OSU's Five Game Road Win Streak On The Line In Ames Tuesday

Tuesday, February 28

Ames, IA

8 p.m.

Oklahoma State University

Iowa State

OSU's Five Game Road Win Streak On The Line In Ames Tuesday

February 27, 2017 | Cowboy Basketball

Game Center
Opponent: Iowa State (19-9, 11-5 Big 12)
Date/Tipoff: Feb. 28, 2017 / 8 p.m. Central
Series: OSU leads 63-61 • In Ames: ISU leads 38-14
Tickets: cyclones.com
TV: ESPN2 (Jon Sciambi & Miles Simon)
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Satellite Radio: Sirius 84, XM 84 (ISU Radio Call)
Internet Radio: http://okla.st/osutunein
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
OSU Game Notes

The Basics
• Oklahoma State (20-9, 9-7 Big 12) enters Tuesday's matchup with Iowa State (19-9, 11-5 Big 12) as the hottest team in the country. OSU is the only power conference team to have won 10 of its last 11 games, and the Cowboys join Kansas as the only power conference teams to have won their last five road games. The Cyclones have won the last eight meetings with OSU, including a 96-86 shootout in Sillwater back on Jan. 11, and five straight over the Cowboys inside Hilton Coliseum. But, if the Cowboys can pull off the victory it would give senior Phil Forte a win in every Big 12 venue. Only one other active player in conference can make that claim - Iowa State's Naz Mitrou-Long.

On the Air
• Oklahoma State and Iowa State will face off on ESPN2 with Jon Sciambi and Miles Simon on the call. This will be OSU's fifth appearance on ESPN2 this season. The Cowboys are 2-2 this year and 39-42 all-time on ESPN2. As always, Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb will have the Cowboy Radio Network call.

