Cowboy Basketball travels to Tulsa Wednesday

OKLAHOMA STATE (4-2) at TULSA (4-4)
Wednesday, Dec 5, 2024 | 7:01 p.m. CT
Tulsa, Okla. | Reynolds Center

Watch: ESPN+ (Chad McKee & Pooh Williamson)
Listen: Cowboy Radio Network & The Varsity App (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Tickets: tulsahurricane.com
Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Series: OSU leads 76-39 (28-23 at Tulsa)
Last: Dec. 10, 2023 in OKC/Paycom Center (OSU, 72-57)

Opening Tips:

After a nine-day break, the Oklahoma State Cowboys return to action Wednesday at Tulsa.
OSU is coming off a sixth-place finish at the Charleston Classic with a win over Miami sandwiched in between setbacks against 2024 NCAA tournament qualifiers FAU and Nevada.
In the Miami win, Bryce Thompson became the 45^th member of OSU's 1,000-point club. He's averaging a career-best 12.2 points and 3.5 rebounds while shooting better than 40% from deep (9-of-22, .409).
Thompson has helped OSU to victories over Tulsa in each of the past two years (2022 in Stillwater and 2023 at OKC's Paycom Center), but this will be the graduate guard's first game on the TU campus. His father, Rod, played three seasons for the Golden Hurricane (1995-98), earning all-conference honors as a senior.
OSU is 28-23 all-time at Tulsa but is 1-2 at the Reynold Center. The Cowboys last played there six years ago and last won in 2016.
Steve Lutz has never missed the NCAA tournament as a head coach, despite taking on major rebuilds at A&M-Corpus Christi (2021-23) and Western Kentucky (2023-24). He's in the midst of another at OSU with 13 newcomers (12 of them transfers). Thompson is one of just three returning lettermen.
Lutz's WKU team led the nation in adjusted tempo last year, and he has OSU playing similarly aggressive style, fueled by a deep bench.
OSU reserves have accounted for 42.0% of the minutes (14^th nationally) and 38.8 points per game (sixth). Ten Cowboys are clocking at least 12.0 minutes (tied for the most nationally).
Through six games, six different Cowboys have taken a turn atop the scoring chart and nine have tallied double-figure points at least once.
OSU entered the week ranked among the national leaders in turnover margin (15^th, +5.7), takeaways (38^th, 15.8), steals (43^rd, 9.2) and fastbreak points (24^th, 16.8).
The Cowboys are also ninth on the NCAA leaderboard in both free throw makes (20.7) and attempts (27.7). They've converted 74.7%.
Sixth-man Marchelus "Chi Chi" Avery is averaging a team-high 13.3 points.
Abou Ousmane's next start will be the 100^th of his NCAA career. The Xavier transfer played his first three seasons at North Texas. He's averaging 12.0 points and a team-best 5.2 rebounds.
This is the first of back-to-back true road tests for the Cowboys who will play Sunday at Seton Hall (11 a.m. CT, FS1) as part of the Big 12-Big East Battle series.

Last Time on Cowboy Basketball:
Nov. 24 in Charleston, S.C. | Nevada 90, OSU 78

OSU fell to shot-shooting Nevada in the Charleston Classic fifth-place game.
A clash of styles saw slow, methodical Nevada (6-1) shoot 58.9% led by the front court tandem of 6-9 Kobe Sanders (27 points) and 6-10 Nick Davidson (23).
Marchelus "Chi Chi" Avery (15 points), Arturo Dean (13), Robert Jennings (11) and Abou Ousmane (11) led the scoring for OSU, which held an 18-4 edge in fastbreak points and outscored Nevada 30-17 at the foul line.
Up 40-33 at halftime, Nevada made 9-of-10 shots to begin the second half. Sanders' third triple of the day capped an 18-3 run that upped the margin to 62-43 near the 14:00-mark.
Avery scored seven points during an 11-0 Cowboy counter. His three-pointer that narrowed the margin back to 62-54 with a little more than 11:00 still to play.
Jamyron Keller's three-pointer helped spark another 7-0 OSU run that closed the gap to 70-66 with 7:08 to play, but Nevada scored on each of its next three possessions to regain control.

