Game Notes: BYU

#19/17 BYU (18-6, 6-5) at Oklahoma State (10-14, 2-9)
Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024 | 1:01 p.m. CT
Stillwater, Okla. | Gallagher-Iba Arena (13,611)

TV: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (James Westling & Bryndon Manzer)
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Tickets: okstate.com/tickets
Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Series: BYU leads 4-3 (Tied 1-1 in Stillwater)
Streak: BYU, Won 1
Last: 12/6/2003 in Salt Lake City (BYU, 61-50)

The Basics:

The Oklahoma State Cowboys (10-14, 2-9) welcome in the BYU Cougars (18-6, 6-5) Saturday for a 1 p.m. CT tipoff.
Fans are invited to stick around to watch the OSU women take on Houston at 4 p.m. One tickets grants admission to both games.
OSU will salute the 2004 Final Four team at halftime as part of its annual men's basketball's alumni weekend.
The Cowboys have had a full week off since their 66-62 setback at Oklahoma. Javon Small had 17 points and Quion Williams notched his fourth double-double.
BYU is the first of the four new Big 12 members to make an appearance at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
The Cougars moved to No. 9 in the NCAA NET rankings after Tuesday's 90-88 win over UCF.
Two of the league's best three-point shooting teams go toe-to-toe. The Cowboys average 8.6 per game while BYU comes in averaging a nation-best 11.6.

Watch:
The game will air on the Big 12 Now on ESPN+ with James Westling and Bryndon Manzer. Fans can 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 on stations across the Cowboy Radio Network. Visit okstate.com/radio for a full list of affiliates by location. Fans outside the listening area can tune in via the Varsity Sports App or at okstate.com/listen.

Last Time on Cowboy Basketball:
Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024 (Norman) | Oklahoma 66, OSU 62

Oklahoma finished on a 14-6 run to win the first of two Bedlam Series matchups.
Javon Small scored 17 points and Quion Williams (12 pts, 10 reb) secured his fourth double-double for OSU, which took a 56-52 lead with less than 5:00 to play but missed its next five shots.
Jalon Moore scored five of his team-high 15 points for OU during a pivotal 9-0 run.
OSU had a chance to tie the game with less than 10 seconds left, down three, but Rivaldo Soares came up with a game-saving steal, stripping Small from behind on his way to the basket.
An OU team that entered the night ranked among the top-10 nationally in three-point defense held OSU to 3-of-17 from deep and 31% overall from the field.
The Cowboys hung around anyway by making 21-of-28 free throws, including 7-of-8 off technical and flagrant fouls. They won the turnover battle 12-6 and limited OU to two offensive rebounds.
OU shot 45.7% including 9-of-23 from distance.

Trending:

OSU fifth-years Jarius Hicklen (289) and John-Michael Wright (280) have knocked down a total of 569 career three-pointers. Only two other active NCAA duos have combined for more.

Active NCAA Duos (All Levels) w/ Most 3-Point FGM:

Williams (333) & French (273) – Arkansas-Pine Bluff – 606

Scheierman (322) & Ashworth (259) – Creighton – 581

Hicklen (289) & Wright (280) – Oklahoma State -- 569

Wright's 2,042 career points are 13^th on the NCAA's active list and No. 557 all-time per College Basketball Reference.
Javon Small ranks among the Big 12 leaders in scoring (11th, 14.2), assists (8th, 4.6), threes-per-game (9th, 2.04), three-point percentage (5th, .397), free throw percentage (6th, .852), defensive rebounding (6th, 4.86) and minutes (9th, 32:34).
Small is averaging 17.7 points in three February games, including 9.0 free throw attempts (23/27, .852).
Small's 85.3 percentage is the highest by a Cowboy on 4.0+ attempts since current OSU assistant Keiton Page during 2010-11 season (135/151, .894).
Brandon Garrison's 34 blocks are No. 7 on OSU's freshman single-season list. His next block ties him for Andre Williams (35 in 1999-00) and the one after will match Ivan McFarlin (2001-02).
Garrison's 1.4 blocks-per-game ranks fourth on the Big 12 Conference leaderboard.
Garrison (.561) is also on track to post the fourth-highest freshman field goal percentage in program history (minimum 80 makes).