Oklahoma State Snapshot
• COWBOY QUICK HITTERS: OSU is 6-1 in the month of February, and has a chance to secure a 7-win February for just the ninth time in the last 60 seasons ... Jawun Evans and Jeffrey Carroll both scored their 500th point of the season against Texas Tech, which makes them just the 10th Cowboy duo to score 500 points in the same year ... The Cowboys have now won five straight Big 12 road games for the first time since 2012-13. The last OSU team to win six straight road games was in 1950-51 ... Jawun Evans joins Baylor's Jonathan Motley as the only players to win three Big 12 Player of the Week awards this season ... According to KenPom, OSU has faced the nation's No. 2 strength of schedule ...Joe Lunardi's latest Bracketology report has the Cowboys as a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The last team to make the NCAA Tournament field after falling in their first six conference games was 1985-86 Maryland.
• With a win in Ames, Iowa, Phil Forte III would join Iowa State's Naz Mitrou-Long as just the second active Big 12 player to win in every league venue. The redshirt senior is OSU's all-time 3-point king with 321 career 3-pointers, which ranks sixth in Big 12 Conference history and is fourth among all active players nationwide. Forte has been on fire since Big 12 play began, and is averaging 2.9 3-pointers per game on 49.5 percent shooting from deep, which ranks second in the league in both categories.
• Three-time Big 12 Player of the Week Jawun Evans is one of just four power conference players nationwide averaging at least 16 points and 6 assists in conference play. One of 30 players still in consideration for the Naismith Trophy, Evans is tied with ISU's Monte Morris for the league lead in assists (6.0), ranks second in scoring (18.2) and is third in steals (2.0). Evans has 11 20-point games and three 30-point games this season alone.
• On Jan. 18, OSU fell to 0-6 in league play following a home loss to K-State. What a difference a month can make. The Cowboys are now in fifth place at 9-7, having won 10 of their last 11 and five straight on the road. The Cowboys are currently +9.5 games better than last year's 12-20 season, which is tied for the seventh biggest improvement in the country. With two Big 12 games left to play, OSU has already won six more league games than last season (3-15), which is tied for the largest turnaround in conference play in school history (with 2012-13).
• Jeffrey Carroll is the nation's most improved power conference player, and in the conversation for the best wing player in the Big 12. The redshirt junior is only playing 3.3 more minutes per game this year, but boasts a scoring improvement of +9.1 points per game over his 2015-16 season. He is the only Big 12 player averaging at least 17 points (17.3, 3rd Big 12) and 6.6 rebounds (6.6, 8th Big 12), and he is the nation's only active power conference player averaging 17 points or more that can claim an improvement of +9.0 points from last season. Carroll joins Bryant "Big Country" Reeves as the only Oklahoma State players to ever make the same leap from one year to the next.
• Carroll entered the 2016-17 season with a career high scoring game of 18 points, but has tied or topped that mark 17 times this season, including in 11 of the last 16 games. He has 13 20-point scoring games this season, including eight in Big 12 play, and ranks third in scoring in league games at 18.0 per contest. Carroll is shooting an incredible 47.6 percent from 3-point in Big 12 play, which is third in the conference.
• KenPom ranks the Oklahoma State offense No. 2 in efficiency nationwide. At 85.7 points per game, OSU is on pace to set a new school record for scoring average (current record: 83.5 in 1988-89), and in fact, is on pace to be the second-highest scoring squad in Big 12 history behind only the 2001-02 Kansas team that averaged 90.9 per game.
• A minor shift in defensive philosophy has been at the heart of OSU's recent resurgence. After six straight losses, including five in close games (one or two possession games in the final five minutes), the Cowboys tweaked their defense and the results are staggering. Since the change, OSU has won 10 of their last 11 games, including five straight road games. In 440 minutes of clock time in this 11-game resurgence, OSU has only trailed for just 147:15.
• With the win at Texas Tech on Jan. 21, 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. At 109-23, Underwood owns an 82.6 career win percentage, which is tops among all active coaches. His 89 wins at Stephen F. Austin tied him with Brad Stevens of Butler for the most victories by any coach after three seasons.
• OSU fields one of the youngest and most inexperienced lineups in the country. Even with fifth-year senior Phil Forte and his 131 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 298 collegiate starts on the roster. OSU's average age of 20.2 years is tied with Texas for the youngest in the Big 12.
• The Cowboys have cleaned up on the offensive glass this year. OSU is 11th nationally with 13.72 offensive boards per game and sixth in offensive rebound percentage at 38.6 percent. A true team effort, only one player on the team ranks inside the top 100 in the country in offensive boards - Mitchell Solomon (82nd, 2.83). The Cowboys have pulled down 15-plus offensive boards in 12 games this year.

Iowa State Connections & Snapshot
• Iowa State has won the last eight meetings against the Cowboys, which has closed the OSU lead in the overall series to 63-61. Five of those eight 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 (.826) and Steve Prohm (.745) rank first and eighth in win percentage, respectively. Prohm is a veteran of 146 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.
• Tuesday's contest will feature a battle of two of the nation's top point guards in Monte Morris and Jawun Evans. Both players average a Big 12-best 6.0 assists per game, and both are listed among the only four players in the country averaging at least 16 points and six assists per game in conference play. Morris is a two-time All-Big 12 selection, and was the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year.
• OSU and Iowa State rank second and third in the Big 12 in 3-point percentage. The Cowboys have connected on 40.3 percent (254-of-631) from deep, while the Cyclones have knocked down a league-high 271 3-pointers on 39.4 percent shooting (271-of-688). Both teams have two players that rank among the league's top 10 in 3-point percentage: OSU's Jeffrey Carroll (3rd, 43.9) & Phil Forte (5th, 42.5) and ISU's Matt Thomas (4th, 42.8) & Naz Mitrou-Long (9th, 38.8).
• Iowa State made a return to the national rankings this week at No. 24. OSU is 1-5 against teams ranked in the AP Top 25 this season, but is 1-1 against top 25 teams in this recent resurgence. In the Big 12 era, this will be the 11th time OSU faced a ranked Cyclones team, and ISU is 8-2 in the previous matchups.
• 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.