Cowboy Basketball Notes: Big 12 Championship

Tuesday, March 12

Kansas City, Mo.

11:30 AM

Oklahoma State University

UCF

Tickets

March 11, 2024 | Cowboy Basketball

Championship Central Bracket OSU Notes (PDF)Watch Listen Live Stats Tickets Digital Game Program Series History

[13] Oklahoma State (12-19, 4-14) at [12] UCF (16-4, 7-11)
First Round | Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship
Tuesday, Mar. 12, 2024 | 11:30 a.m. CT
Kansas City, Mo. | T-Mobile Center
Winner to Second Round vs. [5] BYU; 11:30 a.m. Wednesday (ESPN2)

Tournament Central: Big12Sports.com
TV: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (Rich Hollenberg & Fran Fraschilla)
Radio: Cowboy Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Live Stats: big12mbblive.statbroadcast.com
Series: UCF leads 2-0 (1-0 in 2023-24)
Last: Feb. 28, 2024 in Stillwater (UCF, 77-71)

The Basics:

The No. 13 seed Oklahoma State Cowboys (12-19) take on the 12th-seeded UCF Knights (16-14) Tuesday morning in a first-round matchup at the Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship inside the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.
It's the first game of the first year of the Big 12's expanded, 14-team format. OSU must win five times in five days in order to claim the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
The Cowboys' path to the weekend offers a potential revenge tour with games against three teams that defeated them during the last two weeks of the regular season.
The OSU-UCF winner battles No. 5 seed BYU in Wednesday's second round (11:30 a.m. CT, ESPN2) for the right to face No. 4 seed Texas Tech in Thursday's quarterfinals (11:30 a.m. CT, ESPN2).

Follow the Bouncing Ball:

Fans can watch Tuesday's first round matchups on the Big 12 Now on ESPN+ with Rich Hollenberg and Fran Fraschilla or tune in to Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb on stations across the Cowboy Radio Network. Visit okstate.com/radio for a complete list of affiliates.
Find the bracket, schedules, scores, stats, recaps and other fan information on the championship central page at Big12Sports.com.

Small Earns Postseason Honor:

Junior point guard Javon Small was named honorable mention all-conference on Sunday after leading the team in points (14.9), assists (4.2) and defensive rebounds (4.4). The East Carolina transfer is No. 4 on the Big 12 leaderboard in free throw percentage, converting 108 on 86.4% efficiency.

On This Date: March 12

Cowboy teams are 5-1 in Big 12 tourney games played on Mar. 12. The most recent came in 2021 when they knocked off top seed and eventual national champion Baylor in the semifinals led by 25 points from Cade Cunningham.
OSU's 2004 and 2005 championship teams each won a Mar. 12 game along the way. The former opened with a quarterfinal victory over Iowa State and the latter took down Kansas, 78-75, in the semifinals.
On Mar. 12, 1995, OSU secured its final Big Eight tournament championship with a 62-53 win over Iowa State as Bryant "Big Country" Reeves out-dueled Fred "The Mayor" Hoiberg, 21-18.

Big 12 Tourney Tidbits:

OSU is in search of its first Big 12 tournament crown since winning back-to-back titles under Eddie Sutton in 2004 and 2005. The latter was this event's final appearance at Kemper Arena.
Mike Boynton Jr. is 5-4 in Big 12 Championship play. The Cowboys advanced in the bracket in four of his five previous appearances, highlighted by a run to the 2021 final.
A year ago, as the No. 7 seed, the Cowboys knocked off Oklahoma in the first round to complete a three-game sweep of their Bedlam rival but were the last team out on Selection Sunday following a quarterfinal loss to Texas.
OSU's 2022 team was ineligible to participate because of an NCAA postseason ban.
In 2020, OSU knocked off Iowa State in the first round for its seventh victory in nine games but lost out on another potential postseason opportunity – this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team's quarterfinal clash with top seed Kansas was canceled hours before tipoff.
OSU is 19-7 in tournament openers, including 14-3 in "play-in" rounds.
Cowboy teams are 19-18 in Kansas City, spanning 16 appearances (11-13 in 14 tournaments at T-Mobile Center).
The Cowboys are the first No. 13 seed in Big 12 Championship's 28-year history. For what it's worth, they're 2-0 all-time against No. 12 seeds.
The Cowboys could potentially face two different teams who are making their Big 12 Championship debuts: UCF and BYU.
By contrast, OSU has won more Big 12 tournament games against potential quarterfinal foe Texas Tech (6-1) than any other school.

