How Do You Solve A Problem Like Oklahoma State?
Let's start by saying that Oklahoma State does not have a good offense. At all. They are ranked 127th on offensive efficiency according to KenPom, which is second worst in the conference.
But it's not like they haven't been able to score at all. In a full half of their games, they have scored 70 or more points in regulation, which isn't dominant by any means, but it is passable.
As we discussed on this morning's episode of the Rock Chalk Podcast, the problem in preparing for Oklahoma State isn't necessarily what they do on offense, but instead where it's coming from.
Since the Houston game (right before conference play started), 10 of the 14 games have had one player who was significantly better (by my reckoning at least) than everyone else on the team. There have been 5 different players who have earned that honor:
1. Bryce Thompson - 4 games (at Texas Tech, at Baylor, at Texas, at Kansas State)
2. Isaac Likekele - 3 games (vs Kansas, at Florida, at TCU)
3. Bryce Williams - 1 game (vs Houston)
4. Keylan Boone - 1 game (vs Texas)
5. Avery Anderson - 1 game (vs Iowa State)
Additionally, there was one game where no one was particularly impressive (at West Virginia), and then 3 games where three or more players were roughly equivalent (vs TCU, vs Oklahoma and vs West Virginia).
The main takeaway here is that while they don't get consistently good games from a wide variety of players, it can be difficult to identify who the best player is going to be on any given night.
Luckily for the Jayhawks, they are talented enough at every position that they should be able to handle whoever the hot hand is. But you should be prepared for some frustration as Kansas and Bill Self try to figure out who it's going to be and then make some adjustments to account for it.
