To add a little bit to Sam's wonderful recap, I thought I would hit on a couple of topics from last night's game. First and foremost, I think there is a misconception of how "fairly" the game was called by the refs. Well, I am here to tell you that the calls were not as lopsided as one would think by just looking at the free throw attempts.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not) but Mizzou only had 6 more total fouls than OSU. That's actually a decently called game considering the Big 12 refs have been playing favorites for the home court team the entire year.
Click that jump for my usual awesome explanation that you can use as yours to win arguments with your friends and steal their girlfriends. Yeah!
So why the freethrow shooting difference? Simple. Coach Ford took advantage of Mizzou's press. When Page or Penn beat the press (which they did often) they didn't pull back into a half court set right away. They tried to take advantage of the 5 on 3 situations by getting the ball into the paint or passing to a cutting teammate (Olukemi).
The result? 43 free throws. Mizzou, on the other hand, settled for a mostly mid range to perimeter offense and therefore couldn't get to the free throw line as much. On top of that, their offense is built on creating turnovers. When they couldn't do that against OSU, they had to settle for an offense they aren't very familiar with: the halfcourt offense.
Give Coach Ford and the guards a lot of credit for this win. They had a great gameplan and it worked pretty much flawlessly.
Hopefully the Pokes can carry this momentum into Saturday when Bedlam hits GIA. The Sooners are currently 4-3 in conference...which is three more wins than I thought they would have all year. Still, I believe OSU can and will defend home court successfully. More details to come in upcoming articles (come).
Oh, one final thing. Someone tell Mizzou's head coach Mike Anderson to stop whining and crying. His post game remarks were absolutely childish and pathetic. You didn't lose because your team was "out of routine." You lost because your press didn't work. If you don't want OSU to go the line 43 times, then change your defense.