Game Notes: at Kansas State

Oklahoma State (8-9, 0-4) at Kansas State (13-4, 3-1)
Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024 | 6:01 p.m. CT
Manhattan, Kan. (Bramlage Coliseum)

Tickets: okstate.com/tickets
TV: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (Shawn Kenney & Bryndon Manzer)
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Internet Radio: okstate.com/listen & The Varsity Sports App
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Series: KSU leads 86-58 (42-19 in Manhattan)
Last: Feb. 25, 2023 in Stillwater (KSU, 73-68)

The Basics:

The Oklahoma State Cowboys (8-9, 0-4) are at Bramlage Coliseum on Saturday evening to take on the Kansas State Wildcats (13-4, 3-1). Tipoff is 6:01 p.m.
OSU is still in search of its first Big 12 victory after opening against four teams that all currently rank among the AP top-25.
K-State is part of a four-way tie for the league lead after downing Baylor in overtime on Tuesday. The Wildcats are 10-0 in OT games under second-year head coach Jerome Tang (5-0 this year).

Watch:
The game will air on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ with Shawn Kenney and Bryndon Manzer.
Subscribe to ESPN's over-the-top streaming service for $10.99/month ($110/year) or bundle with Disney+ and Hulu for as little as $14.99/month. Visit plus.espn.com for more information.

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.

Last Time on Cowboy Basketball
Jan. 16, 2024 in Stillwater (#3 Kansas 90, OSU 66)

Bryce Thompson scored his 1,000th collegiate point but it wasn't enough to keep pace with third-ranked Kansas' high-flying offense.
Led by 21 points from Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr.'s 18 points and eight assists, the Jayhawks shot 62.1% from the field, helped by a 20-3 edge on fast break points and a 46-24 advantage in the paint.
OSU made a season-high 18 free throws on 24 attempts but hit just 38.5% from the field.
Thompson, who played his freshman season at Kansas, entered the night with 986 points and added 20 more to his total.
Jarius Hicklen and Brandon Garrison added 10 points each and Javon Small handed out seven assists.
The Jayhawks built leads of 25-10 and 37-17 in the first half after sinking 17 of their first 24 shots.
Thompson beat the halftime buzzer with a three for OSU to trim the deficit to 48-33, but the Jayhawks launched another 12-0 volley early in the second half to put the game out of reach.

Individual Trends:

Saturday's game at K-State will be the 100th of senior guard Bryce Thompson's NCAA career. It will be his 80th in an OSU uniform and likely his 75th start.
Thompson scored a season-high 20 points on Tuesday against his former school, Kansas. It was his seventh 20-point game in three seasons as a Cowboy. His seven free throw makes were a new personal-best and his eight attempts matched another.
Thompson has twice topped 20 against K-State. Since transferring to OSU, he's averaged 15.3 points in four encounters with the Wildcats.
Thompson needs just 85 more points to become the 44th member of OSU's 1,000-point club. He'd be the sixth to join the club under Mike Boynton's watch, alongside Jeffrey Carroll (1,416 from 2014-18), Cameron McGriff (1,211 from 2016-20), Lindy Waters III (1,152 from 2016-20), Isaac Likekele (1,015 from 2018-22) and Avery Anderson III (1,061 from 2019-23).
Thompson scored his 1,000th collegiate point on Tuesday (the first 91 came during his freshman season at Kansas), giving OSU a trio of 1,000-point scorers on the roster.
Graduate guard Jarius Hicklen scored his 1,400th collegiate point on Tuesday and also knocked down his 200th Division I three-pointer.
Fellow fifth-year John-Michael Wright needs just 47 more points to reach the 2,000-mark.
Eric Dailey is shooting 57% from the field in Big 12 play, including 77.8% (14/18) from inside the arc.
Hicklen's 10-point effort against KU also included a second-half layup. Prior to Tuesday, all 29 of his baskets had come from beyond the arc.
Hicklen has made a three-pointer in 13 straight games going back to Nov. 20. He's 27-of-55 (.491) from deep over that stretch.
Quion Williams has posted at least one steal in each of the last seven games. 15 of his team-high 25 steals have come over that stretch.
Javon Small's 0-for-4 performance against Kansas ended a run of 10-straight games with multiple three-pointers. It was OSU's longest such streak in a dozen years.
Small ranks second in the Big 12 and inside the top-50 nationally in free throw percentage (50/57, .877). He's also among the league leaders in three-pointers (9th, 2.13), defensive boards (9th, 4.6) and assists (9th, 4.5).
Dow clocked over 16 minutes against KU – the most he's played since the season opener against Abilene Christian (20:38). He finished with five points, two rebounds and a steal.
Freshman Brandon Garrison has played some of his best ball of late, averaging 8.8 points on 67% shooting and a team-best 6.5 rebounds in four Big 12 games (up from 5.6 points, 53% shooting and 5.8 boards during non-conference play).
Garrison ranks third on the Big 12 leaderboard in blocks (1.65).
Five different Cowboys have posted a double-double this year: Williams (x2), Dailey (x2), Mike Marsh, Garrison and Small.

