top two scorers and top two rebounders from a season ago, as forwards Mario Boggan (19.0 ppg, 7.6 rpg) and David Monds (6.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg) exhausted their eligibility while guard JamesOn Curry (17.3 ppg, 3.7 apg) departed the college ranks a year early for the NBA. He was a second-round selection (No. 51 overall) of the Chicago Bulls. While Curry's perimeter defense and all-around offensive ability will be missed -- he logged 37 minutes a game -- his departure could help the turnover issue. Curry committed 109, more than three a game, last season. Even with the top-heavy losses, OSU appears improved. There's Muonelo, who was producing one of the top freshman seasons in school history before the leg injury. His shot selection wasn't stellar -- he shot 39.1 percent from the field -- but he has range (24 three-pointers at 33.8 percent) and the ability to take his defender off the dribble. Having returned late in the season, he poured in a career-high 24 points at Nebraska in the regular-season finale. It would surprise no one if Muonelo led the Cowboys in scoring this winter.

PLAYERS

One of the top defensive players in the Big 12 if not the country is expected back in 6-9 forward Marcus Dove (4.7 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 41 steals, 38 blocked shots). We say expected because Dove was suspended from the team in July after a drunk-driving arrest. He accepted a plea agreement in late August and while he was still suspended as of Sept. 1, Sutton told Blue Ribbon he expected Dove back with the team when practiced began Oct. 15. ''Marcus has learned a lot from the experience,'' Sutton said. ''It's a valuable lesson to learn at a young age.'' Look for Dove to start at the three.

At the point is 5-11 junior Byron Eaton of Dallas Lincoln (7.7 ppg, 3.6 apg, 54 steals). The second player in program history to accumulate at least 100 assists in each of his freshman and sophomore sea-sons, Eaton could conceivable break the program's career mark for steals this winter. However, he takes too many chances on both ends of the court, which could lead to diminished playing time.

Also returning in the backcourt is 6-5 junior Terrel Harris (10.0 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 47 steals). He was second on the team last season in three-pointers made (48) and steals, while his 85.7 free-throw percentage easily led the Cowboys. His No. 1 issue is staying on the court -- he was whistled for 116 personal fouls en route to eight disqualifications last season.

One of two seniors on the roster, 6-6 guard Tyler Hatch (1.4 ppg, 1.2 rpg) isn't expected to see much playing time. Red-shirt freshman Scott Warner, a 6-1 guard, is also in the backcourt mix. A primary concern of Sutton's for this season is the center spot.

Kenny Cooper (4.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg) announced his intent to transfer in early-September. While nothing more than a serviceable backup for 10-12 a minutes game for the majority of Big 12 teams, he was expected to vie for a starting gig with OSU. ''Kenny has chosen to leave our team,'' coach Sean Sutton said. ''It was a tough decision for him, and it was a lengthy process. But eventually, it boiled down to him wanting to play closer to home. His family wanted the opportunity to see him play more, and he felt an obligation to his mom and his brothers to be closer to them.''

While it wasn't immediately announced where Cooper would transfer, considering he's from Monroe, La., the Louisiana-Monroe of the Southland Conference would seem the logical choice. That leaves a trio of players competing for minutes in the middle including 6-11 red-shirt freshman Scott Warner, 6-8 freshman Martavius Adams (20.0 ppg, 12.0 rpg) of Wilkinson Country High School in Irwinton, Ga., and 6-11 freshman Ibrahima Thomas (4.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg) of Stoneridge (Calif.) Prep and Dakar, Senegal. If Warner and Adams can contribute solid minutes, Thomas appears a candidate to red-shirt. Eventually, he could become a one-dimensional shot blocker, kind of a poor man's Manute Bol.

The remainder of the roster is filled with newcomers, including 6-6 freshmen swingmen James Anderson (38.0 ppg, 11.0 rpg) of Junction City (Ark.) High School and Marshall Moses (25.0 ppg, 10.0 rpg) of The Patterson School and Aiken, S.C., 6-6 junior forward Anthony Brown (21.4 ppg, 7.6 rpg) of Carl Albert State College and Brooklyn, N.Y., 6-5 sophomore guard Brad Garrett (15.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg) of College of Southern Idaho and St. George, Utah; 6-4 freshman guard Nick Sidorakis (17.0 ppg) of Jenks (Okla.) High School and 6-1 red-shirt freshman guard Andy Shaw. Look for Brown -- who was a NJCAA All-Region II first-team selection last winter -- to start immediately at the four and in part, replace the production of Boggan. Garrett can shoot from almost anywhere, and having spent two years on a Mormon mission, brings maturity as well.

For Sutton, though, as much as he hopes the newcomers can help in terms of points, rebounds, assists and defense, their greater contribution will probably come in practice by creating competition. ''We stopped improving as a team in early January,'' Sutton said. ''They weren't getting better because no one was pushing them in practice. We lost our best motivator as coaches the bench. The seven guys playing knew we had no choice, they were playing regardless.''

''This should be a fun team to coach and watch. There will be a lot of learning and adjusting, but there's no question, we have more depth than last year.'' When asked about the Big 12 this season, Sutton pretty much echoed Blue Ribbon's take on the league. ''Kansas is the pick to win, they have a legitimate shot at the Final Four,'' he said. ''Texas, even with losing [Kevin] Durant should be good with everyone else back. ''It's a toss up after that; whoever wins the close games and gets on a roll in conference play [will seize the advantage]. The balance between, say three and 10 is as good as any in the country.''

Oklahoma State is one of those teams in the 3-10 range. If the Cowboys cut down on turnovers, win an early road game, thus erasing the memory of last season's 0-8 mark in opponent's home gyms ''It was an embarrassment how we played on the road,'' Sutton said and play with more passion defensively, they could finish 10-6, 9-7 in the Big 12 and land on the NCAA Tournament bubble come March. The same can also be said of Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas Tech, Missouri and Iowa State. Even Texas A&M and Kansas State, while more talented on paper, have first-year coaches and holes to plug.

The final call, though, has Oklahoma State a season away. The Cowboys should be a top-25 team entering 2008-09, but it's going to take at least half the season for the nine first-year play-ers to not only mesh with the holdovers but each other. Let's say middle of the conference pack around, 7-9, and a third straight NIT appearance.

BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS

BACKCOURT: B

BENCH/DEPTH: B

FRONTCOURT: C+

INTANGIBLES: B

Somebody needs to tell the fool that Monroe ain't in the Southland anymore. After a pretty good guard rotation, they do seem to have some big man depth. I still think we've got what it takes to beat these guys. I'll be there.

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