Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Enter Big 12 Tourney As Fifth Seed
March 06, 2001 | Cowboy Basketball
March 6, 2001
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About the Cowboys
Oklahoma State closed out the regular season with four wins in its last five games, all of which came in a 10-day span. The Cowboys at 19-8 and 10-6 in Big 12 play finished fifth in the Big 12 for the second time in three seasons. After a 80-69 overtime home loss to Texas on Feb. 17, OSU stood at 15-7 overall and 6-5 in Big 12 play. Since that time the Cowboys defeated Texas A&M, Kansas State, Texas Tech and Baylor, before falling to Oklahoma in Norman in the regular season finale last Saturday.
OSU unsure about NCAA berth
Oklahoma State enters the Big 12 tournament unsure about an NCAA Tournament berth. Most prognosticators have the Cowboys as a team "on the bubble" for the tournament. The odds are on OSU's side as only one team with 10 or more conference wins has not made the NCAA tourney in four seasons of Big 12 play. Nebraska had a 10-6 conference mark in 1999 but was denied a bid to the "Big Dance".
OSU-Texas Tech: The Series
Oklahoma State swept the season series against the Red Raiders, defeating them 65-46 in Stillwater on Jan. 13 and 66-58 in Lubbock on Feb. 26. The Cowboys hold a 17-6 series advantage over Texas Tech, including eight consecutive wins entering Thursday's matchup. Coach Eddie Sutton is 27-10 all-time vs. Texas Tech, including a 8-2 mark as head coach of the Cowboys.
The last time against the Red Raiders
Oklahoma State shot 51 percent from the field and held Texas Tech to just 33 percent from the field in a 66-58 win over the Red Raiders Monday night in Lubbock. Maurice Baker led the Cowboys with 17 points, 12 of them coming in the first half as the Cowboys led at the break 36-33. Freshman forward Terrence Crawford turned in his best offensive performance since returning from a knee injury by scoring 11 points in 28 minutes of action. Crawford was one point away from tying his career-high of 12 set against Arkansas-Little Rock on Dec. 19. Fredrik J?nz?n scored 15 points with six rebounds and six assists and Victor Williams added 11 points to round out the double-figure scorers for the Cowboys. OSU won back-to-back road games for the first time this season and its eighth straight over the Red Raiders dating back to the 1997 season.
OSU-Texas Tech inside the numbers
Fredrik J?nz?n, Jason Keep and the late Nate Fleming were all named to the Academic All-Big 12 team, the conference announced on Feb. 28. J?nz?n, a junior international business major, and Fleming, a sophomore from Edmond, Okla., were both named to the first team which recognizes student-athletes who achieve a grade point average of 3.20 or better. Keep, a junior, was named to the second team which honors those who have a 3.0 to 3.19 grade point.
Looking ahead: Texas awaits
Thursday's winner will face Texas on Friday and try to avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of the Longhorns. OSU lost two close contests to UT this year, a 78-71 decision in Austin on Jan. 6, and a 80-69 loss in overtime in Stillwater on Feb. 17, the lone loss at home for OSU this season. Texas enters the tournament riding a six-game winning streak and stands 23-7 overall and 12-4 in league play. The last time the two teams met in the Big 12 tourney, OSU upset the No. 1 seed Longhorns 60-57 in the 1999 semifinals. The Cowboys have never lost to Texas three times in the same season.
Recapping the 2000 Big 12 Tournament
Oklahoma State's senior-laden 2000 club had no problem with Kansas in the quarterfinals, defeating the Jayhawks 77-58 to advance to the semis against No. 1 seed Iowa State. The Cowboys took control early with a 21-4 run and defeated KU twice in the same season for the first time since 1994 and swept the Jayhawks for the first time since 1983. Desmond Mason, one of four Cowboys to score in double figures, led the team with 22 points to go along with 12 rebounds.
The top-seeded Cyclones proved to be too much for Oklahoma State, edging the Pokes 68-64 to advance to the championship game. Fredrik J?nz?n set a tournament record with 17 rebounds, the most by an OSU player since Bryant Reeves pulled down 20 caroms against Kansas in the 1995 season. His 30 rebounds in two games were just one shy of the record set in 1999 by Desmond Mason in four games and Kansas' Eric Chenowith in three.
Announcers donate efforts in honor of fallen comrade
Big 12 radio play-by-play men from the other 11 schools in the conference have volunteered their efforts in honor of their comrade Bill Teegins, OSU's play-by-play man, who passed away in the Jan. 27 airplane crash. The 11 announcers will call one Cowboy game each and donate their $500 talent fee to the Bill Teegins Memorial Fund. Learfield Sports, which owns the rights to Cowboy Basketball, will also match the sum. The first game after the accident against Missouri on Feb. 5 was broadcasted by Bob Barry Sr., the voice of the Oklahoma Sooners. Pete Taylor, the voice of the Iowa State Cyclones, will call Thursday's contest against Texas Tech while various Big 12 announcers, who have yet to do a game, will fill-in as long as the Cowboys are alive in the tournament.
