Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Face Tennessee In NCAA First Round
March 15, 2009 | Cowboy Basketball
The Oklahoma State men's basketball team is returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005.
The 65-team field was announced Sunday by the NCAA with the Cowboys earning an eight seed in the East Region. OSU will head to Dayton, Ohio, to face ninth seed Tennessee in the first round on Friday. Tip time will be announced late Sunday evening by CBS. The winner of the Oklahoma State-Tennessee game will face the winner of top seed Pittsburgh and No. 16 seed East Tennessee State on Sunday.
“I know it means a lot to these seniors,” said Oklahoma State head coach Travis Ford. “I am very proud for these guys to hear their names called. The first game is always the toughest game to get through. Our guys have never experienced this while Tennessee's players have been through it the last couple of years.”
The Volunteers will be familiar to at least two members of the OSU traveling party. OSU assistant coach Chris Ferguson was on the Tennessee staff from 1997 through 2005. OSU team doctor Val Gene Ivan spent 13 years as the head team physician for the men's athletic department at Tennessee.
Oklahoma State is 22-11 after reaching the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament. The Cowboys have won eight of their last 10 games.
The Cowboys rank No. 26 all-time in tournament appearances with the 2009 season making it 23 times in the NCAA bracket. Oklahoma State has 37 tournament wins to rank No. 19 nationally. The Cowboys have been in the last 16 of the field 14 times, among the last eight 11 times and OSU has advanced to six Final Fours.
Oklahoma State head coach Travis Ford joins legendary OSU boss Eddie Sutton as the only Cowboy head coaches to qualify for the NCAA Tournament in their first seasons in Stillwater.
Ford will be taking a second school to the NCAA Tournament. He led Eastern Kentucky into the bracket in 2005.