The OSU Outlook:

With five straight losses to close the regular season, it would be easy to write off Oklahoma State in this week's tournament. Don't.
A young Cowboy team has played some of its best basketball down the stretch and will look to turn the corner in Kansas City.
OSU reinvented itself in the off-season with nine newcomers and was forced to do so again in February after losing its most experienced player, senior shooting guard Bryce Thompson (11.6 ppg), to a season-ending shoulder injury during the Jan. 30 game at Kansas.
Bad luck has been an unfortunate theme for the 2023-24 Cowboys. Including the recent loss to UCF, they're 3-10 in two-possession games (decided by six points in either direction), however, Thompson's injury may have also come with a silver lining. Others have emerged:
After clocking just 25 conference minutes during the month of January, true freshman combo guard Jamyron Keller has averaged more than 30.0 in the six weeks since, along with 10.0 points per game. His down hill, physical style has helped transform a Cowboy offense that relied heavily on jump shots for the first half of the year into one with a more aggressive, inside-out approach.
Junior point guard Javon Small has become a more assertive scorer and is getting to the rim with regularity. Since Feb. 1 he's been the Big 12's second leading scorer at 17.5 points per game while converting nearly 88% of his 5.7 free throw attempts.
Fifth-year guard and 2,000-point scorer John-Michael Wright (8.9 ppg, team-best 59 threes) has become the team's vocal leader while rediscovering his shooting touch. He's made at least one triple in each of the last 14 games and bagged his 300th career three in last week's home finale.
Wright is the only active Cowboy who has scored a point in a Big 12 tournament game (17 in two games last year, including 10 in the 2023 first-round win over Oklahoma).
Sophomore wing Quion Williams (7.6 points, team-best 5.5 rebounds) has made the leap this year from deep reserve to sophomore starter and defensive stopper, capable of playing the 3 or the 4.
Seventh-year head coach Mike Boynton Jr. otherwise used a off-season roster overhaul as an opportunity to bring a little more balance to a program that ranked among KenPom's top-20 defenses in each of the three previous seasons but, at times, struggled to score. He put a premium on shooters and ball-handlers and largely succeeded with a freshman class that was ranked as high as seventh nationally, supplemented by an experienced transfer crop, led by Small.
OSU leads the Big 12 in a not so enviable category: percentage of points (36.1%) and minutes (37.1%) by freshmen. Five rookies took their lumps early but have made steady progress.
6-11 freshman center Brandon Garrison (7.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg), a 2023 McDonald's All-American, has started each of the last 28 games. He's topped 20 points three times in Big 12 play and ranks among the league leaders with 42 blocks.
6-8 freshman Eric Dailey Jr. -- a member of USA's Basketball's FIBA U19 World Cup squad -- has been a valuable sixth man and a versatile inside-out weapon who can run the point or function as the center in small lineups.
OSU's three-point shooting has gotten an additional boost from North Florida grad transfer Jarius Hicklen (42 threes on 37.8%). He's made 292 of them across five NCAA seasons.
6-10 Jacksonville grad transfer Mike Marsh is the wise elder statesman in an otherwise all-freshman front court.
Boynton loves the energy and work ethic of 6-6 sharp-shooter Connor Dow and the upside of 6-9 Justin McBride, the Big 12's youngest active player.

Finding Mr. Wright:

John-Michael Wright, a second-year Cowboy who played his first three seasons at High Point, enters his final Big 12 tournament with 2,128 career points.
College Basketball Reference maintains an all-time list of top scorers at the major conference level. Wright needs just two more points to crack the top-400 (tied for 403rd).
A 1-for-5 performance in the season finale at BYU ended Wright's run of 13-straight games with multiple threes. It was the second-longest such streak in school history -- four shy of the record.
Wright has connected at least once in 14 straight contests and is averaging 2.86 per game over that span.
In Big 12 play, Wright finished among the league leaders in three-pointers by both volume (5th, 2.50) and percentage (7th, .369).
In two seasons at OSU, Wright averaged 2.33 threes in his 36 career Big 12 games. Only three OSU players have averaged more: John Lucas (3.06 from 2003-05), Phil Forte III (2.42 from 2012-17) and Obi Muonelo (2.38 from 2006-10).