Team Trends:

This is OSU's fifth consecutive Quadrant I game to start off conference play. Eight of the 13 remaining games also fall into that category.
OSU is 8-0 this year when leading at the half but 0-9 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 (9.1) while shooting 35.7%.
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 fifth-best in the Big 12 and No. 42 nationally.
OSU opponents have taken over 70% of their shots and scored nearly 58% of their points from inside the arc. Both percentages rank among the top-20 nationally. By contrast, OSU has taken 44.0% of its shots (39th) and scored 37.5% of its points from beyond the arc (28th).
Cowboy opponents have posted the nation's 15th-lowest assist percentage (42.1%).
20 Big 12 freshmen have clocked at least 100 minutes this season. Five of them are Cowboys. Rookies have combined for roughly a third of OSU's points (33.1%) and minutes (34.3%). Both percentages lead the Big 12. Only five of the league's 41 active freshmen have been on the court for more than half of their team's minutes. That group includes Eric Dailey Jr. (61.6%) and Brandon Garrison (53.8%).

The Series with Kansas State:

The teams will play twice in a 15-day span, with K-State making the return trip to Stillwater on Saturday, Feb. 3.
This is meeting No. 145 in a series that began 102 years ago tomorrow (Jan. 21, 1922).
K-State holds an 86-58 edge after sweeping OSU last year for the first time since 2019 (65-57 in Manhattan and 73-68 in Stillwater). Prior to that, the Cowboys had won five of the last six meetings.
OSU is 19-42 all-time in Manhattan but holds a 12-15 mark at Bramlage Coliseum.
OSU is 36-28 against the Cats in Stillwater (33-26 at GIA).
Mike Boynton is 5-7 vs. KSU (2-4 in Manhattan).

Feb. 25, 2023 (Stillwater) – #14 KSU 73, OSU 68
Markquis Nowell (22 points, 8 assists) and Keyontae Johnson (17) combined for over half the scoring for the 11th-ranked Wildcats, who trailed by eight points near the 12:00-mark before catching fire.

Jan. 10, 2023 (Manhattan) – #14 KSU 65, OSU 57
Markquis Nowell finished with 20 points for No. 14 K-State, which led by a point at the under-4:00 timeout but finished the game on a 9-1 run. OSU played its second game without 7-foot eraser Moussa Cisse.

Feb. 19, 2022 (Stillwater) – OSU 82, KSU 79 ot
Bryce Thompson scored a career-high 23 and Avery Anderson III hit a game-winning triple with 3.5 seconds left in overtime.

Feb. 2, 2022 (Manhattan) – KSU 71, OSU 68
K-State's Nijel Pack buried a game-winning three-pointer from the top of the key with 2.2 seconds left. Thompson scored 22 for OSU.

Feb. 13, 2021 (Stillwater) – #23 OSU 67, KSU 60
OSU built a 35-19 halftime lead and coasted behind All-American Cade Cunningham's 15 points and five assists.

Jan. 9, 2021 (Manhattan) – OSU 70, KSU 54
K-State successfully blanketed Cunningham, holding the star freshman to a season-low five points on three shots, but his supporting cast rose to the occasion. The Cowboys made their last 13 shots from the field.

Scouting the Wildcats:

Kansas State (13-4, 3-1 Big 12) is part of a four-way tie atop the Big 12 standings after wins over UCF, West Virginia and Baylor. The lone loss came at Texas Tech by point.
Tuesday's 68-64 win over Baylor continued a remarkable run for the Wildcats who improved to 10-0 in overtime games under second-year head coach Jerome Tang (5-0 this season).
Tang guided a K-State team picked last in the Big 12 preseason poll to a 26-10 record and the Elite Eight in 2022-23.
K-State lost senior standouts Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson to graduation but added a pair of difference-makers from the transfer portal in 6-7 junior Arthur Kaluma (14.7 ppg, 8.0 rpg) from Creighton and 5-11 senior Tylor Perry (15.3 ppg, 5.2 apg, 2.20 A:TO), the 2023 Conference USA Player of the Year at North Texas.
Cam Carter has been one of the Big 12's most-improved performers, averaging a team-best 16.6 points and 2.0 steals.
That trio has combined for 47 of K-State's 74.8 points per game. All three are averaging at least 35 minutes.
K-State has a KenPom top-25 defense. The Cats are limiting foes to less than 40% shooting (.395, 26th).
Offensively, the Wildcats average a league-high 14.5 turnovers and are shooting just 43.4% from the field (31% from deep) but have the nation's 14th-best offensive rebounding percentage (.374).

Matchup Mashup:

K-State's Tylor Perry was part of the North Texas team that ended OSU's 2023 NIT run. Perry scored 23 points in the Mean Green's overtime win at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
K-State assistant Rodney Perry served as associate head coach under Scott Sutton during the 2016-17 season at Oral Roberts.

A Cowboy win would...

Be their first in Big 12 play (1-4) and boost their overall record back to .500 (9-9).
Be their first on the road this year (1-3).
Be their sixth over K-State in the last nine meetings.
Be their first in Manhattan since 2021 and make them 3-4 at Bramlage under Boynton.
Be their first in three tries against Tang.

Up Next: TCU
Tuesday, 8 p.m. CT (ESPN2)

OSU is back home next week for Big 12 games against No. 19 TCU (13-4, 2-2 heading into its Saturday home game with Iowa State) and West Virginia (6-11, 1-3).
TCU and OSU split last year's series with each side protecting its home court.
OSU leads 29-13 all-time.

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Avery Anderson III

Moussa Cisse

Eric Dailey Jr.

Brandon Garrison

Jarius Hicklen

Mike Marsh

Javon Small

Bryce Thompson

Quion Williams

John-Michael Wright

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