Trending:

Steve Lutz noted one silver lining from OSU's 86-78 loss to FAU at the Charleston Classic -- one the saw the Cowboys whistled for 33 fouls. It allowed him to experiment with different lineups in crunch time. He used a season-high 32 combinations featuring 11 different players. Lutz has played a total of 59 unique lineup combos this season.
Seven Cowboys averaged at least 7.0 points in OSU's three Charleston Classic games, led by Chi Chi Avery (12.0 ppg).
For the year, OSU is putting up 81.7 points per game. The Cowboys have scored at least 78 in each of their first six contests with a high of 89 in the opener against Green Bay.
The Cowboys have outscored opponents by an average of 18.0 to 10.0 off takeaways and 16.8 to 6.5 on fastbreaks. They've finished even or better in the turnover column in every game.
OSU has jumped out to halftime leads in five of its six games this season (Nevada being the exception) but is still learning to stick the landing. Opponents are averaging 46.0 second half points on 50.3% shooting (compared to 33.2 on 44.7% in the first half). Nearly two-thirds of OSU's takeaways have come before halftime (9.5 vs. 5.3). The three Charleston Classic foes put up 52, 47 and 50 respectively (compared to 34, 27 and 40 in the first half).
OSU has scored the ball better in the second half, as well (44.2 vs. 37.5), due in large part to its ability to get to the foul line. The Cowboys are among the top-10 nationally in free throw makes per game (20.7), and their ability to sink them in key moments has helped overcome some of those late defensive lapses.
Toss out all of their first half attempts and the Cowboys would still rank ahead of 166 other schools (14.0). They've converted 84 of their 107 second half tries (.784).

Scouting the Golden Hurricane:

Picked tenth out of 13 teams in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll, the Golden Hurricane (4-4) opened at No. 285 in Monday's first installment of the NCAA NET Rankings.
Two of Tulsa's four losses have come in heartbreaking fashion:
In a 111-106 triple-overtime setback at Missouri State, the Hurricane erased a 12-point deficit in the final 4:30 of regulation and hit a half-court buzzer beater at the end of the first overtime.
Tulsa fell 74-71 in last week's Jacksonville Classic title game when Georgia State converted a three-point play with two seconds remaining.
Tulsa was one of the nation's most-improved teams last year, more than tripling its win total from the 2022-23 season (5-25 to 16-15).
National freshman of the year PJ Haggerty (21.2 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 3.8 apg, 1.9 spg) departed, but third-year head coach Eric Konkol returns two others who made the AAC's all-freshman team:
6-foot-1 guard Tyshawn Archie has made the jump from sixth man to full-time starter, averaging 11.6 points, while 6-9 forward Matthew Reed has provided steady bench production (4.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg).
Also back is 6-foot-3 guard Keaston Willis – a 1,600-point scorer in two-year stints at Incarnate Word and Louisiana Tech. Willis broke his foot two games into last season but is making the most of a sixth year of eligibility, averaging a team-best 13.5 points along with 2.5 threes on 39.2% accuracy.
6-7 senior Isaiah Barnes, a former Michigan transfer who started all 31 games last year for Tulsa, is putting up 11.2 points and 4.8 boards in his second go-around.
Konkol added some additional firepower through the transfer portal.
6-1 point guard Dwon Odom, a former top-50 recruit who has played for Xavier (2020-22) and most recently Georgia State (2022-24) is averaging 13.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.3 steals with a close to 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
6-4 Minnesota transfer Braeden Carrington (10.3 ppg) has been the team's top rebounder at 5.4 per game.
Tulsa is averaging 77.5 points, helped by triple-digit totals against Missouri State and Arkansas-Pine Bluff (103-80), and ranks among the national leaders in both three-point attempts (25^th, 30.0) and free throw attempts (42^nd, 25.0).

