Tramel's ScissorTales: Oklahoma State softball riding high as Big 12 play starts

Before Kenny Gajewski’s first season as the OSU softball coach, he grabbed the Cowgirl schedule and put a W or an L beside each game, trying to gauge what kind of season lay ahead.

Those 2016 Cowgirls went 32-26 and made an NCAA regional, but that was the end of Gajewski as prognosticator.

"That was a bad idea,” Gajewski said. “I’m not doing that again.”

The Wednesday ScissorTales looks at the Thunder’s dramatic victory over the Clippers and bids farewell to a disappointing OSU basketball season.

But we start with OSU softball and its impressive 25-2 record.

Gajewski didn’t have a number in mind for his 2023 Cowgirls. But OSU is ranked second nationally as Big 12 play begins this weekend. The Cowgirls host Baylor in a three-game series starting Friday night.

More:Oklahoma State softball rewind: Pitching powers Cowgirls through another strong weekend

“I don’t know,” Gajewski said. “I look at our schedule and think, if we were 25-2, we’d be damn good, with the schedule we’ve played.”

But Gajewski admits to a little surprise, just because so many first-year Cowgirls are playing.

“Maybe not because I didn’t think we were capable, but more surprised that we have 14 newcomers and there are a lot of them who are playing,” Gajewski said. “And there’s been many moments this year in the biggest parts of games where five or six freshmen on our field at one time.”

Notably, pitcher Kyra Aycock is 7-0 with a team-best 1.63 earned run average; Tallen Edwards is batting .385; Micaela Wark has seven home runs and a team-high 30 runs batted in; and Katie Lott has two home runs in 28 at-bats.

Gajewski said when he’s seen such youth on the field, “I’m not even concerned. 'Well, they’ll figure it out.’ That may be the biggest surprise.”

The Big 12 looks stronger than it has in recent years. Powerhouse OU is 27-1 and ranked No. 1. Texas is 26-5-1 and ranked 10^th. Baylor, 23-5, is No. 20. Texas Tech has a gaudy record, 25-8.

“Hard games, hard games,” Gajewski said. “Conference changes everything. It just gets harder. Teams that know you, coaches that know you. They know what you’re going to do. So they’re just tough … everything becomes magnified. I’m excited. Excited to see where we match up.”

The 2024 Big 12 season will look far different, with Brigham Young, Houston and Central Florida joining the league. In 2025, OU and Texas will be gone to the Southeastern Conference.

But for now, the Big 12 is a concise, seven-team league that is loaded at the top.

“We’re 25-2 … off to a great start, but I want to finish the last 27 games 25-2,” Gajewski said. “We do that, we’ll be dang good.”

More:Why Kelly Maxwell wants to be a Cowgirl an extra year and why it's huge for OSU softball

Kawhi Leonard: 30 dribbles and no shot 

Kawhi Leonard grabbed the rebound with 24.1 seconds left in the game, and by the time he landed on the hardwood, the clock registered 23.5.

So no shot clock.

And on the official play-by-play, that Leonard rebound was the final play of the game. In one of the most stunning finishes in recent Thunder history – heck, not-so-recent, too – Kawhi, dogged by Luguentz Dort, dribbled the ball 30 times, finally pulled up near the top of the key and pump-faked with 0.5 seconds left.

Not enough time. The horn sounded before Kawhi launched a desperation shot over Dort. The ball caromed off the backboard without coming close to the rim, and the Thunder had a 101-100 victory in Los Angeles that made OKC an even bigger threat to make the Western Conference playoffs.

And we all were left to wonder, what was Kawhi Leonard doing? The veteran of NBA Finals and 135 career playoff games seemed almost oblivious to the task at hand.

“We didn’t go fast enough,” said Clipper coach Tyronn Lue. “I thought we got the rebound and we could have attacked early, and they also had a foul to give, but when you get the rebound, everybody’s trying to run back in transition, so it’s a good time to attack early.

