Cowtown Tussle Awaits Cowboy Basketball

Saturday, January 11

Fort Worth, TX

1 p.m.

Oklahoma State University

TCU

January 09, 2020 | Cowboy Basketball

• Game Center
Oklahoma State (9-5, 0-2 Big 12) at TCU (11-3, 2-0 Big 12)
Date / Tipoff: Jan. 11, 2020 / 1 p.m. CT
Site: Ed & Rae Schollmaier Arena (8,500)
Tickets: gofrogs.com
Series: OSU leads 26-8 (OSU leads 9-4 in Ft. Worth)
Last: TCU won 73-70 in Kansas City on March 13, 2019
TV: ESPN2 (Chuckie Kempf, Tim Welsh)
Webcast: WatchESPN app or ESPN.com
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker, John Holcomb)
Satellite Radio: XM 386 (OSU call), XM 387 (TCU call)
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Oklahoma State Game Notes

• The Basics
Oklahoma State's defense held No. 17/17 West Virginia to 55 points and 38.8 percent shooting while forcing 20 turnovers, but on the other end of the floor OSU's shots didn't go down. As a result, the Cowboys fell to 0-2 in the Big 12 standings after opening conference play against a pair of ranked foes. Now OSU turns its attention to the cardiac Horned Frogs of TCU, who are off to a 2-0 start to league play after a pair of thrilling wins. Kevin Samuel tipped-in a RJ Nembhard miss with 2.0 on the clock to give TCU a win at Kansas State on Tuesday. All three meetings between OSU and TCU last season were decided by seven points or less, including game-winning buckets in the closing seconds in two of those matchups.

• On the Air
The Cowboys and Horned Frogs will square off on ESPN2 with Chuckie Kempf and Tim Welsh on the call. Tipoff is slated for 1 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.

• Cowboy Quick Hitters

Oklahoma State has now gotten off to an 0-2 start in Big 12 play in each of the last four seasons. In two of the previous three years the Cowboys went on to win at least eight games and play in the postseason.
OSU's opponents this year are a combined 140-66 (.680), which is the 6th highest opponent win percentage in the country.
Monday's game marked the first time in the Mike Boynton era that the Cowboys lost while holding an opponent under 60 points. OSU was previously 12-0 in those games.
This is also the first time since 2004-05 in which OSU has held multiple opponents under 40 points.
With Thomas Dziagwa (207 career 3-pointers on 41.2 percent) out with illness, OSU was 1-of-20 (.050) from 3-point against West Virginia. Lindy Waters hit the lone 3-pointer with 8:19 to play to extend OSU's streak of games with a 3-pointer to 630 dating back to an 0-3 performance against Iowa State on Jan. 8, 2001.
In its nine wins, OSU limited its opponents to 19.3 points and 44.8 percent shooting inside the paint. In the five losses, opponents are averaging 28.0 points and 58.3 percent shooting in the paint.

• 1,000-Point Club
On Monday night, Lindy Waters III became the 42nd Cowboy to join the 1,000-point club. Waters has been the key to OSU's versatility for years, and now the senior has entered some lofty company that speaks to that versatility. Waters is just the 16th OSU player to reach 1,000-points, 200-assists and 100-steals. Marcus Smart and Markel Brown in 2014 were the last to join to this exclusive list, and of the 15 players other to reach that mark only Darwyn Alexander (1988-92) and Randy Rutherford (1992-95) can top Waters' career 40.6 career 3-point percentage.

• Linebacker Point Guard
ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla referred to Isaac Likekele as a "linebacker at point guard," and the description fits. At 6-4, 215 pounds with a 6-10 wingspan, Likekele is a bully who sets the tone on both ends of the floor. In wins, Likekele averages 13.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.6 steals on 58.7 percent shooting. In losses, those figures drop to 3.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.0 steals and 25.0 percent shooting. Likekele joins Iowa State's Tyrese Haliburton, his USA Basketball teammate at the U19 FIBA World Cup, as the only Big 12 players averaging at least 4.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 4.6 rebounds per game.

• The Series With TCU
This will be the 35th all-time meeting between Oklahoma State and TCU. The Cowboys are 26-8 all-time against the Horned Frogs and 9-6 against TCU since they joined the league in 2013. The two squads split the two regular season meetings in 2019, with the home team winning both times. The last meeting in Fort Worth was an absolute thriller. OSU's Thomas Dziagwa tied the game at 68-68 on a contested corner 3-pointer with 5.6 seconds remaining, but TCU's J.D. Miller drove the length of the court and hit a fade-away baseline jumper over Yor Anei for the game winner.

• Leading The Frogs
The Horned Frogs are led by fourth-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 6-6 against the Cowboys in his time as a head coach.

• Hometown Cowboys
Saturday's game will be a homecoming for several Cowboys that grew up in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Avery Anderson III (Justin Northwest HS), Chris Harris Jr. (South Garland HS), Cameron McGriff (South Grand Prairie HS), Isaac Likekele (Mansfield Timberview HS) and assistant coach Cannen Cunningham (SMU / Arlington Lamar HS) all attended high school within an hour of TCU's Schollmaier Arena.

• Dziagwa Dialing It Up Against TCU
Thomas Dziagwa, who missed Monday's game with the flu, reached double-figures and shot 48.3 percent (14-of-29) from 3-point the three meetings against TCU last season. Then a junior, Dziagwa scored 23 points on 6-of-11 shooting from 3-point in OSU's 68-61 win over the Horned Frogs in Stillwater. He averaged 16.3 points in the three 2019 meetings and is averaging 8.0 points in his career against TCU.