Cowboy Basketball Notes: at Texas

Saturday, March 2

Austin, Texas

1:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

Texas

March 01, 2024 | Cowboy Basketball

OSU Notes (PDF)Texas Notes (PDF)Watch Listen Live Stats Series History

Oklahoma State (12-16, 4-11) at Texas (18-10, 7-8)
Saturday, Mar. 2, 2024 | 1:05 p.m. CT
Austin, Texas | Moody Center

TV: ESPN2 (Mark Neely & Bryndon Manzer)
Radio: Cowboy Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Series: UT leads 58-47 (34-14 in Austin)
Last: Mar. 9, 2023 in Big 12 Quarterfinals (UT, 61-47)

The Basics:

The Oklahoma State Cowboys (12-16, 4-11) make their final Big 12 visit to Austin on Saturday to face the Texas Longhorns (18-10, 7-8) inside the Moody Center.
The Cowboys are looking to shake off back-to-back home heartbreakers. Last Saturday's 84-82 loss to OU came on a three-point buzzer-beater. They led by 12 late in the first half of Wednesday's 77-71 setback against UCF before foul trouble began to takes its toll. The teams combined for 54 personals and 66 free throw attempts.
John-Michael Wright (22 points) became the seventh different Cowboy to top 20 points this season, tying a school record last achieved 34 years ago.
Texas is the only Big 12 foe that OSU has not yet faced. For the first time since 1996 the schools will not play a game in Stillwater, due to the new unbalanced schedule.
The Cowboys dropped their first seven road games before breaking through last week at Cincinnati. They're in search of their first win in Austin since Mar. 7, 2020.
Texas has neither won nor lost consecutive games in more than a month. The Longhorns capped a 4-3 February with an 81-69 victory at Texas Tech on Tuesday. They're one of nine Big 12 teams in ESPN's projected NCAA tournament field, as a No. 8 seed.

Watch:
The game will air on ESPN2 with Mark Neely and Bryndon Manzer on the call with streaming available live or on demand through the ESPN app.

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.

On this Date: Mar. 2

2005 -- No. 8 OSU made 15 straight free throws down the stretch to fend off visiting Texas A&M, 69-63, and extend the nation's longest home winning streak to 29 games.
2013 -- Markel Brown scored 18 points and the 15th-ranked Cowboys spanned halftime with an 18-2 run to defeat Texas, 78-65, at GIA.

Last Time on Cowboy Basketball:
Wednesday, Feb. 28 in Stillwater (UCF 77, OSU 71)

UCF's depth won the day in a war of attrition.
The teams combined for 54 fouls and 66 free throw attempts.
John-Michael Wright scored a career-high 22 points on five three-pointers for OSU, which led 36-24 near the 5:00 mark of the first half before mounting foul trouble began to take its toll.
Six Cowboys and five Knights were all saddled with at least two personals by halftime, at which point UCF had pulled to within 42-38.
The visitors scored the first seven points of the second half and never trailed again.
UCF out-rebounded the Cowboys 25-10 over the final 20:00 and outscored them 11-0 on second-chances.
Darius Johnson had 15 points to lead UCF, which shot 42.3% from the field, 6-of-16 from three and 27-36 at the foul line.
Eric Dailey Jr. (15 points), Javon Small (13 points) and Brandon Garrison (six rebounds) all fouled out for OSU, which shot 40.4% (5/20 3pt) and made 24-of-30 freebies.
OSU's 28 fouls tied for the most in a Big 12 game this season (Texas had 28 at WVU on Jan. 13).
54 combined fouls were the most in an OSU game since Jan. 21, 2017 at Texas Tech (56).
66 combined free throw attempts were the most in a Big 12 game involving OSU since Dec. 29, 2017 against WVU (68).
More Cowboys fouled out of Wednesday's game (3) than had done so in each of the first 27 games combined (2). It was the most DQ's for an OSU team since Feb. 8, 2020 (3 vs. Baylor).

Entertainment Seven Twenty:

John-Michael Wright (22 points) became the seventh different Cowboy to notch a 20-point game this year, tying a school record set three times previously, most recently in 1989-90.
Seven is also tied for the Big 12 lead with BYU.

