Game Notes: #3 Kansas

#3/4 Kansas (14-2, 2-1) at Oklahoma State (8-8, 0-3)
Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024 | 8:05 p.m. CT
Stillwater, Okla. | Gallagher-Iba Arena

Tickets: okstate.com/tickets
TV: ESPN (John Sciambi & Jay Williams)
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Internet Radio: okstate.com/listen & The Varsity Sports App
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Series: KU leads 123-60 (40-36 in Stillwater)
Last: Feb. 14, 2023 in Stillwater (KU, 87-76)

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The Basics:

The Oklahoma State Cowboys (8-8, 0-3) play host to the third-ranked Kansas Jayhawks (14-2, 2-1) Tuesday night inside Gallagher-Iba Arena. Tipoff is 8 p.m. CT.
OSU is happy to be home after a 66-42 road loss at Iowa State on Saturday. Eric Dailey Jr. scored a team-high 12 points for the Cowboys who arrived in Ames just three hours before tipoff and stayed on extra 24 hours due to winter weather conditions.
KU defeated No. 9 Oklahoma on Saturday, 78-66, behind Hunter Dickinson's 24 points.
OSU ranks second in the Big 12 in three-point field goals per game (9.3), led by Javon Small (34/84, .405) and Jarius Hicklen (29/66, .439).
The Jayhawks rank among the national leaders in both field goal percentage (9th, .502) and field goal percentage defense (20th, .391).

Watch:
The game will air on ESPN with John Sciambi and Jay Williams.
Fans with ESPN in the television package can stream the game live or on-demand via the ESPN app.

Listen:
Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb describe the action across the Cowboy Radio Network.
Visit okstate.com/radio for a full list of network affiliates. Fans outside the listening area can tune in via the Varsity Sports App or at okstate.com/listen.

Mike Boynton Show:
Hear the latest insights from head coach Mike Boynton Jr. by tuning in to his weekly radio show on the Cowboy Radio Network.
The program airs Thursday nights (6-7 p.m.) from the Rib Crib in Stillwater.

Last Time on Cowboy Basketball:
Saturday, Jan. 13 (Ames, Iowa) | Iowa State 66, OSU 42

Getting to Ames wasn't easy. Neither was facing Iowa State's elite defense.
An ISU team that ranked among top-5 nationally in scoring defense and takeaways held the Cowboys to 42 points on 31.9% shooting and forced 20 turnovers.
Eric Dailey Jr. scored 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting for OSU, which made it into town just three hours before tipoff following a series of travel delays tied to severe winter weather.
Tamin Lipsey scored a game-high 17 points to help ISU defeat the Cowboys at Hilton Coliseum for the first time since 2020.
OSU jumped to leads of 12-6 and 15-10 near the 12:00-mark of the first half before running out of steam. ISU scored the next 12 points during a 23-5 run. The Cowboys made just 5-of-22 shots (.227) after halftime and trailed by as many as 24 down the stretch.
Brandon Garrison grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, Quion Williams recorded three steals and Javon Small and Jarius Hicklen each made a pair of threes.

OSU vs. Nationally-Ranked Opponents:

The Big 12 boasts eight of the top-25 teams in this week's AP Poll. Great for the league. Not so great for OSU, which plays 12 of its 18 conference games against that group of schools, including a run of four straight to open things up.
The Cowboys took current No. 9 Baylor to overtime in their Big 12 home opener before dropping back-to-back on the road last week at Texas Tech and Iowa State. The Red Raiders and Cyclones both made their season debuts in Monday's AP Poll at Nos. 24 and 23 respectively.
No. 3 Kansas is OSU's highest-ranked home opponent since No. 2 Baylor on Jan. 23, 2021.
OSU's last win over an AP top-3 foe on Eddie Sutton Court came nearly eight years ago (Jan. 19, 2016) against a KU team that was also ranked third.
OSU notched three wins over AP top-25 opponents last season: No. 12 Iowa State and No. 15 TCU at home and No. 11 Iowa State in Ames but is still in search of its first in 2023-24.
Head coach Mike Boynton Jr. has posted 23 wins over nationally-ranked foes – third most in OSU history behind hall of famers Eddie Sutton (49) and Henry Iba (27). 12 of his victories have come inside Gallagher-Iba Arena.
All-time OSU is 76-82 on its home floor against nationally-ranked teams.

