Cowboys Looking For Three Straight Over Kansas at GIA

Game Center
Opponent: Kansas (15-2, 4-1 Big 12)
Date/Tipoff: Jan. 19, 2016 / 6 p.m. Central
Tickets: okstate.com/tickets or call 877-ALL-4-OSU
TV: ESPN2 (Dave Flemming & Miles Simon)
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Satellite Radio: Sirius 84 & XM 84
Internet Radio: http://okla.st/osutunein
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Oklahoma State Game Notes

The Basics
• Oklahoma State (9-8 overall; 1-4 Big 12) looks to once again defend Gallagher-Iba Arena against a top-5 ranked Kansas squad. OSU is the only team in the country to beat the Jayhawks (15-2, 4-1 Big 12) in each of the last three seasons, including each of the last two meetings in Stillwater.

On the Air
• ESPN2 will have all the action between the Cowboys and Jayhawks starting Tuesday at 6 p.m. Central. Dave Flemming and Miles Simon will have the call. As always, the game can be heard on the Cowboy Radio Network with Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb. Sirius and XM satillite radio will carry the OSU call on channel 84.

Kansas Snapshot
• The Jayhawks enter Gallagher-Iba Arena tied atop the Big 12 standings with the nation's sixth highest scoring offense at 85.8 points per game. As a team, Kansas is shooting 44.9 percent from 3-point, which is second only to Oklahoma (45.0) in the country. Wayne Selden leads KU and ranks seventh nationally with a 49.4 percent clip from deep.
• Against TCU on Saturday, senior forward Perry Ellis was just one rebound shy of picking up his third double-double in his last four games. Ellis recently became the 21st Jayhawk to reach the 1,400-point plateau, and with 1,428 career points, he needs just five more to pass KU legend Wilt Chamberlain (1,433 points) for 23rd in school history.
• Former Cowboy Bill Self is facing his alma mater for the 25th time as a head coach, including four meetings in his time at Oral Roberts and 20 at Kansas. Self's record against OSU is 14-10 (13-7 with KU, 1-3 with ORU), but he is 3-7 inside Gallagher-Iba Arena (3-5 with KU, 0-2 with ORU).
• Self was a four-year letterman at OSU under Paul Hansen from 1981-85, and his 319 career assists still rank 14th in school history. Only two OSU point guards had more 10-assist games than Self, who piled up six. His junior season of 1983-84 saw him rack up 126 assists with a 2.42 assist/turnover ratio, which is still the seventh-best ratio by a Cowboy. After graduating in 1985, Self would spend seven season as an assistant coach at OSU under Leonard Hamilton and Eddie Sutton (1986-93).
• Legendary Kansas broadcaster Bob Davis has announced his retirement at the end of the 2015-16 season, completing 32 seasons as the voice of the Jayhawks. Davis was also the longtime radio voice of the Kansas City Royals. Cowboy fans fondly remember Davis filling in for fallen OSU broadcaster Bill Teegins in 2001.

Inside the OSU vs Kansas Series
• Oklahoma State has taken four of the last six from Kansas in Gallagher-Iba Arena, including the last two meetings. Overall, OSU is 33-32 inside GIA against the Jayhawks.
• The Cowboys are the only team to beat Kansas in each of the last three seasons, which includes an 85-80 win over the No. 2/1 Jayhawks in Lawrence on Feb. 2, 2013. Last year's 67-62 win over No. 8/9 Kansas in Stillwater marked the Cowboys' fourth over KU since Travis Ford took over as head coach in 2008-09. Only OSU and Iowa State have beaten the Jayhawks four times since 2008-09.
• How even has the series been recently? The last seven head-to-head meetings overall between the two teams have been decided by a grand total of three points, with Kansas holding a 499-496 edge.
• Kansas leads the all-time series 110-56, including a slight 35-33 edge in Stillwater.
• One or both of these two teams have been ranked in the top 25 in each of the last 25 meetings dating back to 1999.

Oklahoma State Snapshot
• Freshman point guard Jawun Evans earned his second Big 12 Newcomer of the Week award after an epic scoring performance against Oklahoma and a near triple-double at Texas. Evans scored 42 points against the No. 2 Sooners, which are the most points by an Oklahoma State freshman and the third most in school history. The 42 points are the second-most ever by a Big 12 freshman, and his 18 field goals are the most by any player in the country this year. As a marked man against Texas, Evans got his teammates involved with a 12-point, eight rebound and seven assist performance.
• Slow starts have been the Achilles heel for the Cowboys on this four-game losing streak. OSU trailed by at least 12 points at the half in each of these four games, but cut that deficit to a single possession in three of the four games. Last week, OSU trailed No. 2 Oklahoma by as much as 16 points, but got off a potential game-winning three-pointer just before the final buzzer. At Texas, OSU was down by 23 points with 15:16 remaining, but a Jawun Evans layup with 14 seconds left cut the lead to just three.
• Evans, the highest scoring freshman in the Big 12 at 12.4 points per game, also ranks fourth in the Big 12 with 4.88 assists per game - fourth among all freshmen nationwide. At 4.3 rebounds per game, Evans is also second in rebounding among Big 12 point guards behind only K-State's Justin Edwards (5.8 RPG).
• The Cowboys field a solid defensive unit that ranks second in the Big 12 in scoring defense at 65.5 points per game. OSU is holding its opponents to 39.2 percent shooting, which ranks third in the league and 27th in the country. The Cowboys defense starts at the rim, where they rank third in the Big 12 and 56th in the NCAA with 4.82 blocked shots per game. The Cowboys have held their Big 12 opponents to 70.4 points, which leads the league.
• Senior Phil Forte injured his elbow in the first half of the win over Towson, which snapped his streak of consecutive games played at 102. The senior hadn't missed a single game in his career up to that point. Forte was a Preseason All-Big 12 Honorable Mention honoree, and needs just 55 three-pointers to tie Keiton Page (2008-12) for the school record. At the time, he ranked third in the Big 12 in career scoring and third in the country in career 3-pointers.
• Head coach Travis Ford coached his 250th game at Oklahoma State last Wednesday, and ranks third in school history in both total wins (152) and win percentage (60.6 percent). Ford ranks behind only Eddie Sutton and Mr. Henry Iba in both categories.

An Oklahoma State Win Would ...
• Snap OSU's four game losing streak, and improve the Cowboys to 10-8 overall and 2-4 in Big 12 play.
• Give Travis Ford his 21st win over a ranked team and his 11th over a top-10 squad. Among OSU head coaches, only Eddie Sutton (16 in 16 years as head coach) has more wins over top-10 opponents than Ford. Henry Iba won nine over top-10 teams in the 22 years during his tenure that the AP ranked teams.
• Give the Cowboys back-to-back wins over KU for the first time since 2000.
• Give OSU three straight wins over KU at Gallagher-Iba Arena for the first time since the Cowboys won five straight over Kansas in Stillwater from 1980-84.

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Players Mentioned

Jawun Evans

Oklahoma State University Athletics