The Notorius BG:

Brandon Garrison's 1.35 blocks-per-game ranks seventh on the Big 12 Conference leaderboard.and his 42 total blocks are the fifth-most ever by an OSU freshman.
Garrison (.572) is also on pace to post the fourth-highest freshman field goal percentage in program history (minimum 80 makes).
Garrison's .589 field goal percentage in Big 12 play was the sixth-highest ever by an OSU player of any age.

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The Series:

The teams meet for the second time in 15 days.
UCF leads the series 2-0 after come-from-behind victories in each of the last two seasons. The Knights rallied from a 12-point deficit late in the first half to win the Feb. 28 game in Stillwater. A year ago in the Bahamas Championship they rallied from 15-down early in the second half for a 60-56 overtime win.

Last Meeting: Feb. 28, 2024 (Stillwater) | UCF, 77-71

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 season-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.

Scouting the Knights:

Eighth-year UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins was the 1986 NCAA player of the Year at Duke and spent 10 seasons in the NBA before transitioning into the coaching world. He won a pair of NIT championships during an eight-year run at Stanford (2008-16) and has since led the Knights to three postseasons, highlighted by a first round victory in the 2019 NCAA tournament.
Dawkins returned just one starter (junior guard Darius Johnson) from his 2022-23 squad, which finished 19-15 and defeated Florida in the first round of the NIT. The faces have changed but the team's identity has not.
UCF boasts the nation's 12th-most efficient defense, per KenPom, and ranks among the NCAA leaders in blocks (17th, 5.1) and steals (21st, 8.7).
The Knights knocked off TCU, 79-77, Saturday afternoon in Fort Worth behind Johnson's 33-point outburst.
After a 4-9 start to league play, UCF won three of its last five games losing only to league-leaders Houston and Iowa State.
A trio of Knights earned honorable mention All-Big 12 honors over the weekend.
Junior guard Jaylin Sellers, a Ball State transfer, is the Big 12's sixth-leading scorer (16.0 ppg). He's made 115 free throws at an .839 clip.
Johnson averages 14.8 points and leads the team in threes (60 on 37.5%) and assists (3.7).
7-foot San Jose State transfer Ibrahima Diallo (6.2 ppg, team-best 5.6 rpg) is the Big 12's top shot-blocker (1.83 bpg).

Matchup Mashup:

Unique to the 2024 tournament is a Tuesday start date, which leaves first-round participants less than three days to prepare -- or 60.5 hours in OSU's case. With the exception of a two-day tournament in Brooklyn, it's the quickest turn around between games that the Cowboys have faced this season. They played in the league's final regular season game on Saturday night in Provo, Utah (end time 10 p.m. CT) and will play the in the earliest possible tournament timeslot. Somewhere in between they lost an additional hour to Daylight Savings Time.
UCF is in a similar position after finishing out its schedule on Saturday in Fort Worth.
OSU's Mike Marsh and UCF's Omar Payne were teammates last season at Jacksonville and platooned at the center position.
Twin brothers Joey and Stephen Graham started their collegiate careers at UCF (2000-02) before transferring to OSU. Both sat out the 2002-03 season before helping the Cowboys to back-to-back Big 12 tournament titles (2004 & 2005) along with a FInal Four berth.
Since Feb. 1, UCF's Darius Johnson (18.1 ppg) and OSU's Javon Small (17.5 ppg) have been the Big 12's two most-productive scorers.

Big 12 Scoring Leaders // Since Feb. 1:
1. Darius Johnson (UCF) -- 18.1 ppg
2. Javon Small (OSU) -- 17.5 ppg
3. Dylan Disu (Texas) -- 17.1 ppg
4. Tylor Perry (Kansas St.) -- 17.0 ppg
5. L.J. Cryer (Houston) -- 16.8 ppg
5. RaeQuan Battle (WVU) -- 16.8 ppg

A Cowboy win would...

Move them into Wednesday's second round against No. 5 seed BYU (11:30 a.m. CT, ESPN2).
Improve their record to 13-19.
Snap a five-game losing streak.
Give them at least one victory in four straight Big 12 Championships.
Make them 6-4 under Boynton in this event.
Be their first in three tries against UCF.