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Shambles.
Remember the excitement we all felt when we learned Smart was coming back for one more season?
That premature joy has vanished in a haze of horrendous coaching and even worse behavior, as OSU dropped their 5th game in the last 6, 65-61 at Texas Tech.
The entire mess falls at the feet of two people...
Head Coach Travis Ford and former NBA lottery pick Marcus Smart.
Ford has had 6 years to build a program, and here he is in year 6 with no big man and a 6 man rotation. I love Christien Sager, but honestly, at this level, he should be the mop up guy, and he's logging double digit minutes and was in the game at crunch time.
This team looked lost in the half court most of the night, and failed to get off a shot trailing 63-61 at the end.
Then this happened...
Marcus Smart should be suspended for the rest of the season and Travis Ford should be fired.
Mike Holder, you've put the program behind the 8 ball with a horrible contract, so it's time for you to figure out how to get the program out of this predicament. If you don't, then I will surmise that you don't really give a crap about the basketball program.
Thank goodness for TCU, but at this stage I'm not even sure they will win that game. Can you imagine this squad losing out? They wouldn't even make the NIT.
Wow.
I don't really have anything else to say. I will watch the games the same as if they were winning, but the joy has been sucked out of it by a player that let stardom go to his head and a coach who has no control over his team.
I feel horrible for Markel Brown, who will go down as the greatest dunker in OSU history, and has done almost as much to help his draft stock as Smart has to hurt his. Le'Bryan Nash is having his best, most consistent season, and it's all for nothing. Forte is putting on a near historic 3pt shooting display, and it's all for nothing.
Smart will be done for at least the next game, maybe more, not that it matters.
Buckle up because this could be tough to watch...but you WILL watch. We are Oklahoma State fans, loyal and true, so it's part of the gig in good times and in bad.
GO POKES!!!