Cowboy Basketball Facing Minnesota At BOK Center Basketball Showdown

Saturday, December 21

Tulsa, OK

4:30 p.m.

Oklahoma State University

Minnesota

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Cowboy Basketball Facing Minnesota At BOK Center Basketball Showdown

December 18, 2019 | Cowboy Basketball

• Game Center
Minnesota (5-5, 1-1 Big Ten) vs Oklahoma State (8-2, 0-0 Big 12)
Date / Tipoff: Dec. 21, 2019 / 4:30 p.m. CT
Site: BOK Center (17,839)
Tickets: okstate.com/tickets or 877-ALL-4-OSU
Series: Minnesota leads 4-3 (OSU leads 3-0 in GIA & neutral)
Last: Minnesota won 83-76 on Nov. 30, 2018 in Minneapolis
Broadcast: ESPN2 (Mark Neely, Jon Crispin)
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker, John Holcomb)
Satellite Radio: Sirius 375, XM 375
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Oklahoma State Game Notes

• The Basics
Oklahoma State is off to an 8-2 start for the second time in the Mike Boynton era, and has won eight or more of its first 10 games for the 23rd time in the last 50 seasons. The Cowboys earned their eighth win in a hard-fought 61-55 road win at Houston on Saturday to snap a two-game skid and improve to 4-0 away from Stillwater. OSU's defense held the Cougars to 31.1 percent from the floor and their lowest point total since 2017. The Cowboys (8-2, 0-0 Big 12) now turn their attention to Minnesota, which is coming off an impressive win of its own. The Golden Gophers (5-5, 1-1 Big Ten) handed No. 1 Ohio State their first loss in impressive fashion, 84-71, thanks to 35 points from Marcus Carr. Saturday's game is a part of the BOK Center Basketball Showdown in Tulsa, where the Cowboys own a 50-26 (.658) all-time record.

• On the Air
The Cowboys and Gophers will square off on ESPN2 with Mark Neely and Jon Crispin on the call. Tipoff is slated for 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, and the webcast can be seen on the WatchESPN app or ESPN.com. As always, Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb will have the Cowboy Radio Network call.

• Road Warriors
Oklahoma State is using a combination of lock-down defense and hot shooting to improve to 4-0 away from Gallagher-Iba Arena this season, which is OSU's longest winning streak away from home since taking five straight Big 12 road games in 2016-17. Away from GIA, OSU has wins at Charleston and Houston, and took the NIT Season Tip-Off championship thanks to wins over Syracuse and Ole Miss. The last Cowboy team to win six straight away from home was in 1950-51.

• The Archer Bounces Back
At Houston, Thomas Dziagwa connected on his 200th career 3-pointer, becoming just the seventh OSU player to reach that mark. The senior was 3-of-3 from deep in the game, in what was a bounce-back performance after being held without a 3-point attempt against Wichita State. Over the last two seasons (42 games) Dziagwa has been held to zero or one 3-pointer makes just six times, and in the subsequent game he is 25-of-50 (.500) from 3-point and is averaging 14.0 points. Dziagwa's career 40.9 percentage from downtown ranks ninth in school history.

• The Series With Minnesota
This will be the eighth meeting between the Golden Gophers and the Cowboys, and Minnesota leads the series, 4-3. All four of Minnesota's wins in the series have come in Minneapolis, while OSU took the two meetings in Stillwater. The two squads also played a thriller in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 2015. That day, the Cowboys used a 16-4 run early in the second half to pull ahead of the Gophers and a late Mitchell Solomon dunk sealed a 62-60 win for OSU. Last year, Jordan Murphy posted his school-record-tying 51st career double-double to help Minnesota take down Oklahoma State, 83-76, in U.S. Bank Stadium, the home of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings.

• Tulsa Is Our Kinda Town
Stillwater is located just 70 miles from Tulsa, and the OSU Alumni Association estimates that nearly 53,000 Oklahoma State alums call Tulsa home. So it's no wonder that the Cowboys have played 76 games and own a 50-26 (.658) record in games played inside Tulsa city limits. Games at Tulsa and Oral Roberts make up the bulk of the appearances, but starting in 1991 head coach Eddie Sutton and OSU would annually take on opponents from across the country in Tulsa. During that stretch OSU played California, SMU, Arizona State, LSU, Texas A&M, Temple, Arkansas and others.

• Rock The BOK
While the Cowboys are no stranger to Tulsa, this will be just Oklahoma State's second game in the BOK Center, which opened in 2008 in downtown Tulsa. In 2010, the Cowboys took down Tulsa, 71-54, in front of 9,778 fans thanks to a 12-of-12 shooting performance from Marshall Moses.

• Cowboy Connections
Cowboy freshmen Kalib and Keylan Boone took Tulsa by storm as standouts at Memorial High School, where they won three straight state titles to wrap up their prep careers. The twins were named Co-MVPs of the 2018 Oklahoma State Basketball Tournament by both the Tulsa World and The Oklahoman. Kalib was a four-star forward and a national top-100 recruit who set Memorial's career shot-blocks record with 277, while Keylan was a three-star wing that averaged 18.1 points and shot 49 percent from 3-point as a senior.