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Time For A Change

My opinion on the state of the OSU men's basketball program.

Rob Ferguson-USA TODAY Sports

The Cowboys are back under .500 for the year at 11-12 and sit at 2-8 in conference play.

Since losing their best scoring option in Phil Forte early in December, Oklahoma State has struggled to find consistent offense outside of Jawun Evans. He's lead the team in scoring since Big 12 play started at 15.6 points per game as well as assists (averaging 5.6 per game).

Let's face it. Jawun Evans has been the one bright spot for Cowboy fans this year.

Well... things just got worse. After missing the majority of the Cowboy's overtime loss at Texas Tech due to a right shoulder injury, Evans sat out for the home loss to Iowa State. And it doesn't look like he will be available for the quick turnaround game in Ft. Worth Monday night, against TCU.

Travis Ford when asked about Evans injury, "I don't think he'll be back anytime soon."

The Pokes won their yearly KU upset and pushed OU in Bedlam in Stillwater (thanks largely to Evans heroic 42 point performance). And now he may be gone for the foreseeable future.

So where does that leave Oklahoma State?

The Cowboys have eight games remaining starting on the road Monday night. Here's how it looks. At TCU, Kansas State at home, at Kansas, Tech at home, at OU, West Virginia at home, at Iowa State and ending with Texas at home. The way it looks now, the most winnable game will be Monday night in Ft. Worth.

The team could very well go 3-5 to end the season. (Say you give them TCU and the home game with Tech plus one more game they probably shouldn't win, say Texas.) That's an optimistic 14-17 overall and 5-13 in conference. That's a .451 winning percentage heading into the Big 12 tournament, which is good for worst since before Eddie came to Stillwater and turned this program around.

Of course the injury to Forte was huge. But let's be honest. With him they still aren't competing for a conference title and may or may not have made the tournament.

Saturday afternoon against Iowa State, the Cowboys had a chance down the stretch but were just unable to get the stops needed and (more importantly) could not take advantage of the Cyclones' shorthanded front court.

So what do OSU fans have to look forward to? Possibly their worst season since the formation of the Big 12.

It's time for a change.

You can blame injuries or outside circumstances, but the fact it is that Travis Ford has not been in control of this team for years, if ever.

Ford has consistently underachieved and kept this program stalled in mediocrity. Whether that's fair or not really doesn't matter. At some point there is a rift created that does not require justification or blame.

Home games are half full on a good day and the school is practically begging the students to show up. It's not fair to the players or the fans.

It's time for a change. That huge elephant of a contract is still sitting in the room and is not going away on its own. It's time someone showed it the door.