Basketball Looking For Bounce Back Performance Against Cyclones

Game Center
• Opponent: Iowa State (10-4, 2-1 Big 12)
• Date/Tipoff: Jan. 11, 2017 / 8 p.m. Central
• Series: OSU leads 63-60 overall • OSU leads 37-16 in Stillwater
• Tickets: okstate.com/tickets or 877-ALL-4-OSU
• TV: ESPNU (Clay Matvick & Tim Welsh)
• Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
• Satellite Radio: None
• Internet Radio: http://okla.st/osutunein
• Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
• OSU Game Notes

The Basics
• Oklahoma State fell just short in its upset bid at undefeated Baylor on Saturday night, and returns to Gallagher-Iba Arena with an 0-3 mark in conference play for the first time in the Big 12 era. The Cowboys will look to bounce back against a veteran Iowa State team led by Preseason All-American point guard Monte Morris that features five seniors in its starting lineup and is coming off a 79-70 win over Texas in Ames. Wednesday's tipoff is slated for 8 p.m. at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

On the Air
• Oklahoma State and Iowa State will face off on ESPNU with Clay Matvick and Tim Welsh on the call. This is OSU's third of 13 scheduled appearances on ESPNU this season, which is fitting since the network launched from Gallagher-Iba Arena on March 5, 2005. The Cowboys are 2-0 this year and 31-28 all-time on the network. As always, Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb will have the Cowboy Radio Network call from the historic white maple GIA floor.

Oklahoma State Snapshot
• At 99-19, Brad Underwood is on the verge of becoming one of the fastest coaches to reach 100 wins in the history of college basketball. With 89 wins in his time at Stephen F. Austin, Underwood tied Brad Stevens of Butler for the most victories by any coach after three seasons. Currently, Underwood's .839 career win percentage ranks behind only Buck Freeman (.914, St. Johns, '28-31) and Adolph Rupp (.882, Kentucky, '31-34) for the best win percentage ever by a fourth-year coach.
• Phil Forte has been on fire from 3-point since Big 12 play began. In league play, Forte leads all players with 3.7 makes per game and his 52.4 percent clip (11-of-21) ranks fifth, although he's the only player in the top five with more than 13 attempts. The redshirt senior has connected on at least four 3-pointers in three of the last four games. These numbers have helped him become the 14th player in OSU history to reach the 1,500 point plateau (1,508 points) and close the gap on Keiton Page for the program's all-time 3-point record. Forte now ranks second in career 3-pointers at OSU, and is only 17 away from tying Page's mark of 299 makes.
• OSU leads the Big 12 and ranks fourth in the country in scoring at 91.0 points per game, but their high-pressure defense is the main reason why. The Cowboys rank eighth in the country with 9.9 steals per game and fourth in turnovers forced at 19.4. According to KenPom, OSU is holding opponents to an average possession of just 15.0 seconds - the shortest in the country - and they rank fourth in turnover percentage with a mark of 24.6.
• One of the nation's elite point guards, Jawun Evans is taking the nation by storm this season. The sophomore ranks second in the Big 12 in scoring at 18.9 points per game and is third in steals at 2.1 per game. KenPom currently rates him as the No. 16 offensive threat in the nation. The Naismith Trophy and Cousy Award watch list member has six 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, 5.1 apg) and free throw percentage (5th, 77.2%), 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 Big 12's third leading scorer at 16.1 points per game, Jeffrey Carroll has been a scoring and rebounding machine this season. The redshirt-junior remains the Big 12's only player ranked inside the league's top seven in scoring (3rd, 16.1 ppg), rebounding (7th, 7.0 rpg) and field goal percentage (4th, .566). Carroll entered the year with a career-high scoring performance of 19 points, but he already has five games of 20-plus points this year.
• Oklahoma State pushes the tempo on offense. OSU is 10th nationally with 76.5 possessions per game, and they rank 26th in KenPom's offensive efficiency rating. In fact, the Cowboys average 9.0 more shots per game than their opponents. OSU also knows how to get to the free throw line, where they rank 10th nationally in free throws made (21.3). The Cowboys have made 53 more free throws than the next closest Big 12 team, West Virginia.
• Head coach Brad Underwood has called OSU's freshmen "fearless" and no player exemplifies that attitude like Thomas Dziagwa. A coach's son, Dziagwa ranks fourth in the Big 12 with a mark of 46.7 percent from 3-point. At Tulsa, Dziagwa hit a trio of 3-pointers over the final 10 minutes and the game-clinching free throws, and he hit 3-of-4 from downtown at Wichita State.
• The Cowboys have cleaned up on the offensive glass this year. OSU is fifth nationally with 15.67 offensive boards per game and sixth in offensive rebound percentage at 40.4 percent. A true team effort, not one player on the team ranks inside the top 100 in the country in offensive boards. The Cowboys have pulled down 15-plus offensive boards in 10 games this year, including seven of the last nine outings. Mitchell Solomon posted nine offensive boards against TAMU-Corpus Christi, which is only one off the school record.

Iowa State Connections & Snapshot
• Iowa State has won the last seven meetings against the Cowboys, which has closed the OSU lead in the overall series to 63-60. Five of those seven losses have been by eight points or less, including four by five points or less and two in overtime. OSU's last win over the Cyclones came on Jan. 30, 2013 in Stillwater.
• Among all head coaches with at least 100 games, Brad Underwood (.839) and Steve Prohm (.753) rank first and sixth in win percentage, respectively. Prohm is a veteran of 137 wins, and has won at least 21 games every year as a head coach. In his first year at Murray State, Prohm led the Racers to a school-record tying 31 wins and an NCAA Tournament win over Colorado State, 58-41. Last season, he coached Iowa State to the Sweet 16 in his first year in Ames.
• Wednesday's contest will feature a battle of two of the nation's top point guards in Monte Morris and Jawun Evans. Morris is a two-time All-Big 12 selection who averaged 6.9 assists per game as a junior last year, which earned him Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year and AP Preseason All-America honors heading into his senior season. He has a chance to join former Cyclone and current New York Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek as the only players in ISU history with 1,000 points, 600 assists and 200 steals.
• The Cyclones rank second in the Big 12 in defensive field goal percentage (.380) and lead the league in rebounding (41.4), which makes them a pretty salty defensive squad. ISU collects 72.4 percent of their opponents misses shots, which ranks second in the Big 12. Deonte Burton leads the way for the Cyclones with 7.1 rebounds per game, which ranks fifth in the league.
• Iowa State is coming off a 79-70 home win over Texas on Saturday. Deonte Burton piled up 27 points and Monte Morris added 22 points, 10 rebounds and six assists with zero turnovers. Texas shot 52.9 percent from the floor, but turned the ball over 19 times, which led to 20 Cyclone points.
• The triple-overtime slugfest against the Cyclones on Feb. 3, 2014 in Stillwater is still tied for the third longest game in OSU history. Le'Bryan Nash posted 26 points and 10 rebounds and Markel Brown also recorded a double-double 19 points and 10 boards, but Iowa State's Monte Morris hit a 3-pointer from the corner with 43 seconds left in the third overtime to seal the game at 96-95.

Basketball Looking For Bounce Back Performance Against Cyclones

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Players Mentioned

Jeffrey Carroll

Thomas Dziagwa

Jawun Evans

Mitchell Solomon

Oklahoma State University Athletics