Baker and J?nz?n, one of OSU's all-time top tandems
Maurice Baker and Fredrik J?nz?n 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 J?nz?n average a combined 34.6 points per game, currently the fifth-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.
Head Coach Eddie Sutton
Eddie Sutton (Oklahoma State, 1958) is in his 11th year at his alma mater with a 248-103 record at the school as well as a 678-267 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.
Big Three Step Up During Stretch
As Maurice Baker, Fredrik J?nz?n and Victor Williams go, so does the Oklahoma State basketball team. During the Cowboys recent four-game win streak, all three scored in double figures, led by Baker who averaged 16.8 points per game during the stretch. J?nz?n has proven to not only be a steady scorer, averaging 15.5 in the four games, but he is also shown a keen passing touch, with 22 assists (5.5 per game) as well. Williams recorded a career-high nine assists against A&M and is averaging 12 points per game as well. The trio has combined to average 44.3 points per game, more than half of the OSU team average of 67.8 ppg during the win streak. The streak ended against Oklahoma as the Sooners held J?nz?n and Williams to season lows in points, four and three respectively. Baker, however, scored a career-high 31 points against Oklahoma, proving the importance of all three players contributions.
Williams steadily moving up shot blocking charts
Sophomore forward Andre Williams moved into the top-five of OSU's career shot blockers with a rejected attempt against Oklahoma last Saturday. Williams tied Desmond Mason for fifth on the all-time list with 92 career swats, an impressive feat considering Mason recorded those numbers in four seasons. With 57 blocks this season, he is also currently in the top 10 block shot list in a season at No. 8 behind Leroy Combs who rejected 58 attempts in 1983. In addition, the Kansas City native is currently second in the Big 12 in rebounding averaging 8.6 rebounds in 16 conference games.
Baker finishes regular season on a strong note
Junior guard Maurice Baker closed out the regular season in fine fashion last Saturday against Oklahoma, scoring a career-high 31 points to go along with nine rebounds. 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 for the third time Jan. 22 after averaging 27.5 points in two games. He leads OSU in scoring (19.7 ppg, second in the Big 12, his 20.7 ppg average in conference games is first in the league), assists (4.4 apg) and steals (2.0 spg). The Madison, Ill., product is starting to garner postseason awards as well as he was named to All-Big 12 first team by the Associated Press as well as the All-District 12 team by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). Baker, who was named to the Big 12's All-Newcomer team, scored 22 points against Missouri on Feb. 5 and tallied the same number of points in the Cowboys loss to Nebraska on Feb. 7. His streak of 20 or more points in a game ended at six in the loss to Kansas on Feb 10. Baker scored 13 points and pulled down a team-high six rebounds in the win over Oklahoma on Feb. 14. He followed that with 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists against Texas before fouling out in overtime. He scored 19 points with four steals in the Cowboys win over Texas A&M Wednesday night.
Baker 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. The junior led the team with 27 points in the loss to Colorado, his fourth straight game of 20 or more points.
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 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.
J?nz?n putting together solid junior campaign
Swedish import Fredrik J?nz?n, 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 last two months of the season. J?nz?n, who turned in a career-high-tying 26-point effort against Iowa State and equalled that mark against Missouri, appears to like the surroundings of the new Gallagher-Iba Arena, where he averages a team-high 17.6 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. J?nz?n has scored in double figures in his last six contests and managed to dish out a career-high six assists in the Cowboys emotional win over Missouri on Feb. 5. He continued his streak of double-digit scoring games with 11 points against Nebraska and 11 against Kansas before fouling out in both games. The Sweden native narrowly missed out on a triple-double against Texas A&M on Feb. 21, scoring 13 points with nine rebounds and seven assists in the 82-76 win. He hit a clutch 16-foot jumper with 36 seconds left in the Kansas State game to give the Cowboys the lead in a 52-47 win. Of late, J?nz?n has been a deft passer, with 22 assists in his last four games, including a career-high eight dishes against Baylor Wednesday night.
Bernard Ellis Kidd leaves the Cowboy basketball team
Oklahoma State head basketball coach Eddie Sutton confirmed Feb. 26 following the Texas Tech contest that freshman guard Ellis Kidd has withdrawn from school for personal reasons. Kidd, a 6-4, 180-pound shooting guard from James Madison High School in Dallas, had seen limited playing time this year due to a knee injury suffered during the preseason. He saw action against Wichita State and Arkansas and was going to pursue a medical redshirt year.
"He withdrew from school last Friday," Coach Sutton said. "He was struggling with his classes and, in all likelihood, will have to go to a community college. We certainly wish him well."