“So, just a learning experience for us. And not to kind of like back it out like there’s a tie game, like we got to go.”

A learning experience? That wasn’t some rookie out there with the ball in his hands and the game on the line. That was Kawhi Leonard.

Playing for the final shot was silly. Letting the clock expire before even getting the final shot was inexcusable.

But credit Dort, for superb one-on-one defense. The Clippers tried three (not great) screens, and Dort paid them no mind. Kawhi never got closer than 20 feet from the basket.

“They did a great job, starting with Dort, and then like I said, they shrunk the floor,” Kawhi said. “It’s another explanation of us just not opening up the floor for one another. Not able to get into action.

“But I take ownership of it. Definitely should have got a shot off. But yeah, we just gotta be better. We had two guys high on the high quadrant, so we have to clear those nails out if they’re gonna be shrinking.”

More:Shai Gilgeous-Alexander playing back-to-backs 'on the table' for OKC Thunder star

The Clippers put Nic Batum and Eric Gordon in opposite corners, and Marcus Morris and Russell Westbrook were on the wings, serving as screeners. It helped the Thunder that Paul George had left the game a few minutes earlier with a knee injury.

Morris is a career 37.7% 3-point shooter and a career 43.5% shooter on long 2-pointers. And this season, those numbers haven’t varied much. So the Thunder didn’t ignore Morris; Josh Giddey helped out a little, blocking potential driving lanes but mostly stayed with his man.

Westbrook, you know all about. A brutal shooter from distance – 30.4% on 3-pointers, 38.2% on long 2-pointers, and this season, those figures are 25% and 8.3% on long 2-pointers.

So Santa Clara Williams was more than content to let Westbrook roam free, so long as he didn’t go to the basket. Santa Clara served as warning for Kawhi to not drive the lane.

The Clippers were out of timeouts, but still, this is a veteran team. Extremely veteran. A combined 68 NBA seasons among the quintet on the court.

Lue didn’t need a timeout. Those guys should have been able to handle instructions from the bench on some kind of plan. And there was none, except try to break free from Dort.

Dort never left his feet. He muscled up on Kawhi but never bought on a ball fake, including the pump with 0.5 seconds left.

“Just experience,” said Dort, in his fourth NBA season. “I feel like I’ve been in those positions many times now, and really I watch a lot of film and I watch a lot of basketball, so I know player’s tendencies, what they’re going to do around that time in a game.

“A lot of players want to pump fake and get the call or whatever, so I just really gotta stay locked in, and the main thing is to always get the stop.”

Dort got the stop, the Thunder got the victory and the Clippers were left to wonder what all that experience did for them against the NBA’s youngest team.

More:OKC Thunder has numbers edge compared to NBA play-in tournament competition

Oklahoma State basketball season mercifully ends 

OSU’s basketball season came to a merciful end Tuesday night. The Cowboys lost 65-59 in overtime to North Texas, and OSU’s offensive struggles turned this season into a slog.

OSU had 17 first-half points. The Cowboys got hot the first 5:38 of the second half and scored 20 points. But over the final 19:22 of the game, OSU scored 22 points.

Caleb Asberry missed two foul shots with 20 seconds left in regulation with the game tied. OSU scored four points total in overtime, all on foul shots.

The Cowboys shot 32.8% from the field, 18.2% from 3-point range and 60% on foul shots.

For the season, OSU shot 31.4% on 3-pointers and 69.8% on foul shots. More turnovers (496) than assists (443).

The Cowboys weren’t very good on offense even before point guard Avery Anderson suffered a wrist injury that ended his season. Since then, OSU’s offense has been derelict.

Very little dribble penetration. No playmakers. Limited shooting.

By season’s end, the question was not how OSU could fall to 20-16. The question is, how did these Cowboys ever get to 20-16?

