High Noon Highlights (11/19): Cade Cunningham on Naismith Award watch list

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Cunningham on watch list for college basketball’s biggest award:

The Naismith Award is given every year to college basketball’s top player. This year OSU found one of their own on the 20-player watch list, Cade Cunningham.

The 2020 Naismith High School Trophy winner, Cunningham is looking to join Shane Battier as the only players to win both the Naismith prep and college honors. The Arlington, Texas native would be the first Naismith Trophy winner in OSU history, and the first Cowboy to win a major player of the year award since Bob Kurland won that honor from Sporting News in 1946. {okstate.com}

A Look at the OU Rushing Attack:

Dustin Ragusa over at Pistols Firing does a ton of great film reviews. This week, he looked at Oklahoma’s rushing attack.

After averaging just 122.0 yards on the ground through their first two conference games, the Sooners are averaging 196.8 yards per game through their last four contests. Now, part of that is attributed to two of those four games being against the worst rushing defenses in the Big 12, Kansas and Texas Tech, but the rest of that can be allocated to better offensive line play, the return of running back Rhamondre Stevenson, and the offensive players and coaches sticking to what has made OU successful in the Lincoln Riley era.

And, what is that? The “counter” run play. Specifically for OU, they like to run different variations of “counter trey.” {PFB}

Cunningham still poised to go No.1 in 2021 NBA Draft:

Eric Bossi of 24/7 sports put out his list of 2021 NBA Draft leader projections. On the top of that list was OSU freshman Cade Cunningham.

Bossi’s take: The consensus No. 1 player in the high school class of 2021, there’s so much to love about Cunningham. He has tremendous size, can play multiple positions and has been compared to outstanding two-way players like Grant Hill and Scottie Pippen over the last year or so. He’s going to have lots of eyes on him this year at Oklahoma State but appears to be up to the task. In addition to his skill, he’s as mentally tough as any player who figures to enter the 2021 Draft.{24/7 Sports}

Around the Big 12:

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Ten12 Podcast makes their picks

Big 12 Players in the NBA draft

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