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OSU basketball news and notes
2003-09-08
By Mike Baldwin
The Okahoman


Schedule coming soon: Now that the All-College tournament has been finalized, Oklahoma State is close to finishing its 2003-04 basketball schedule.
OSU will face SMU on Jan. 3 in the Ford Center. It appears Pittsburgh most likely will be the Cowboys' All-College opponent in 2005. In other scheduling news, OSU's biggest name non- conference home game is Pepperdine. Last year, the Pokes hosted Arkansas and Fresno State.

"We'd like to have two opponents like that at home every year," said associate head coach Sean Sutton. "If we could get a marquee name in here with Pepperdine that would be ideal, but I don't know if that will happen."

OSU has contacted schools from major conferences but has had difficulty scheduling a home-and-home series.

"Who knows why," Sutton said. "It's probably a combination of things. It's a difficult place to get to. It's a difficult place to win. But you would think with the NCAA putting more emphasis on the RPI you'd want to play teams from the Big 12 and SEC."

Recruiting update: Jeremy Parnell, a 6-8, 245-pound power forward from Gosnell, Ark., and Dixie (Utah) College guard Jamaal Brown visited OSU over the weekend.

According to Street and Smith's Magazine, Brown, 6-0, is a preseason first- team Junior College All-American. Dixie is the school that produced former OSU guard Mo Baker.

"Jamaal is right there with Mo Baker and Marcus Banks, who played for me and went to UNLV," said Dixie coach Jeff Kidder. "Jamaal is a fierce competitor. Mo was a combo guard. Jamaal is a true point who is very strong with the ball. I think he'll be our next All- American if all goes well."

As for Brown signing with OSU this fall, Kidder said: "I think coach (Eddie) Sutton is the best coach in the country. There's not a coach I'd rather Jamaal play for. When he gets back from his visit, obviously I'll have some input, but it's his decision."
Injury update...

Center Frans Steyn, sidelined nearly a month with a sprained ankle, is healing and playing some in pick-up games.

"Frans is probably another week away from where he needs to be," Sean Sutton said.

Forward Terrence Crawford, recovering from a torn Achilles suffered 11 months ago, also is playing in pick- up games.

"Terrence is getting there but isn't 100 percent," Sean Sutton said. "He still needs to lose a little weight and get in better shape, but that will come. He should be ready by the time we start practice (Oct. 18)."


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pepperdine a big game to them? I sure hope we beat those lame mnfers. SMU blows door on pepperdine in every regard. That stement is lame and embarrasing.

Go Ponies!

Granted it is a stretch for OSU to call Pepperdine a big game but I hope you are kidding when you say that we are a better program than Pepperdine. They have been to the NCAAs 5 times in the last 12 years (1991, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2002), we have been once (1993). Last year they received an at-large bid and they beat both USC and UCLA in OOC. They have a great head coach in former NBA player and coach Paul Westphal. Not to mention they are starting to pursuade a few blue chip LA recuits to come up the PCH to Malibu.

Yeah, I'm serious. What, pepperdine is a lame school. You point to them going to the dance. Great for them yes. Beat sc and ucla. So what. Many have. Both of those schools can be beaten. Especially ucla, who haven't been able to put together a coherent season for years.

SMU may not have done so well in bb, but we still are better overall. Let's compare PROGRAMS. SMU football and bb history way better, heck, peppydine doesn't have football. Swimming, track and field, soccer, tennis, golf. Advantage SMU. Academics. Advantage SMU.

Please, LA Mustang, aren't you a Pony fan?? Don't try to fool me about peppydine. I grew up in LA.

Go Ponies!

You don't want to even compare b'ball history unless you want to go waaay back. O ther than the brief spell under Bliss, their history is much better since 1970.

Whoa, No Cal Pony. I thought you were saying that our BASKETBALL program blew the doors off of Pepperdine's BASKETBALL program. I wasn't talking about any other athletic sport or the academics of Pepperdine. They do have a solid basketball program and have been very competitive for the last ten years. As for beating SC and UCLA in the same year for a school the size of Pepperdine is quite an accomplishment in my opinion. That would be like us beating UT and TT in the same year.

OP and LA, I'm sure if SMU poured all its athletic money into peppeydine, SMU would fare as well as that little school in Malibu. I don't think comparing us to them can work, but more to my point is that we ought to be doing a lot better than we are. Still is a shame and embarassing.

Go Ponies!

A return to the scene of the crime. I think it was December 28, 2000 when SMU lost a heartbreaker to OU at the All-College Tourney. Missed free throw killed us. That was the turning point in the Sasser-Davis senior season. I don't think the team ever recovered from that loss and we have been rebuilding since really. I think it would be fitting to upset OSU at the All-College and get this program going.

I'm still waiting for Bhop to show that he is a difference maker. If he does, we can pull some upsets this year with the rest of the team being pretty solid. I don't want to think about what happens if he isn't.

If B-hop isn't top shelf this year, Dement's coaching skills will be on exhibit once again.

Wow!! You really don't like Dement. With the same BS in recruiting standards, he has a respectible team while our football team is bottom 10. I know it is easier to rebuild b'ball than football but there is no comparison in the results. Bennett's teams, so far haven't been as good as Cavan's or Rossley's but the improvement in b'ball is evident. We hold our coaches to a much different standard.

OlePony, let's get something straight here. Cavan had only one winning season here and it was his first year here using ROSSLEY'S players. His record went down hill every year after that as the team became more and more HIS team. Not to say we haven't had any good kids here because we have had some good kids here along the way and some outstanding ones too. Right now, Bennett's players (the ones he has recruited) are freshman and red-shirt freshman. He is working hard with the players that were already here and those players are working hard to learn new systems and in many cases learn new positions. I don't want to take anything away from these kids, but the upper classmen on this team are the same kids we had in Cavan's last year here. What we needed then, we still need and coach Bennett is bringing them along with better use of their skills and building up their strength and size, but those changes don't happen over night. We have only played one game so far this year and it was against a team that's going to whup up on a lot of other teams besides us. So let's give this "Bennett's teams so far haven't been any better than Cavan's teams" chant a rest until we have more games under our collective belts and can better evaluate the progress.

I am simply pointing out the fact that we were more competitive under Cavan than so far under Bennett. I think Rossley did quite well considering all the cr#p he had to go through. Bennett's recruits are freshmen and it will take time. It would be remiss though to not see that we played some good teams close under Cavan but only 1 under Bennett so far. Last years starter against Navy was about as bad as they get. Let's hope that with 2 weeks to prepare for Baylor that the team can come out firing and put a win on September. I am very happy with Bennett's recruiting so far. I have not seen much from gameday. How long does it take to teach a new system? Inquiring minds want to know.