An upgrade in talent is mandatory if OSU is to reach the standard of the NCAA Tournament. Particularly at point guard. John-Michael Wright was a nice addition to the squad, but coming from High Point, he’s not a Big 12-caliber point guard. Anderson barely was, offensively.

OSU has big-time interior players, primarily Mousse Cisse. Kalib Boone was a force midway through the season, and though he slumped down the stretch, Tyreek Smith picked up the slack. No word yet on if any of that trio will stick around for the 2023-24 season.

Mike Boynton has a vaunted recruiting class, but the Cowboys must find difference-makers in the transfer portal, starting in the backcourt.

The combination of shaky shooting and little penetration guarantees a stagnant offense.

The Cowboys showed they could play big-time defense. But their offense derailed this season, and without major reinforcements, that won’t change anytime soon.

More:Oklahoma State men's basketball falls in overtime vs. North Texas in NIT quarterfinals

The List: 21^st-century March Madness victories

NCAA Tournament victories are the greatest measure of a basketball program’s success.

The modern NCAA bracket contains far more games than its yesteryear versions, but that’s OK, right? Rewarding recent success is proper; success the last few decades is more important than success in the early days of the NCAA Tournament.

With the Sweet 16 arriving Thursday, here are the 12 programs with the most NCAA victories in the 2000s:

1. Kansas 58: KU has two NCAA titles (2008, 2022) this century.

2. North Carolina 55: The Tar Heels won the NCAA in 2005, 2009 and 2017.

3. Duke 54: The Blue Devils won the NCAA in 2001, 2010 and 2015.

4. Michigan State 49: The Spartans won the 2000 NCAA title but haven’t won since.

5. Kentucky 46: The Wildcats’ only 21^st-century title came in 2012.

6. Gonzaga 40: The no-longer-Cinderella Zags have yet to win it all.

7. Florida 39: Billy Donovan’s Gators won NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007.

8. UCLA 36: The Bruins have yet to win the NCAA this century but have made four Final Fours.

9. Connecticut 35: The Huskies won NCAA titles in 2004, 2011 and 2014 (plus 1999). What a program.

9. Wisconsin 35: Surprised? The Badgers have made three Final Fours in the 2000s – 2000, 2014, 2015.

11. Villanova 34: The Wildcats have two NCAA titles, 2016 and 2018, this century, though Jay Wright no longer coaches ‘Nova.

12. Syracuse 33: Say this for the now-retired Jim Boeheim; he won a lot of ballgames.

More:Tramel's ScissorTales: March Madness reminds us that college football is not always king

Mailbag: OKC Thunder goals 

The Thunder’s playoff chase includes two levels – top six, which avoids the play-in tournament, and seeds 7-10, who comprise the play-in. Fans’ interest is piqued.

Tyler: “What is the percentage right now that the Thunder cares about making the playoffs (not the play-in, the top six.) If they are 95 percent development and five percent everything else, what percentage of that five is getting a top-6 seed? Just looking at the schedule and who they have it looks like going 6-2/7-1 leading into back-to-back games with Phoenix and Golden State would most likely be for an outright playoff berth. I know that is maybe a bit ambitious, but 6-2 would be 4-2 in the next six, and the LA back-to-back isn’t as hard on the body (on court) as most back-to-backs.”

Tramel: I don't think OKC is looking at a particular place in the standings. I think Sam Presti has a plan, and the Thunder is sticking to it, no matter what.

Yes, the Thunder would like to make the play-in tournament, if not the playoffs. That’s clear. They’re even talking about playing SGA on back-to-back nights in LA on Thursday and Friday. We’ll see.

But if you're trying to go all out to win every game, Ousmane Dieng isn't playing, and I love myself some Ousmane Dieng. So the Thunder is fishing in two streams.

Trying to win, yes, but not at all costs. They played Dieng instead of Dario Saric on Tuesday night. Waited three quarters before playing Aaron Wiggins on Sunday. It’s a tricky course.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today. 

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State softball riding high as Big 12 Conference play begins