Cowboy Basketball Heads To TCU Seeking Third Straight Road Win

Saturday, February 17

Forth Worth, Texas

7 p.m.

Oklahoma State University

TCU

Cowboy Basketball Heads To TCU Seeking Third Straight Road Win

February 16, 2018 | Cowboy Basketball

Game Center
Opponent: at TCU (17-9, 5-8 Big 12)
Date / Tipoff: Feb. 17, 2018 / 7 p.m. Central
Site: Ed & Rae Schollmaier Arena (Capacity: 8,500)
Series: OSU leads 25-5 (OSU leads 9-2 in Ft. Worth)
Last: TCU won 79-66 in Stillwater on Jan. 30, 2018
TV: ESPN2 (Lowell Galindo, Lance Blanks)
Webcast: espn3.com or WatchESPN app
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker, John Holcomb)
Satellite Radio: Sirius 138, XM 200 (TCU radio call)
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
OSU Game Notes

The Basics
Oklahoma State (15-11, 5-8 Big 12) fell behind early and could keep up with Kansas State in an 82-72 home loss on Wednesday night, but will draw on its recent weekend road success as it regroups to face TCU (17-9, 5-8 Big 12) on Saturday night in Fort Worth, Texas. On each of the last two Saturdays, the Cowboys have won at No. 7 Kansas and No. 19 West Virginia in sold-out venues. The Horned Frogs won the season's first matchup against OSU, 79-66, in Stillwater, but have never swept the season series against the Cowboys, which has four players that hail from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

On the Air
The matchup between the Cowboys and Wildcats will air Saturday on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. Central. Lowell Galindo and Lance Blanks will handle the on-air duties. ESPN3.com and the WatchESPN app will carry the webcast. As always, Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb will have the Cowboy Radio Network call.

Cowboy Quick Hitters
• In Big 12 play, OSU is 5-0 when playing on Saturdays, including the wins Kansas at West Virginia. Conversely, the Cowboys are 0-8 on weeknight games during league play.
• OSU appears to have a magic number when it comes to 3-pointers. The Cowboys are 12-1 when they make nine or more 3-pointers in a game, and 3-10 when they hit eight or less.
• OSU ranks 36th nationally with a 75.9 percent clip from the free throw line. Every Cowboy with at least 30 attempts is shooting 71.2 percent or better from the stripe on the year.
• Jeffrey Carroll joins K-State's Dean Wade and TCU's Vlad Brodziansky as the only Big 12 players averaging at least 16.0 points and 5.5 boards in league play.

The OSU Postseason Resume
• OSU has piled up four AP top-25 wins this season, three of which came away from home.
• The Cowboys are one of just five teams to take down two ranked opponents in true road games, joining Oklahoma, Kansas, Florida and Texas A&M.
• The official NCAA RPI report separates every team's games into four quadrants, and OSU has four wins against quadrant one, which is the toughest. Only 21 teams nationally have more wins against the first quadrant, which includes top-30 teams at home, top 50 at neutral sites and top 75 on the road.
• OSU has faced the nation's 35th toughest schedule according to KenPom, and has five wins over current KenPom top-50 squads. What's more, every opponent remaining on OSU's schedule is ranked in the top 100 and four are against top-50 teams.
• OSU does not have a bad loss on its resume. All 11 of OSU's losses have come to teams ranked 46th or better according to KenPom.

The Series With TCU
This will be the 31st all-time meeting between Oklahoma State and TCU, and the 12th as Big 12 foes. The Cowboys are 8-3 against the Horned Frogs since they joined the league in 2013, but TCU can earn its first sweep of OSU with a win in Ft. Worth on Saturday. Oklahoma State took last year's meeting in Schollmaier Arena, 71-68, thanks to 21 points from Leyton Hammonds and a pair of late free throws from Brandon Averette. In all, the Cowboys are 9-2 all-time in Fort Worth.

Leading The Frogs
The Horned Frogs are led by second-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 was the 2009 Naismith National Coach of the Year. In all, Dixon is 4-4 against the Cowboys in his time as a head coach.

Dropping Dimes
The Horned Frogs lead the Big 12 and rank second nationally with 19.5 assists per game, which has really helped their offense flourish in 2017-18. TCU averages 84.2 points per game, which ranks second in the league and 18th in the NCAA, and are also 13th nationally in field goal percentage at a clip of 50.0 percent.

DFW Cowboys
Four Oklahoma State players grew up in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and will play in front of friends and family against TCU on Saturday night. Brandon Averette (Richardson, Texas), Tavarius Shine (Irving, Texas), Cameron McGriff (Grand Prairie, Texas) and Jeffrey Carroll all went to high school in the DFW area.