Cowboys To Hit The Road For Texas

The Cowboys

The 2021-22 Cowboys will attack the season with a 17-man roster, including five newcomers and four returning starters from last year's squad.
Speaking of new - Oklahoma State welcomes three new assistant coaches (Terrence Rencher, Larry Blunt and David Cason) and a new strength coach (Mark Mitchell).
The Cowboys return four starters from last season's squad that returned OSU to the postseason and have added four key transfers with ambitions of pushing past the NCAA Round of 32. Setting its sights on a deep run in March, Oklahoma State returns 73 percent of its points from a year ago, 94 percent of its offensive rebounds and 74 percent of its assists.
Oklahoma State is set to compete in 17 games against 2021 NCAA Tournament foes.

Facing No. 23 Texas - Here's The Scout

Oklahoma State is set to continue Big 12 play when it hits the road on Saturday to face No. 23 Texas in Austin. Tip is set for 1 p.m. with Jon Sciambi and Fran Fraschilla calling the game on ESPN2.
OSU will look to complete the season sweep of the Longhorns after a 64-51 win in Stillwater. The Cowboys would win their third-straight game with a win over Texas.
Texas comes into the contest off two losses, most recently to Kansas State on Tuesday night in Austin. The Longhorns have lost three of their last four games dating back to their game in Stillwater on Jan. 8.
The Longhorns are under the direction of Chris Beard, who was named the 25th Head Basketball Coach at The University of Texas on April 2, 2021. In 11 seasons as a collegiate head coach, Beard has compiled a 252-103 (.710) overall record and advanced to four NCAA Tournaments.

The Baylor and Texas Wins - Trends And Points

Oklahoma State earned its first ranked win, and conference victory, with a 64-51 win over No. 14 Texas inside Gallagher-Iba Arena. The Pokes led from start to finish as they held Texas to its lowest scoring outing of the season.
Keylan Boone gave the Cowboys a spark off the bench by hitting three, three-pointers in the first half, which tied his career high in made three-point field goals. He later surpassed his career high in points and made three-point field goals when he hit two threes late in the second half to total five made threes and 17 points in the game.
OSU earned its second ranked win, and Big 12 victory, with a 61-54 win over No. 1 Baylor this past weekend in Waco. Bryce Thompson recorded a career-best 19 points to help lead the Cowboys to their first road win over the No. 1 team in the country.
In those two wins, it's been the Keylan Boone, Bryce Thompson and Bryce Williams show. Boone averaged 12.5 points between the two while shooting 70 percent from behind the arc while Thompson has averaged 13.0 points while shooting 43.5 from the field. Williams meanwhile has averaged 10.0 in the games while shooting a perfect 1.000 percent from the line.
The Cowboys held the Bears and Longhorns to a combined 34.9 percent from the field while forcing 25 turnovers with eight blocks and 15 steals.
Just as important, OSU has out-rebounded the duo 72-71 while recording 29 assists to their 21.
The leading rebounders for the Cowboys in those two games? Two guards (Avery Anderson III and Isaac Likekele) and two posts (Tyreek Smith and Moussa Cisse). The four have combined for 40 of OSU's 72 rebounds in the two games (56 percent).

The Last 5

Bryce Thompson, Bryce Williams and Keylan Boone have led the way over the last five games as the trio has combined for 139 of OSU's 299 points while averaging 11.2, 8.8 and 7.8 points per game.
Tyreek Smith has commanded the boards with 5.4 rebounds while Isaac Likekele is averaging 4.8 with 6.6 points per contest, as well.
Moussa Cisse has added five blocks during the stretch.
Avery Anderson III has been strong on the defensive side of the ball with 10 steals over the past five games while Rondel Walker has recorded nine.
Likekele has carried the minutes load during the stretch as he's averaged 31.7.
Smith and Moussa Cisse have given the Cowboys plenty of second chances as the duo has combined for 21 offensive rebounds.
At the free throw line, Bryce Williams has gone a perfect 8-for-8 while Bryce Thompson is 11-for-14 (.786).

Through 17 - Where We're At And Where We're Going

Oklahoma State improved to 10-7 after the TCU win on Wednesday and the historic victory over No. 1 Baylor this past Saturday. The win over the Bears marked OSU's first on the road over the top-ranked team in the country in school history.
In those nine wins, OSU has dominated on the defensive side. It has held its foes to 37.2 percent from the field while forcing 19.0 turnovers per game. Along with the turnovers, it has recorded 7.1 blocks per game in the victories, as well as 10.8 steals.
For comparison, in the seven losses teams are shooting 42.2 percent and turning the ball over 15.7 times per game while OSU has recorded 3.1 blocks per contest.

