Cowboys Hosting Horned Frogs After Key Road Victory

Game Center
Opponent: TCU (14-5, 3-4 Big 12)
Date/Tipoff: Jan. 23, 2017 / 6 p.m. Central
Series: OSU leads 23-4 • In Stillwater: OSU leads 8-1
Tickets: okstate.com/tickets or 877-ALL-4-OSU
TV: ESPNU (Mitch Holthus & Bryndon Manzer)
Webcast: ESPN3.com or WatchESPN App
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Satellite Radio: Sirius 145, XM 199
Internet Radio: http://okla.st/osutunein
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
OSU Game Notes

The Basics
• Oklahoma State ended its six-game losing streak and its 12-game skid in Big 12 play with a resounding road win at Texas Tech that gave head coach Brad Underwood his 100th career victory. The Red Raiders had won 17 straight games at home before the Cowboys came in and shot a school-record 68.8 percent from 3-point. OSU doesn't have long to celebrate as a quality TCU squad led by head coach Jamie Dixon and versatile forward Vlad Brodziansky come to Stillwater for a Monday showdown.

On the Air
• Oklahoma State and TCU will face off on ESPNU with Mitch Holthus and Bryndon Manzer on the call. This is the sixth of 13 scheduled appearance on ESPNU for the Cowboys this season. OSU is 3-2 on the network this season, and 32-30 all-time on the network, which hosted its inaugural broadcast at Gallagher-Iba Arena on March 5, 2005. As always, Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb will have the Cowboy Radio Network call from the historic white maple floor.

Oklahoma State Snapshot
• With the win at Texas Tech, Brad Underwood picked up his 100th career victory in his 122nd game, which tied him for the 10th fastest coach to reach the century mark in college basketball history. Underwood owns an 82.0 career win percentage, which is tops among all active coaches, and his 89 wins at Stephen F. Austin tied him with Brad Stevens of Butler for the most victories by any coach after three seasons. Underwood's .820 career win percentage is also tied for the eighth best ever for a fourth-year head coach.
• Phil Forte III has been on fire since Big 12 play began, and is on the verge of becoming Oklahoma State's all-time 3-point king. The senior currently ranks second with 295 career 3-pointers, and needs just four more to tie Keiton Page (299, 2009-12) for the school record. He also ranks 10th in school history with 1,575 career points. In Big 12 play, Forte leads all players with 3.4 three-pointers per game, and his clip of 54.5 percent ranks third behind his teammate Jeffrey Carroll (62.5) and Frank Mason (60.0). Forte is averaging 15.9 points per conference game, which ranks eighth in the league.
• Jeffrey Carroll has scored at least 21 points in each of his last four games, including a career-high 25 points at Texas Tech, and can become the first OSU player since James Anderson in 2008-09 to score 20 points or more in five straight games. The redshirt junior has hit 12 of his last 13 attempts from 3-point, which has lifted his percentage in league play to 62.5 percent - tops in the Big 12.
• Carroll joins Bryant "Big Country" Reeves as the only players in Oklahoma State history to increase their scoring average from single digits (9.9 ppg or less) in one season to 17 points or more the next. The redshirt junior averaged 8.2 points in 2015-16, and is up to 17.6 points in 2016-17. Carroll is the Big 12's only player ranked inside the league's top seven in scoring (4th, 17.2 ppg), rebounding (7th, 7.1 rpg) and field goal percentage (5th, .584), and he has scored 20 points or more eight times this season, including the last three games.
• The Cowboys earned their first Big 12 win at Texas Tech, but have put themselves in possession to win almost every other conference game. Five of OSU's six league losses were a two possession ballgame or less inside the final five minutes.
• Oklahoma State fields one of the youngest and most inexperienced lineups in the country. Even with fifth-year senior Phil Forte and his 121 career games, OSU still ranks 279th nationally in experience according to KenPom. The Cowboys entered the 2016-17 with just 15 combined years of collegiate experience, and currently have just 248 collegiate starts on the roster. OSU's average age of 20.2 years is tied with Texas for the youngest in the Big 12.
• OSU ranks second in the Big 12 and eighth nationally in scoring at 87.8 points per game, but their high-pressure defense is the main reason why. The Cowboys rank 12th in the country with 8.8 steals per game and sixth in turnovers forced at 17.42. According to KenPom, OSU is holding opponents to an average possession of just 15.4 seconds - the shortest in the country - and they rank 18th in turnover percentage with a mark of 22.7.
• One of the nation's elite point guards, Jawun Evans ranks third in the Big 12 in scoring at 17.7 points per game and is fourth in steals at 2.1 per game. In league play, the sophomore ranks second among Big 12 players with 6.1 assists per game. The Naismith Trophy and Cousy Award watch list member has seven 20-point games and three 30-point games this season alone, and he also earned a spot on the Maui Invitational All-Tournament team. Evans also ranks among the league's top 10 in assists (4th, 5.2 apg) and free throw percentage (5th, 79.6%), and he owns two of the Big 12's top three scoring performances this season - 35 points against UConn, and 34 points against Campbell.
• The Cowboys have cleaned up on the offensive glass this year. OSU is sixth nationally with 14.89 offensive boards per game and seventh in offensive rebound percentage at 39.8 percent. A true team effort, only one player on the team ranks inside the top 100 in the country in offensive boards (Mitchell Solomon, 87th, 2.79). The Cowboys have pulled down 15-plus offensive boards in 10 games this year, including seven of the last 12 outings.