OSU Teams w/ Seven 20-Point Scorers:

2023-24: Javon Small (4), Brandon Garrison (3), Eric Dailey Jr. (1), Jamyron Keller (1), Bryce Thompson (1), Quion Williams (1), John-Michael Wright (1)
1989-90: Byron Houston (12), Royce Jeffries (8), Richard Dumas (3), John Potter (3), Corey Williams (1), Darwyn Alexander (1), Mattias Sahlstrom (1)
1985-86: Terry Faggins (8), Muhammad Akbar (5), Andre Ivy (2), Anthony Andrews (1), Alan Bannister (1), Melvin Gilliam (1), Mitch Jones (1)
1984-85: Joe Atkinson (7), Charles Williams (6), Win Case (2), Ray Alford (1), Rick Anderson (1), Terry Faggins (1), Bill Self (1)

Next Men Up:

Senior guard Bryce Thompson's season-ending shoulder injury on Jan. 30 looked like a crippling blow to an OSU team that already ranked near the bottom of the league in scoring (63.8 points in seven January Big 12 games) and field goal percentage (.398). Both averages ranked 13th out of 14 teams.
Instead, we saw the opposite. In seven February contests, the Cowboys put up 75.1 points (2nd most) while shooting a league-best 47.0%.
Thompson's 10.4 points have been replaced, in part, by Javon Small -- whose scoring averaged leaped from 11.4 in the seven January conference games to 17.1 in February (No. 5 in the Big 12) -- and John-Michael Wright (9.5 to 12.6).
But the biggest jump has come from freshman combo guard Jamyron Keller, who had clocked just 25 Big 12 minutes prior to Thompson's injury, but has averaged 30.0 in the seven games since. He's accounted for 11.3 points on 54% shooting in that span.
Quion Williams has also found a second wind since regaining his spot in the starting lineup. He averaged 12.1 points and a team-best 6.1 rebounds in February (up from 2.9 and 4.4).

Tracking Team Trends:

The Cowboys are 9-0 this season when scoring at least 75 points in regulation.
OSU is 11-4 with a halftime lead compared to 1-12 when tied or trailing. The exception came in the home win over West Virginia when the Cowboys trailed 33-32 at the break but went on to win by four.
OSU's 57.4% shooting percentage in last Saturday's overtime loss to Oklahoma was its highest in a loss since Feb. 1, 1997. The Cowboys are 35-5 under Boynton when making at least half of their shots (5-1 this season).
Boynton teams are also 101-28 when out-shooting their opponent (9-3 in 2023-24).
OSU is 3-10 in two possession games (decided by six points in either direction).
Ten of the 16 Cowboy losses have been one possession games within the final minute. OSU fell on a buzzer beater to Oklahoma on Feb. 24 and, in eight others, had the ball with less than 20 seconds left and chance to tie or take the lead.

Player Notables:

Javon Small ranks among the Big 12 leaders in scoring (12th, 14.6), assists (7th, 4.4), free throw percentage (t-5th, .855), defensive rebounding (7th, 4.6) and minutes (10th, 33.1).
Eric Dailey Jr. is in the midst of the best two-game scoring stretch of his young career (17.5 ppg) following up a season-best 20 points against Oklahoma (Feb. 24) with 15 vs. UCF (Feb. 28). He was a combined 12-of-16 from the field and 10-of-11 at the line.
Quion Williams' six double-figure rebounding games is tied for fourth-most in the Big 12.
A total 44 active players across all levels of NCAA basketball have made at least 290 career three-pointers. OSU is the only school with multiple names on the list -- John-Michael Wright (293) and Jarius Hicklen (291).
In Big 12 play, Wright ranks among the league leaders in three-pointers by both volume (t-5th, 2.47) and percentage (7th, .374).

The Wright Track:

John-Michael Wright had made multiple three-pointers in each of his last 11 games. That's tied for the third-longest such streak in program history -- one shy of current OSU assistant Keiton Page, who did it in each of his last 12 games as a player (2011-12).
Obi Muonelo set the record with a 17-game stretch in 2008-09.

OSU Bests // Consecutive Games w/ Multiple 3pt FG:
17 -- Obi Muonelo (2008-09)
12 -- Keiton Page (2011-12)
11 -- John Lucas (2004-05)
11 -- JamesOn Curry (2006-07)
11 -- Obi Muonelo (2009-10)
11 -- John-Michael Wright (Active)

Wright Climbs the All-Time Scoring List:

John-Michael Wright, a second-year Cowboy who played his first three seasons at High Point, has tallied 2,094 career points.
College Basketball Reference maintains an all-time list of top scorers at the major conference level. Wright's 22-point day against UCF jumped him into the top-500. He's tied for 464th with Jameer Nelson (St. Joseph's) -- who as Cowboy fans may recall, scored the last 17 points of his career against OSU in the 2004 Elite Eight.
Reggie Miller (2,095, 1983-87 at UCLA) is among the notables just ahead of Wright on the list.

