Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Hit The Road To Take On The Buffaloes
January 26, 2001 | Cowboy Basketball
Jan. 26, 2001
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Saturday's Game
Oklahoma State begins a tough stretch of Big 12 Conference games when the
Cowboys visit Colorado on Saturday. OSU, currently alone in second place in
the league, plays four of its next five games away from home and then hosts
Oklahoma and Texas. The Cowboys have won five straight games after
Wednesday's 76-64 victory over Texas A&M.
OSU-Colorado: The Series
OSU leads the series 53-43 but is just 15-29 in Boulder and has not won at
the Coors Events Center since Feb. 24, 1996. Despite the road drought, OSU
has won five of eight games in Boulder during Eddie Sutton's tenure as the
Cowboys' head coach.
OSU Coach Eddie Sutton
Eddie Sutton (Oklahoma State, 1958) is in his 11th year at OSU and his 31st
year overall. Under his guidance, OSU has advanced to the NCAA Tournament
eight times. Sutton currently owns a career record of 672-262 (71.9 percent)
overall and is 242-98 (71.2 percent) at OSU. Sutton is the only coach to
take four different schools to the NCAA Tournament.
Cowboys use late burst to finish Aggies
Oklahoma State finished the game on a 21-9 run to defeat Texas A&M 76-64 in
Stillwater on Wednesday despite a closer-than-expected game. The Aggies
trailed by 11 points midway through the first half, but they cut the lead to
one just before the break and then took the lead early in the second period.
However, OSU took advantage of 19 offensive rebounds and a 46-32 overall
rebounding edge -- Maurice Baker, Fredrik Jonzen and Andre Williams combined
to outrebound the Aggies themselves -- and turned a close game into a
double-digit victory.
Baker, Jonzen one of OSU's top tandems
Maurice Baker and Fredrik Jonzen are shaping up as one of the top one-two
scoring punches in OSU history and the best since the Final Four combo of
Bryant Reeves and Randy Rutherford. Baker and Jonzen average a combined 35.6
points per game, currently the fourth-best combination in school history and
the best since Reeves and Rutherford averaged a combined 41.1. See page
seven of this release for a list of the top five.
Andre Williams' double-double keys victory
Andre Williams had just two points and three rebounds against St. Gregory's,
but he bounced back strongly against Texas A&M. Williams scored a
career-high 18 points -- 12 in the second half -- and pulled down 11
rebounds for the fifth double-double of his career and his fourth this
season. Williams' scoring included a buzzer-beater off an inbounds play with
0.6 seconds left in the first half, he took a lob from fellow Kansas City,
Kan., native Victor Williams and more or less volleyball-set it into the
hoop as the horn sounded. Andre Williams is ranked fourth in the Big 12 in
blocked shots (2.00 per game), and he has moved up to eighth place in OSU
history in career blocks (67) in just his second season at OSU. Williams'
next stop on the OSU top-10 list is seventh-place Andrew Jones with 72,
Byron Houston holds the school record with 223. Williams swatted a
career-high five shots against Texas Tech and has 13 in the past four
conference games.
Another week, another award for Baker
Junior guard Maurice Baker has bolted toward the top of the list of early
contenders for the Big 12's newcomer-of-the-year and player-of-the-year
awards as well as other postseason honors. The 6-1 guard, who had been the
Big 12 player of the week Dec. 5 and the rookie of the week Dec. 12 and Jan.
15, was named the league's rookie of the week again Monday after averaging
27.5 points in two games last week. He leads OSU in scoring (19.6 ppg,
second in the Big 12, his 22.6-ppg average in conference games is tied for
first in the league), rebounds (7.3 rpg), assists (4.4 apg) and steals (2.4
spg). Baker scored a career-high 29 points against Baylor, hitting six of 10
three-pointers -- OSU's previous team high for a single game this season was
five treys. He then hit seven threes against St. Gregory's and four against
Texas A&M, giving him 17 in his last three games after he hit 19 in the
first 13 games of the year. Baker's 22-point, 10-rebound effort against
Texas A&M gave him his fourth double-double, all of which have come since
Jan. 1.
Baker had 19 points and career highs of 14 rebounds, 10 assists and five steals in the Jan. 3 victory over Texas-San Antonio. The performance made him just the second Cowboy to record a triple-double. Joe Atkinson was previously the only OSU player with a triple-double, he had 10 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocked shots against New Orleans on Jan. 5, 1985. Baker is also only the third player in Big 12 history with a triple-double, the others were Brian Skinner (24 points, 14 rebounds, 10 blocks vs. Eastern Washington on Nov. 29, 1997) of Baylor and Jamaal Tinsley (12 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists vs. Missouri on Jan. 8, 2000) of Iowa State. The Iowa State game marked the third time this season that Baker has led OSU in points, rebounds, assists and steals in the same game (he also did so at Wichita State and against Texas-San Antonio), before this season, no player had accomplished that feat since the 1996-97 season.
Jonzen responding well to preseason expectations
Swedish import Fredrik Jonzen, whose breakout performance in last year's
postseason earned him All-East Region honors in the NCAA Tournament, has
picked up his scoring numbers in the past month. Jonzen, who turned in a
career-high-tying 26-point effort against Iowa State, appears to like the
surroundings of the new Gallagher-Iba Arena, where he averages a team-high
18.4 points per game. Despite a subpar shooting night, he scored 17 points
against Texas A&M and pulled down 12 rebounds for his second double-double
this season and the sixth of his career.