TCU Connections & Snapshot
• The Horned Frogs are led by first-year head coach Jamie Dixon, who is a 1987 graduate of TCU and won a pair of Southwest Conference titles as a player under Jim Killingsworth. Dixon returned to Fort Worth after a 13-year stay as the head coach at Pittsburgh, where he was the author of 328 wins, 11 NCAA Tournament bids and three Big East championships. Dixon earned the 2009 Naismith National Coach of the Year award.
• Dixon played a role in TCU's last win against OSU in the state of Oklahoma, but it was as a player. The Horned Frogs beat the Cowboys, 92-61, at the Myriad in Oklahoma City on Dec. 26, 1986. Dixon came off the bench and had 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting, three rebounds, two assists and a steal in 29 minutes. TCU shot 69.1 percent (38-of-55) on the night.
• OSU was 2-3 against Dixon in his time at Pitt. In 2004, the Cowboys beat the Panthers, 63-51, in East Rutherford, N.J. to advance to the Elite Eight. OSU also took a double-overtime contest in Oklahoma City in 2006, 95-89. Dixon and the Panthers knocked off OSU, 85-68, in Pittsburgh in 2007, and eliminated the Cowboys from the 2009 NCAA Tournament, 84-76. Pitt won the last matchup, 74-68, in Dec. of 2011 in Madison Square Garden in the CarQuest Classic opener.
• Two of the league's most improved players will be squaring off in OSU's Jeffrey Carroll and TCU's Vlad Brodziansky. Both juniors, Brodziansky leads the Horned Frogs in scoring (13.5), blocks (2.4) and field goal percentage (60.6), and he's also averaging 6.0 rebounds per game, which ranks second on the squad.
• TCU has never won in Gallagher-Iba Arena. OSU is 6-0 against the Horned Frogs in the historic venue, and has won seven straight in Stillwater. TCU's only win in Stillwater came on Jan. 30, 1925, but that win pre-dates GIA, which was dedicated in 1938 and recently hosted its 1,000th game.
• Since TCU joined the Big 12, OSU 6-2 against the Horned Frogs, and both losses came in Fort Worth. The Cowboys are 8-1 against TCU in Stillwater. The home team has taken the last four meetings in the series.

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Players Mentioned

Jeffrey Carroll

Jawun Evans

Mitchell Solomon

Oklahoma State University Athletics