Cowboys Need to Learn to Grind Again and Do It Toe to Toe

Oklahoma State last season became a team that could grind with just five scholarship players, but this team with more players hasn't mastered the grind

STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State lost their second straight game to begin Big 12 Conference play as 16th-ranked West Virginia came in and won 55-41 on Big Monday in Stillwater. The Cowboys have forgot the grind. A team that played above expectations when the roster was whittled down to basically just a starting five after massive off-the-court discipline problems last season is now at full strength compared to a season ago. That hearty handful of players that made Cowboys fans so proud with valliant efforts against heavy favorites like Texas Tech is back along with reinforcements. The courageous cinco of last season that took NCAA finalist Texas Tech to overtime on the Red Raiders home floor were in Lubbock last weekend and albeit a different group of Raiders wiped the floor with the Cowboys 85-50. 

This season the Cowboys won grinders early over Oral Roberts 80-75, Yale 64-57, and Western Michigan 70-63. All three games at home and all three really shouldn't have been grinders, but it showed the promise that this team could grind. In the Big 12 when conference play begins you have to. Nothing is pretty and grinding like the machine that works overtime at Aspen Coffee House is the way you win games in January, February, and March. 

Oklahoma State got confident in Brooklyn when they whipped the likes of Syracuse and Ole Miss. The Pokes lost a pair against Georgetown and Wichita State before grinding a road win out at Houston. They got whipped in Tulsa by Minnesota and then got their whip out on outmanned Southeastern Louisiana.

Not enough grinding in my opinion. Follwing the uglyness in Lubbock, here came the Mountaineers and nobody teaches the grind better than Bob Huggins. The WVU coach said his players didn't pass well, didn't shoot well, but they sure did grind. 

Trailing 13-12 with close to seven minutes left in a first half that was all grind, celebrated freshman Oscar Tshiebwe from Democratic Republic of the Congo rebounded a three-point misfire and kicked it out to Taz Sherman for a three that fell and WVU took the lead at 15-13. 

Less than a minute later, Brandon Knapper was falling out of bounds thanks to a little push and threw up a one-hand prayer that fell through the twine. He hits the free throw and it's a grinder run at 18-13. 

Less than a minute later, Sherman did his thing again with a three for a 21-15 lead. 

Then on a break after a Tshiebwe rebound and Jermaine Haley leaves the ball up over the cylinder for the 6-9, 258-pound tight end looking freshman to slam home the alley-oop. 

The Mountaineers even got a three-pointer at the buzzer from their other prize freshman in Cincinnati-native All-American prep guard Miles McBride. Huggins subbed him in after a time out and he nailed the three on the way to the halftime locker room and a game that was a grinder looked like a breeze at 28-19.   

The second half it never got any closer. The Cowboys made a run about halfway home, but West Virginia is the better grinder. The Cowboys need to remember because they used to grind. It doesn't help when you shoot 29 percent from the field and just five percent from three-point range.