The Series with Texas:

This is the last Big 12 Conference matchup between OSU and Texas with the Longhorns scheduled to depart for the SEC this summer.
The Cowboys have played a game in Austin in each of the last 28 seasons dating back to the league's formation (1996-97).
This is meeting No. 106 all-time in a series that began in 1918. The Longhorns lead 58-47.
OSU is just 14-34 in Austin (0-1 at Moody Center) with three straight defeats.
The Longhorns swept all three 2022-23 meetings -- the last in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament.

Scouting the Longhorns:

Texas is in its first full season under Rodney Terry, who took over as the interim head coach last winter and earned the job on a full-time basis after leading the Longhorns to the Big 12 tournament title and an Elite Eight appearance.
UT lost a pair of All-Big 12 guards in Marcus Carr and Sir-Jabari Rice but has rebuilt behind a pair of fifth-years.
6-9 forward Dylan Disu (16.8 ppg, 35/66 3pt) – the MVP in last year's Big 12 tournament – and 6-foot ORU transfer Max Abmas (16.5 ppg) form one of the nation's best scoring tandems.
Abmas (4.3 apg, 2.8 3pt FGM) is the NCAA's active leader in points (3,025), threes (498) and field goals (995).
Disu is averaging a league-best 18.2 points against conference opponents.
He and Abmas (16.0 ppg in Big 12 games) have combined to score just under half (47.2%) of the Longhorn points during a 7-8 start to loop play.
6-foot junior Tyrese Hunter (10.8 ppg, 4.2 apg) and 6-8 sophomore Dillon Mitchell (10.3 ppg) also average in double-figures for the year.
Mitchell is the Big 12's second-leading rebounder (8.4 rpg) and has swatted 30 shots.
Texas (18-10, 7-8) alternated wins and losses through a 4-3 February, capped by an 81-69 win at Texas Tech on Tuesday. The Longhorns are looking to get back to .500 in league play for the first time since Jan. 23 when they stood at 3-3 following a win at Oklahoma.

Matchup Mashup:

OSU's Associate Head Coach, Terrence Rencher, is the all-time scoring leader at Texas (2,306 from 1991-95). He was a two-time first team All-SWC selection and led the Longhorns to three NCAA tournament berths.
OSU faced UT guard Max Abmas three times during his days at Oral Roberts. The 6-foot guard averaged 25.3 points and made 16 threes.
UT has the nation's fifth-most experienced roster, per KenPom, with an average of 3.21 years of Division I experience. Notably, OSU will have faced four of the top-eight on that list after previous games against St. Bonaventure (1st), TCU (3rd) and Creighton (8th)
With Bryce Thompson inured, just two Cowboys have ever faced Texas. John-Michael Wright started all three games last year and averaged 10.7 points. Quion Williams clocked a total of 41 minutes off the bench.

A Cowboy win would...

Improve their record to 13-16 (5-11 Big 12).
Make them 5-5 since their 0-6 conference start.
Give them back-to-back road wins after an 0-7 start.
Snap a four-game series losing streak to Texas and narrow the Longhorn lead to 58-48..
Be their first in Austin since the 2019-20 regular season finale and their first at the new arena.
Make them 9-3 in afternoon games (compared to 4-13 when starting after 6 p.m. local time).

Up Next: Texas Tech // Senior Night // Tuesday, Mar. 5, 7 p.m. CT (ESPN+)

OSU wraps up the home portion of its schedule Tuesday night against visiting Texas Tech.
The teams met in the second game of the Big 12 slate and now square off exactly eight weeks later in the second-to-last contest.
TTU shot 59% and committed just four turnovers in its 90-73 win in Lubbock back on Jan. 9. Pop Isaacs led the way with 24 points. Bryce Thompson had 17 for OSU, which made nine of its first 12 shots to build a 20-11 lead before falling prey to a 19-2 Red Raider run.
OSU is 27-5 all-time against TTU in Stillwater with four straight victories.