Trending:

Senior guard Bryce Thompson needs just 14 points to reach 1,000 for his collegiate career. The third-year Cowboy scored his first 91 points during his freshman season at Kansas.
Thompson's inclusion would give OSU a trio of 1,000-point scorers on its roster alongside graduate guards John-Michael Wright (1,953) and Jarius Hicklen (1,390).
Thompson has led the Cowboy scoring in five of the last seven games going back to Dec. 17. Over that stretch he's averaging 14.7 points on 38.6% three-point shooting.
Brandon Garrison's 1.75 blocks per game is second on the Big 12 leaderboard. Per KenPom, Garrison grabs just under a quarter (23.2%) of opponent misses when he's on the floor. That's the league's third-highest individual defensive rebounding percentage.
Hicklen is shooting a Big 12-best .625 from three in conference play (5-of-8). He's connected on three-pointers in 12 straight games, hitting 25-of-50 (.500) in that stretch.
Javon Small ranks among the Big 12's top-10 in threes per game (7th, 2.27), defensive rebounds (8th, 4.8), assists (10th, 4.3) and free throw percentage (4th, .877).
Small has hit multiple triples in 10 straight contests. That's the longest such streak by a Cowboy since current OSU assistant Keiton Page, who did it in each of the last 12 games of his Cowboy career (Jan. 31 to Mar. 8, 2012).
Five different Cowboys have posted a double-double this year: Quion Williams (x2), Eric Dailey Jr. (x2), Mike Marsh, Garrison and Small.
OSU is 8-0 this year when leading at the half but 0-8 when tied or trailing.
Over the last two seasons, OSU is 26-5 when out-shooting its opponent.
OSU is the Big 12's second-best three-point shooting team by volume (9.3) and fourth-best by percentage (.361).
The Cowboys have kept opponents off the offensive glass this year, grabbing just under three-quarters of enemy misses. Their .747 defensive rebounding percentage is fourth-best in the Big 12 and No. 45 nationally.
OSU opponents have taken roughly 70% of their shots and scored just under 57% of their points from inside the arc. Both percentages rank among the top-25 nationally. By contrast, OSU has taken 44.2% of its shots (37th) and scored 38.1% of its points (23rd) from beyond the arc.
Cowboy opponents have posted the nation's seventh-lowest assist percentage (40.6%).

Some Frosh Perspective:

20 Big 12 freshmen have clocked at least 100 minutes this season. Five of them are Cowboys.
Rookies have combined for more than a third of OSU's points (33.5%) and minutes (34.8%). Both percentages lead the Big 12.
League-wide, Big 12 freshmen are averaging just 10.6% of the scoring and 12.3% of minutes. Throw out OSU's numbers and those averages drop to 8.9% and 10.5% respectively.
In other words – OSU's reliance on freshmen is well over three times the league average.
Only five of the league's 43 active freshmen have been on the court for more than half of their team's minutes. That group includes Eric Dailey Jr. (62.1%) and Brandon Garrison (53.1%).
Garrison's 28 blocks and 96 rebounds are both tops among Big 12 freshmen. Dailey's 156 points are third-most.

The Series with Kansas:
KU holds a 123-60 series lead with five consecutive wins but is just 40-36 in Stillwater (37-36 at GIA).
OSU is 10-8 against former Cowboy Bill Self in Stillwater (8-8 during his KU tenure).
Mike Boynton Jr. produced a rare regular season sweep of the Jayhawks in his first season (2017-18) but KU has won 10 of the 11 meetings since.
The last Cowboy victory came on Jan. 12, 2021 in Stillwater (75-70) behind 18 points from Big 12 Player of the Year Cade Cunningham.

Feb. 14, 2023 (Stillwater) | #5 Kansas 87, OSU 76
KU shot 66% in the second half to pull away… OSU held KU's leading scorer Jalen Wilson to 14 points (seven below his average), but freshman Gradey Dick picked up the slack, scoring 17 of his career-high 26 after halftime… Kalib Boone scored a career-high 27 points and John-Michael Wright added 18 for OSU which saw its five-game winning streak snapped…. Bryce Thompson scored 14 of his 17 in the first 11 minutes to spot the Cowboys to a 23-18 lead… Dick hit a three at the halftime buzzer to send KU into the break up 39-37 and scored eight more in the first 2:00 of the second half to push the Jayhawk in front for good.