OSU discovers outside shooting touch
Heading into last week's visit to Baylor, OSU averaged 2.9 three-pointers
per game and was hitting just 27.5 percent from beyond the arc. But in the
past three games, the Cowboys -- more specifically Maurice Baker and Melvin
Sanders -- have unleashed a more effective outside-shooting weapon. OSU went
26-for-59 (44.1 percent) from three-point range in its past three games,
with 22 of the 26 treys coming from Baker and Sanders, who both set career
highs in three-pointers made against St. Gregory's. Baker hit seven treys
against the Cavaliers, no OSU player has had more in a game since Randy
Rutherford dropped a school-record 11 on Kansas in 1995.
Victor Williams heating up in 2001
Transfer guard Victor Williams, who came to OSU after a year at Illinois
State, has opened up his scoring since the start of the new year. In the
first nine games of the season, Williams averaged 10.1 points per game and
hit 38 percent of his field-goal attempts, 18.8 percent from three-point
range. But since the start of the true new millennium, Williams has hit 43.6
percent from the field (34 of 78) and has drained 36.7 percent (11 of 30) of
his threes while averaging 13.7 points. Williams scored a season-high-tying
20 points against both Iowa State and Texas Tech and hit eight of 12
field-goal tries against Texas Tech.
Cavaliers hang tough, but OSU wins
St. Gregory's held a six-point lead early in the game and was within single
digits early in the second half, but OSU eventually pulled away for a 74-58
victory Saturday in Stillwater. The Cavaliers, coached by former OSU player
Bryndon Manzer, got 20 points from Tyrone Mooreland and 13 rebounds from
Martin Veber, but the Cowboys committed a season-low 12 turnovers and
coasted to a relatively comfortable, if sloppy, victory.
Sanders gives OSU another scoring threat
Sophomore forward Melvin Sanders hit as many three-pointers against St.
Gregory's -- three -- as he had in all of OSU's games before last week's
trip to Waco. Sanders, who also hit a pair of three-pointers against Baylor,
scored a career-high 18 points in the victory over the Cavaliers and pulled
down five rebounds while collecting three steals. Sanders is the only Cowboy
besides Baker and Jonzen to start every game this year.
Head Coach Eddie Sutton
Eddie Sutton (Oklahoma State, 1958) is in his 11th year at his alma mater
with a 242-98 record at the school as well as a 672-262 overall mark in his
31st year of collegiate coaching. Under his guidance, OSU has advanced to
postseason play in nine of 10 years and has won 20 games or more eight
times. Sutton recently passed John Wooden and Denny Crum into 14th place
(fifth among active coaches) in career victories.
Only one active coach (Tarkanian) ranks ahead of Sutton in both victories and winning percentage, and OSU's boss ranks behind only Tarkanian, Dean Smith and Bob Knight in victories through 31 or fewer years of coaching. Sutton, who previously coached at Creighton, Arkansas and Kentucky, is the only coach in NCAA history to lead four different schools to the national tournament. With Sutton and Henry P. Iba among the 600-win club, OSU is one of only three schools -- joining Illinois and Kentucky -- with two coaches among the all-time top 20.
On the air
OSU games are broadcast on the Cowboy Radio Network with KWTV's Bill Teegins
handling play-by-play duties and Tom Dirato, OSU coordinator of radio & TV,
providing commentary. Dirato and Teegins are in their 10th year as the
Cowboys' basketball radio team, Dirato is calling OSU basketball for the
24th season. The OSU radio network can be accessed through the Internet
(www.okstate.com) or on Teamline. Fans wishing to use Teamline should call
(800) 846-4700 and use team code No. 1750. Use of Teamline requires a Visa
or MasterCard. Saturday's game will be aired on the ESPN Regional network,
including KFOR (channel 4) in Oklahoma City and KJRH (channel 2) in Tulsa.
Dave Armstrong (play by play) and Reid Gettys (color analysis) will handle
the television commentary duties.
Up next: OSU looks for sweep of Red Raiders
Oklahoma State visits Texas Tech on Wednesday looking for a fourth straight
season sweep of the Red Raiders. The Cowboys return home to face Missouri on
Feb. 3 in a key Big 12 matchup and then visit Nebraska and Kansas on Feb. 6
and Feb. 10, respectively.
Cowboy Quote Board
"You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off the old Lone
Ranger. And you don't underestimate an Eddie Sutton team." -- Baylor coach
Dave Bliss asked if he was surprised the Cowboys had started so well.
"He's still got a lot to learn, but he certainly has been impressive. The thing impressive about him is his toughness. He's a warrior. I knew he was good, but I don't think anybody knew he could make this adjustment this quickly." -- Eddie Sutton on Maurice Baker.
"The beauty of this project is that the history and ambience remain. This is one sacred spot in the development of college basketball that has not been lost to a modern multi-purpose cookie-cutter arena. And while there is much consternation that the expanded building will lose some of the unique feel and noise of the original, much of the charm is still there. ... You likely won't see a renovation like this happen again. Too bad. The new Gallagher-Iba opens Monday, appropriately more modern, but still with much of the same charm and wonderful history. It's the saving of the venue that tops our list of the best arenas in college basketball." -- CBS Sportsline's Dan Wetzel in a Jan. 8 column.