OSU Freshman Bests // Field Goal % (min. 2.5 FGM):

Yor Anei (2018-19) -- 98/159, .616

Ivan McFarlin (2001-02) -- 145/246, .614

Byron Houston (1988-89) -- 140/240, .583

Brandon Garrison (2023-24) -- 64/114, .561

Richard Dumas (1987-88) -- 203/372, .546

In Big 12 play, Garrison (82.5) is the league leader in free throw rate -- a stat the shows the ratio of a free throw attempts to field goal attempts and generally reflects a player's ability to draw fouls and get to the line. Garrison has been to the line 47 times while attempting 57 shots.
Freshman guard Jamyron Keller has been asked to take on more of the load in the absence of Bryce Thompson who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury against Kansas (Jan. 30). In the three games since Keller has averaged 8.3 points in 24.0 minutes. He had played a TOTAL of 24 minutes in Big 12 play prior to that while tallying four points.
John-Michael Wright has scored in double-figures in all seven games since rejoining the starting lineup on Jan. 20 and in 11 of his 12 starts this year. He's averaging 11.4 points as a starter compared to 4.4 points in 12 games off the bench.

OSU vs. Nationally-Ranked Opponents:

Six Big 12 teams are ranked and three others are receiving votes in this week's AP Poll. Great for the league. Not so great for OSU, which plays 13 of its 18 conference games against that group of schools, including six of the eight remaining.
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 (0-5).
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 76-84 on its home floor against nationally-ranked teams.

The Series with BYU:

The first Big 12 era meeting between OSU and BYU is the first between the programs in 20 years.
BYU tipped the series scales in its favor (4-3) with a 76-71 victory on Dec. 6, 2003 in Salt Lake City.
Notably, each of the last two OSU teams to fall to BYU went on to play in Finals Fours (1995 and 2004). The 1994-95 Cowboys dropped their season opener at the Top of the World Classic in Anchorage, Alaska.
In between, OSU won a January, 2003 matchup in downtown Oklahoma City. It was the first ever college basketball game played at the Paycom Center (then known as the Ford Center).
The schools have split two meetings each in both Stillwater and Provo – all more than a half century ago.
The Cowboys won the series debut (Dec. 15, 1961) under legendary head coach Henry Iba in the arena that now partially bears his name.
Two years later (Dec. 12, 1963) he led the Cowboys to a 71-64 road win at Marriott Center's predecessor, Smith Field House.
Shortly after Mr. Iba's 1970 retirement, nationally-ranked BYU squads returned the favor with a home-and-home sweep.
This is BYU's first trip to Gallagher-Iba Arena since Dec. 15, 1971.
Likewise, the regular season finale will mark OSU's first visit to Provo since Dec. 13, 1972. The Marriott Center (now in its 53rd season) was just over a year old at that point.

Last 3 Meetings with BYU:

Dec. 6, 2003 in Salt Lake City | BYU 76, #25 OSU 71

Rafael Araujo scored 26 of his 32 points in the second half, including six free throws in final 61 seconds to lead BYU to a 76-71 win.
Araujo, a 6-11, 280-pound senior from Brazil, was 10-of-15 from the field and grabbed 17 rebounds. He went on to earn second team All-America honors that year and was drafted eighth overall by the Toronto Raptors.
Mark Bigelow added 16 points to go with 10 from Mike Hall.
The game was played 45 minutes north of the BYU campus at the home of the Utah Jazz.
OSU led 68-66 after a John Lucas fastbreak layup with 3:51 to play but didn't score again until the final seconds.
BYU transfer Daniel Bobik scored 18 points and handed out eight assists against his former team.
Tony Allen added 15 for the Cowboys, who shot 52% but managed just one offensive rebound.
Helped by Araujo, BYU had a 44-18 advantage on the glass.
Head coach Eddie Sutton was so dismayed by the rebounding effort that he had his team suit up in helmets and shoulder pads for its next practice back in Stillwater. The move paid off. The Cowboys went on to win 27 of their next 29 games on their way to the Big 12's regular season and tournament titles and a Final Four berth.

Jan. 4, 2003 in Oklahoma City | OSU 78, BYU 65

Ivan McFarlin scored a career-high 27 points and OSU held BYU without a field goal for more than 11 minutes during the second half to pull away.
McFarlin was 10-of-14 from the field and made all seven free throw attempts.
Tony Allen added 22 points and six assists for OSU, which shot 51% and forced 19 BYU turnovers while committing just 11.
Travis Hansen led BYU with 14 points – 12 of them in the first half – and Rafael Araujo chipped in 11 points and 14 boards.
OSU used a 16-2 run late in the first half to take a 35-30 lead into halftime.
After BYU rallied to tie the game at 38, the Cowboys put together another 23-5 stretch and led by double-figures the rest of the way.
The OSU-BYU matchup was the first college basketball game played at Oklahoma City's Paycom Center (then known as the Ford Center).
It was the first half of an All-College Classic doubleheader that also featured Oklahoma and Michigan.