Matchup Mashup:

OSU will face each of its three Division I in-state rivals over the next three weeks, beginning with Tulsa. That stretch continues with games against the Oklahoma Sooners (Dec. 14 at the Paycom Center) and Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (Dec. 22 in Stillwater).
Bryce Thompson (Booker T. Washington) and Connor Dow (Broken Arrow) are both Tulsa area products.
Thompson's father, Rod Thompson, played three seasons at TU (1995-98) and was a second team All-WAC performer as a senior while averaging 15.0 points.
Tulsa senior guard Ari Seals' father, Shea Seals, played alongside the elder Thompson for the first two years in that stretch. The pair helped Tulsa to a pair of NCAA tournament appearances (1996, 1997) and a 2-0 record against OSU.
OSU is 2-0 against third-year Tulsa coach Erik Konkol.
Steve Lutz becomes the 18^th different OSU head coach to lead the Cowboys against Tulsa.
Lutz has faced neither Tulsa nor Konkol head-to-head.

The Series with Tulsa:

This is meeting No. 116 in a series that began in 1908 -- the first year of varsity basketball for both schools when they were known as Oklahoma A&M and Kendall College. Tulsa's first varsity game (and victory) came against visiting OSU. Likewise, OSU's first ever home game (and victory) came later that year at the expense of Tulsa.
The Cowboys lead 76-39 and have won seven of the last nine installments.
OSU is looking to sweep the last of a three-year series between the programs.
Last December at Oklahoma City's Paycom Center, the Cowboys jumped out to a 17-3 lead on their way to a 72-57 victory.
Two years ago in Stillwater, OSU rolled to an 82-56 win behind 18 points from Bryce Thompson. The Cowboys led 41-29 at halftime, then outscored the visitors 35-8 over the first 11 minutes of the second half to put the game out of reach. The 26-point final margin was the most lopsided OSU-Tulsa score since 1954.

Last Tulsa Time:
Dec. 10, 2023 in OKC/Paycom Center | OSU 72, TLS 57

Javon Small scored 18 points and OSU rode a fast start to a neutral court win over Tulsa in the Battleground 2K23.
The Cowboys won despite totaling more turnovers (28) than baskets (23). They committed just one in the first 9:00 while building leads of 17-3 and 21-5 but had 13 in the final 11:00 and 14 more after halftime.
PJ Haggerty and Tyshawn Archie scored 13 points each and combined for nine of Tulsa's 19 steals – the most ever by an OSU opponent.
The Cowboys atoned with a dominant defensive effort of their own, forcing 20 Tulsa turnovers while finishing +18 on the boards (41-23). They held the Golden Hurricane to 37% from the field, (3-of-20 from deep) and just four assists.
OSU shot 48.9% and 8-of-20 from three.
Quion Williams added a career-high 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting along with seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. He converted a three-point play with 5:32 left in the opening half to give OSU its largest lead (30-11).

A Cowboy win would...

Improve their record to 5-2.
Make them 1-0 in true road games.
Match their road win total from last year (1-9).
Be their third straight win over Tulsa and extend their lead in the all-time series to 77-39.
Make them 2-2 all-time at the Reynolds Center.
Make them 3-0 against Eric Konkol.
Improve Steve Lutz's career mark to 74-37.
Coupled with their win over Miami, give them wins over every DI college basketball team named the Hurricane(s).

Up Next: at Seton Hall
Sunday, Dec. 8 | 11 a.m. CT | FS1

OSU travels to Seton Hall as part of the Big 12-Big East Battle series.
The defending NIT champion Pirates (4-4 heading into Wednesday night's home game against NJIT) finished third at last week's Charleston Classic with wins over VCU and FAU bookending a semifinal loss to Vanderbilt.
Seton Hall began the week 126th in KenPom's efficiency rankings and No. 200 in the first installment of the NCAA NET.
The only other meeting between OSU and Seton Hall took place in the 2000 NCAA tournament in Syracuse. The Cowboys won 68-66 to advance to the Elite Eight.

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Arturo Dean

Connor Dow

Jamyron Keller

Abou Ousmane

Javon Small

Bryce Thompson

Quion Williams

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