Defense First - Because It Wins Games

Oklahoma State has allowed just six of its 17 foes to score more than 70 points in a game and has delivered the seventh-best adjusted defensive efficiency, according to Kenpom.
A big point of that has been turnovers. OSU has forced a turnover on 24.5 percent of defensive possessions, which comes in at 14th-best in the country. If teams haven't turned the ball over first, they're also getting blocked on 15.5 percent of their possessions, the 14th-most in the country.
But don't expect things to get any easier without a turnover or blocked shot. OSU hasn't given up many easy looks inside the three-point line, leading to teams shooting 43.2 percent from inside the arc, the 11th-lowest percentage in the country according to Kenpom.

Tough Stretch - But We Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way

According to Kenpom's rankings, OSU has faced the No. 55 (Wichita State), No. 30 (Xavier), No. 157 (Cleveland State), No. 5 (Houston), No. 4 (Kansas), No. 14 (Texas), No. 41 (West Virginia), No. 18 (Texas Tech), No. 2 (Baylor) and No. 61 (TCU) teams in the country in its past 10 games with No. No. 15 (Texas) and No. 28 (Iowa State) coming up over the next two games.
OSU is set to play just one team outside Kenpom's top-50 over the next five games.
Last week, Oklahoma State traveled 3,269 miles between Monday and Saturday night following the trip home from Waco. The Cowboys left Monday afternoon for Morgantown and did not return to campus until Saturday night around 9 p.m.

Single Game Records Taken Down And Top Performances So Far

The Cowboys 43-point victory on opening night against UT-Arlington was the largest since the 51-point victory vs. Southeastern Louisiana on 12/29/19.
The Cowboys were able to finish the first half with a 43-14 lead in that game. The 29-point lead matches the 12th largest halftime lead in school history and the largest since 2016.
Oklahoma State logged 11 steals in the first half against Prairie View A&M on 11/14, which tied for the third most in a half in school history and was the most since 11/23/16 vs. Georgetown.
Oklahoma State had six total players score in the double-digits against Charleston on 11/22, which marked the first time this season and the first time since Iowa State in January of 2020.
The Cowboy centers made their impact known in that game on the defensive end as Moussa Cisse recorded a career high in blocks with six and Kalib Boone recorded five of his own. The team as whole totaled 16 blocks, which is the most in all of college basketball this year and tied the school record set in 1989 vs. Oklahoma.
Bryce Williams recorded a career-high in points with his 29 and a career high in three-pointers made with five in the win over Cleveland State on 12/13. Avery Anderson III also posted 29. This marked the first time OSU had two 20-point scorers since Anderson and Cade Cunningham did it against Baylor in the Big 12 tournament last season on March 12, 2021.
Keylan Boone posted a career best in three-point baskets made and points scored in a game in the 64-51 victory over No. 14 Texas on Jan. 8, 2022.
Bryce Thompson recorded a career-best 19 points in the win over No. 1 Baylor on 1/15 in Waco. The win was OSU's first over the No. 1 team in the country on the road in program history. The Cowboys were 0-4 on the road against the top-ranked team prior to that win.
OSU recorded eight blocks as a team against TCU on 1/19 - the most for the Cowboys in a Big 12 game this season.

The New Sheriffs In Town

2021 American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year and former five-star big man Moussa Cisse certainly stands out in this year's group of newcomers. Listed at 7-0 and a springy 225 pounds, Cisse started every game for Memphis as a freshman in 2020-21 and helped lead the Tigers to the NIT Title.
Joining Cisse is 2020 McDonald's All-American and former Kansas standout Bryce Thompson. A unanimous five-star talent, he finished his time at Tulsa's Booker T. Washington High School as the nation's No. 19 recruit according to Rivals. He comes to Stillwater as the seventh-highest rated Cowboy signee in the recruiting rankings era (since 2003).
Former Texas Tech Red Raider and four-star recruit Tyreek Smith will be complementing the duo. The 2021 Academic All-Big 12 Conference selection was the 2018 TAAPS 5A Player of the Year for Trinity Christian High School in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, where he averaged 17.9 points, 12.3 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game as a senior.
Rounding out the highly-anticipated class is Woody Newton. A former Rivals four-star recruit out of District Heights, Maryland, Newton is coming off a freshman campaign at Syracuse in which he posted a 46.4 shooting percentage, 38.9 percent clip from 3-point and averages of 3.5 points.

Clutch Cowboys

Oklahoma State was a perfect 4-0 in overtime games last year, started 2-0 this year after the win over Cleveland State and has won nine of its last 10 OT games dating back to 2016.
Last year's mark tied for the most overtime games in a season in program history, and the perfect 4-0 record in extra sessions equaled the marks set by the 2006-07, 1982-83 and 1964-65 squads.
Mike Boynton and the Cowboys are 8-1 in OT games during his career.

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Players Mentioned

Avery Anderson III

Kalib Boone

Keylan Boone

Moussa Cisse

Cade Cunningham

Isaac Likekele

Woody Newton

Tyreek Smith

Bryce Thompson

Rondel Walker

Bryce Williams

Oklahoma State University Athletics