Nov. 23, 1994 in Anchorage, Alaska | BYU 69, #19 OSU 59

OSU's 1995 Final Four season began with two losses in three days at the Top of the World Classic in Anchorage – the first to BYU in the tournament's quarterfinal round.
Down 35-31 at halftime, BYU shifted its tactics and outscored OSU 35-21 the rest of the away.
A box-and-one defense bottled up sharpshooter Randy Rutherford and the four other Cougar defenders frustrated 7-foot All-American Bryant Reeves with a tightly-packed zone.
Rutherford made his first four threes and finished with 22 points but managed just two baskets – both of them layups – after halftime. Reeves added 18 points.
BYU was one of the few teams that had an answer for OSU's inside-out duo during the Cowboys' Final Four season. Reeves scored more than 21 points per game while Rutherford averaged 19.6 points and made 146 threes.
Shane Knight (21 points), Russell Larson (16) and Robbie Reid (12) paced BYU, which went on to win 22 games and reached the NCAA tournament as a No. 8 seed.

Scouting the Cougars:

Picked 13th out of 14 teams in the Big 12 preseason poll, BYU (18-6, 6-5) has been one of the league's biggest surprises. The Cougars enter the weekend at No. 9 in the NCAA NET ratings and No. 19 in the Associated Press Poll.
Seven Cougars average between nine and 14 points. All of them are returning players from last year's squad, which finished 19-15 and No. 84 in the NET.
6-foot-7 senior guard Jaxson Robinson averages a team-high 13.8 points and has connected 57 times from deep on 37.5% accuracy.
6-5 junior Trevin Kenell (11.4 ppg) has made 53 triples on 41.7% shooting while 6-11 senior Noah Waterman (10.6 ppg, team-best 6.0 rpg) has knocked down 46 on 38.0%.
Dallin Hall (9.0 ppg) is the team's top assist man at 4.9 per game.
BYU opened Big 12 play at 2-4 but has since won four of its last five to move over the .500 mark for the first time. The Cougars are 2-3 in conference road games with wins at UCF and West Virginia and losses at Baylor, Texas Tech and Oklahoma.
BYU averages a nation-best 11.6 threes per game on 36% accuracy. Over half the team's shots and 41.8% of its points come from beyond the arc.
The Cougars average a Big 12-best 83.4 points per game and also rank among the national leaders in assists per game (2nd, 19.4) assist-to-turnover ratio (7th, 1.76), rebound margin (18th, +7.5).
Defensively, BYU has limited opponents to 6.1 threes per game on 29.7% shooting.
Fifth-year head coach Mark Pope was a member of Kentucky's 1996 national championship team.

Matchup Mashup:

BYU senior Jaxson Robinson is an Ada, Okla. native who played his first two collegiate seasons at Texas A&M and Arkansas.
As part of its annual alumni weekend, OSU will welcome back members of its 2004 Final Four team on Saturday, including Daniel Bobik, a 6-6 junior guard who made 34 starts and averaged more than 30 minutes after transferring in from BYU.

A Cowboy win would...

Up their record to 11-14 (3-9 Big 12).
Be their third in six tries after an 0-6 start.
Give them three straight home wins.
Make them 10-5 at GIA (3-3 Big 12).
Even the all-time series with BYU at 4-4 and give them a 2-1 lead in Stillwater.
Be Boynton's 24th top-25 win in seven seasons.

Up Next: at Cincinnati

Wednesday, Feb. 21 (ESPN+)
The first Big 12 era meeting between the programs is also their first in 21 years. The Cowboys hold a 3-2 series lead but are winless in two trips to Cincinnati (1958 and 2003).
The Bearcats (15-9, 4-7 heading into Saturday's game at UCF) are No. 19 in KenPom's defensive efficiency rankings and No. 36 overall.
UC has been one of the nation's best offensive rebounding teams, grabbing 38.1% of its own misses (seventh nationally).

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Brandon Garrison

Jarius Hicklen

Jamyron Keller

Javon Small

Bryce Thompson

Quion Williams

John-Michael Wright

Oklahoma State University Athletics