Dec. 31, 2022 (Lawrence) | #4 Kansas 69, OSU 67
KJ Adams scored the winning basket with 4.8 seconds left as the Jayhawks rallied from 15 down at halftime to win their Big 12 opener… Jalen Wilson finished with 20 points and Adams had 14… Bryce Thompson scored a game-high 23 points for OSU. His seventh three-pointer of the night tied the game at 67 with 14.8 seconds left… The Jayhawks raced the ball up court to Adams for a lay-in with 4.8 to go… Thompson's potential game-winner for OSU was blocked from behind with 1.1 seconds left, as was one final inbounds pass… John-Michael Wright (season-high 19 points) hit four triples of his own, including a halftime buzzer-beater that sent OSU into the locker room with a 45-30 lead… The Cowboys made 9-of-18 first-half threes and forced 11 turnovers… KU committed just one more the rest of the way and wiped out the deficit early in the second half with a 22-5 surge.

Scouting the Jayhawks:

Kansas (14-2, 2-1 Big 12) is third in this week's AP Poll and No. 15 in the NET Rankings.
KU is 5-2 in Quadrant I games with marquee non-conference wins over Tennessee (current NET No. 6) and UConn (10).
The Jayhawks rank among the national leaders in both field goal percentage (9th, .502) and field goal percentage defense (20th, .391). They average 20.9 assists (No. 2 nationally) with a 1.71 assist-to-turnover ratio (11th).
Fifth-year senior Kevin McCullar (19.9 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 4.5 apg) is the conference's leading scorer (19.9 ppg). He's had at least a dozen points in every game and topped 20 on nine occasions.
7-foot-2 Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson -- a consensus preseason All-American -- averages 19.2 points and a league-high 12.0 rebounds with 10 double-doubles in 16 games.
Fifth-year senior guard Dajaun Harris -- last year's Big 12 Player of the Year -- also excels as a table-setter, averaging a conference-best 7.1 assists with a 2.78 assist-to-turnover ratio.
They're joined by junior forward KJ Adams, a 2023 honorable mention All-Big 12 pick who averages 12.6 points on 60.9% shooting.

Matchup Mashup:

KU's Bill Self played and coached at Oklahoma State. He was a four-year letterman (1981-85) and helped the Cowboys win the 1983 Big 8 tournament. Self later served as an OSU assistant under both Leonard Hamilton (1986-90) and Eddie Sutton (1990-93) before landing his first head coaching job at Oral Roberts.
OSU junior point guard Javon Small played his freshman season at East Carolina under former head coach Joe Dooley (2022-23). Dooley rejoined the Kansas staff last season as its Director of Student-Athlete Development.
Bryce Thompson played his freshman season (2020-21) at Kansas before transferring to OSU.
Thompson has a chance to reach 1,000 collegiate points against his former school (he has 986 coming in) and can also catch his father, Rod Thompson, who scored exactly 994 in three seasons at Tulsa (1995-98), the last of which came under Self.
Thompson still has a lot of work to do to set the family record. His maternal grandfather Marshall Rogers scored 1,645 points while playing for Kansas (1972-73) and UTRGV (1974-76).
OSU freshman Brandon Garrison and KU's Elmarko Jackson were teammates in the 2023 McDonald's All-American game.

A Cowboy win would...

Be their first in Big 12 play (1-3) and boost their overall record back above .500 (9-8).
Snap a five-game losing streak to Kansas and even their all-time mark against the Jayhawks at Gallagher-Iba Arena at 36-36.
Make them 11-8 against Bill Self teams at GIA, including 9-8 since he took over at Kansas.

Up Next: at Kansas State
Saturday, 6 p.m. CT (Big 12 NOW on ESPN+)

OSU is back on the road this weekend at Kansas State (12-4, 2-1 heading into Tuesday night's home game against No. 9 Baylor).
The Wildcats are 9-1 at Bramlage Coliseum.
K-State swept last year's series. Prior to that, the Cowboys had won five of six.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Kalib Boone

Eric Dailey Jr.

Brandon Garrison

Jarius Hicklen

Mike Marsh

Javon Small

Bryce Thompson

Quion Williams

John-Michael Wright

Oklahoma State University Athletics